Alberta Politics Thread

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

It is draft day, I'm staring at a 10 foot long line of cocaine

Yeah, I mean the answer was "yes," but glad to know it's not the reason why everything looked funny to me.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Locke

Draft day and the UK left the EU. Let the games begin! Come on Rachel, do something stupid to round out the trifecta.

We also have the Oilers and Jim Benning in play at the moment. This day has potential.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

We also have the Oilers and Jim Benning in play at the moment. This day has potential.

I just read the Jim Benning thread and that is absolutely hilarious.

The Oilers have to step their game up. Definitely a day where drinking early might be a good call.

[rubecube]

Plus I only got like three hours of sleep last night because I was at a birthday party and God knows no one wants to sober up into a hangover.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Plus I only got like three hours of sleep last night because I was at a birthday party and God knows no one wants to sober up into a hangover.

Absolutely, you'll want to snag the hair of the dog on that one.

I was just up late watching the Brexit vote so I'm dragging ass today. Its a good thing my boss and I are on really good terms.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

HAHAHAA...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...650296?cmp=rss
So they want to occupy the ground to the right of the Wildrose? Ooookay. have fun playing in that sandbox.

This is good for Alberta, really. The far-right leaving of its own accord makes it easier for the moderates to join back up with the PCs without any serious contest on the right flank.

[CaptainCrunch]

Latest poll shows the NDP sliding to third place 4 points behind the PC's and 7 points behind the Wildrose

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politi...ing-falls-poll

I'm not one to believe the accuracy of the polls, we've seen to many inaccurate results. But if I had to make a bet, I believe the real numbers are far more dire for the NDP.


[QUOTE][
Notley’s approval rating has been in a free fall since the May election, dropping from more than 60 per cent to 36 per cent this week. She still has 44 per cent support in Edmonton, but only 22 per cent in Calgary and 17 per cent in the rest of Alberta.
She still has strong backing from her party with 77 per cent of NDP supporters strongly approving of her leadership (and another 21 per cent somewhat support her) but Notley’s overall disapproval rate among all Albertans is higher than her approval rate — 57 per cent to 36 per cent — for the first time/QUOTE]

The most interesting question is if this free fall continues, and especially Notley's approval rating, do the NDP panic and fire her in the year leading up to the election.

Lets be honest, she wasn't exactly a tremendously strong candidate or debater, but she ran against a really poor slate of leaders.

[Resolute 14]

If she has, basically, 98% support among NDPers and her overall support is just 36%, then she's close to zero everywhere else. And that suggests she doesn't really have much lower to go.

[GGG]

It will be interesting to see how it recovers as the economy improves. Any Premier would be in the tank right now.

Notley's handling of the Carbon tax implementation and budgets were pretty bad so that would tank here rating more but I'm still unsure that other leaders would have done meaningfully better.

The union negotiations will be the big one for me. If she capitulates there and pays back her base then she won't get re-elected. But if she's a politician and realizes that the unions will vote for her no matter what and so she takes a hard line on Salaries and goes 0,2,2 or something like that I think she rebounds strongly.

If anything Notley's first year has shown her to be a politician rather than an idealist so I still have hope.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GGG

It will be interesting to see how it recovers as the economy improves. Any Premier would be in the tank right now.

Notley's handling of the Carbon tax implementation and budgets were pretty bad so that would tank here rating more but I'm still unsure that other leaders would have done meaningfully better.

The union negotiations will be the big one for me. If she capitulates there and pays back her base then she won't get re-elected. But if she's a politician and realizes that the unions will vote for her no matter what and so she takes a hard line on Salaries and goes 0,2,2 or something like that I think she rebounds strongly.

If anything Notley's first year has shown her to be a politician rather than an idealist so I still have hope.

Whether the economy improves or not, and I doubt it will for a long time.

If she fails to get any kind of fast action on pipelines.

When the Carbon Tax hits at the start of the year and people see gas, food and everything else increase in pricing.

If they announce that the deficit was actually larger then the budget predicted

And if she gives into the union.

this government will go into a death spiral for 2 years and they won't be able to recover from it.

[LanceUppercut]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

And if she gives into the union.

No IF here, it's already happening. My mom is in a public union and they have just negotiated 2.25% raises for the next 2 years and a bunch of other improved perks.

[CaptainCrunch]

Which union is that?

[LanceUppercut]

It is part of the AUPE and represents the Nursing Home workers. Also, I only have anecdotal evidence based upon what my mom said they negotiated.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by LanceUppercut

It is part of the AUPE and represents the Nursing Home workers. Also, I only have anecdotal evidence based upon what my mom said they negotiated.

Didn't their president speak at the convention on the last night? And wasn't he the one that wants labor reform so that unions can kick the crap out of companies by going on strike for 8 weeks and then have mandatory arbitration so their employees can't be starved out.

It would be no surprise if the AUPE has easy negotiations with this government, the NDP and AUPE are in bed so deep together that it would take King Arthur to pull them out.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by LanceUppercut

It is part of the AUPE and represents the Nursing Home workers. Also, I only have anecdotal evidence based upon what my mom said they negotiated.

Sounds like this is a workplace in the broader public service and, as such, your mother's bargaining unit was/is bargaining with an individual employer (like a hospital or long term care home), not the provincial government. The provincial government has zero influence on such bargaining.

But why let the facts get in the way of a good old fashioned conservative ranting and back-slapping session (which is more or less all that this thread has become)?

[Resolute 14]

It's cute that you think the provincial government has no influence in such things. You would have been better off saying they had no control over them.

[rubecube]

Hey, they finally got one right.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle25074664/

[Resolute 14]

Eh. Bills to ban donations inevitably and always represent efforts by the government to choke the funding of their opponents.

Chretien capped donations in favour of a scheme that had the government pay per vote in the previous election because it helped the Liberals and hurt the PCs.

Harper removed the government pay per vote because it hurt the Liberals.

Notley is taking this action because there are far more corporations that back the PCs or Wildrose than there are unions that back the NDP, and because unions have no problem encouraging members to donate to the NDP individually, while corporations tend not to communicate with employees directly about such things.

So, while less money in politics is not a bad thing, I would caution against pretending this is anything but a cynical move to advantage the NDP. Any benefit to the public is accidental.

[Flash Walken]

Predictable response resolute, nice to see you still waving the colours.

The fact remains the only provincial party opposed to this is the PC dynasty which used their considerable corporate advantage to run the province for four decades.

Alberta Party, NDP and wildrose all support this bill. You're sitting there with Ric McIver of all people bemoaning that democracy in Alberta just got a little more democratic.

Do you have a legitimate issue with this bill or are you just warning us about the big boogyman NDP? If the latter, maybe you should extend some of your vitriol at the Alberta Party.

[LanceUppercut]

Originally Posted by Makarov

Sounds like this is a workplace in the broader public service and, as such, your mother's bargaining unit was/is bargaining with an individual employer (like a hospital or long term care home), not the provincial government. The provincial government has zero influence on such bargaining.

You could be right, I'm not overly familiar with the union setup for my mom's job. If that's the case, carry on.