Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqueDog
That isn't exclusively a western or Albertan issue; you can find a plurality of Canadians coast-to-coast who thought we should ditch the carbon tax (whether it was wholesale or just the part we could actually get rid of without kneecapping trade). But the point is that by and large, AB's votes aren't available to earn. CPC can say whatever and AB will eat it up, doesn't even matter how much of the stuff in their platform they would have had to abandon or dramatically alter due to the fact that at least some of it isn't possible.
My issue is with every party overlooking AB, but only a small portion of that is down to representation, and a much bigger part is because we Always. Fuсking. Vote. Blue. You can't earn Alberta's votes because they aren't available. As Bring_Back_Shantz succinctly put it, Alberta continues to show that -- as an electorate -- it has no idea how to influence federal politics.
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Then we’ll have to just disagree, carbon pricing and pipelines are (in my view) issues that affect Albertans more than other provinces. Other provinces have alternative methods of energy production which avoids some of the carbon tax, we don’t have that luxury or capacity (nuclear) yet. If you think pipelines, like I mentioned in my first post, affect all provinces equally I don’t think you and I see eye to eye at all.
How can you say Albertans “always votes blue” when there has been a provincial level NDP majority in the last decade? This province has shown that Calgary and Edmonton can change their votes when a viable option is available. The votes are there and available, but the juice isn’t worth the electoral squeeze. By catering somewhat to the conservative Albertan vote, I think you’d lose out on far more beneficial ridings/political mindsets in other parts of the country.
Now rural Alberta is a different story, but that isn’t specific to the west either.