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Originally Posted by Bunk
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It's very well written, stylistically, and I do agree with some of the points about the... questionable... nature of some of the UCP's more headline-grabbing platform planks. I certainly take the point about the rage that people seem to be motivated by in this election.
But this appears to be her central point.
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The problem I have with the word "accidental" is that it glosses over the fact that the Progressive Conservatives deserved to lose. Those conservatives had grown entitled, complacent, profoundly lacking in any kind of vision, absent new talent and entirely too comfortably entrenched in power.
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This is wrong. Not that they deserved to lose, but that the "accident" somehow ignores that fact. The NDP were elected because they were an alternative to a government that deserved to lose - they happened to be there, so in its haste to get away from the corrupt PCs, Alberta pointed at them. They could have pointed at anyone. That's what's meant by an "accidental government".
I would prefer the term "cutting off your nose to spite your face government" as being more descriptive, but it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well.
Also, I have an issue with this overriding premise.
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The economy is shifting — a global effort is underfoot to reduce our dependence on oil and gas.
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Is it, though? A global effort? Because if we were simply signing on to a truly global campaign and doing our proportionate share of carbon footprint reduction I think everyone would be fine with that. The sense is that we're actually getting utterly
screwed - it's a tragedy of the commons where we're the only saps who are going without, for the ostensible purpose of "setting a good example" that no one else is paying attention to. Meanwhile, internally, other provinces and certain first nations actors are effectively trying to cheat the system to prevent legal infrastructure from being built - people who are supposed to be on our team are breaking our own rules to shoot us in the foot. Worse still, nothing is being done about it.
Hence the rage. The anger, which is palpable, is about Alberta's perception of
manifest unfairness, not some wild flailing-about at the changing realities in a modern world. Demand for oil and gas is going
up, not down. The sentiment is reflecting a people who've had various feet on their necks for several years looking for someone to held them remove those feet, and start punching their owners in the face. And to hell with the consequences.