Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
We have no political power because we vote like idiots.
If we swung from Liberal to Conservative to Separtist based on who paid us the most we would have a lot more power. Parties would build their base elsewhere and then bribe us with swing money.
Instead we vote for parties who know we will support them and then they buy votes in other parts of the country. Our lack of power is mainly self inflicted.
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I'd like to add on though that the vote like idiots thing that you stated is silly to the extreme. We vote with what resonates with us, or are you saying that we should vote strategically and then hope that the Federal government rewards us like begging puppies.
Our of all of the parties which one has been most vindictive in terms of how it deals with this province? They give very little reason to trust them.
The Liberals under Trudeau were incredibly cancerous and vindictive.
The Liberals under Chretien didn't change that (remember when Calgary didn't vote for the Liberals and they suddenly pulled the Military Base out of Calgary and decimated whole areas of this city and rewarded their few Edmonton MPs?
Then Dion ran with his green shift which was really a wealth transfer from this Province to more loyal areas of the country.
You can call it voting stupid which I find is offensive as all hell, but what the hell have the Liberals ever done to honestly be given the benefit of the doubt.
Even the Conservatives did precious little for this province, but they didn't outright punish it.
Frankly until Trudeau the younger actually does something beyond the minimum nothing is going to change here. If he wants to get the votes here then he's going to actually have to go against a lot of his personal philosophies and step up in a big way to support the energy sector.
But it doesn't matter.
Personally, I do like the idea of a toll card, its issued to Alberta transport drivers and it means free access to the main transport routes. But if you come through from another province you pay a toll based on weight.
Tax all out of province products that sit on our store shelves where the companies don't have an Alberta presence (That's where Ceci got in trouble with his attempted beer tax, was that the Quebec beer had Alberta manufacturing. Encourage and incentivize Alberta Companies to replace products coming from other provinces, this would slightly diversify our economy.
Illegal, maybe but its no different then Quebec and BC demanding cash for pipelines through their territories, just consider Alberta roads to be their pipelines to markets.
If BC wants to ship products by rail across our territory we need to form a committee to study how dangerous it is to send these products across and that process could take years.