Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironhorse
And the reason why Quebec is able to play that game is because they have 78 parliament seats available vs 37 for Alberta.
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What? 37 seats could be a powerful block of seats if there was any chance those seats might flip to a different party. In the last 20 years we've had 5 minority governments and 2 majority governments. With 5 minority governments, Alberta could be a bigger player in Federal politics with 37 seats and could use the leverage of those 37 seats to get things for Alberta.
No, the reason why Quebec is able to play this game is because Quebec will vote for whichever party looks like they will meet the needs of Quebec. Parties need to actually compete for Quebec votes but it is worth it because Quebec will actually shift their votes to the party that appears to be trying the hardest. If none of the parties are saying things to make Quebec happy then they will default to the Bloc. That is excellent leverage.
Alberta on the other hand votes the same way all of the time. The voters are on autopilot and the politicians are on autopilot. Nothing really needs to be promised to Alberta because regardless of what anyone says they will always vote CPC.
If Alberta showed any capacity at all to vote for the other parties they would all be forced to try harder to secure Alberta's seats. The Liberals would campaign here to try and secure a majority. The NDP would campaign here because they want to represent hard working non-billionaires, which is everyone in Alberta. Even the CPC would have to try harder to make Alberta happy and avoid losing these seats to the other parties. But, none of the Federal parties care about Alberta because nothing seems to change how Alberta votes. Even when the Conservative parties merge and change, Alberta keeps automatically handing them the seats and demands nothing in return.
In short, Alberta cries about having no leverage in the federal arena but then perpetually throws the leverage away in every election.