May 2015 Provincial Election Thread v2

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Azure

True.


I just think there is a better way of doing this. There needs to be full attention paid to how farms operate, the role that kids play, and how neighbors and friends always help out. Some people might think it is comical, but I doubt many farms could survive without the help of friends and family to get things done.

Agreed

[polak]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I will leave this here...

Not only is there a disconnect to how farms work, it appears that there isn't a problem with unemployment and we should all just move to BC for work...

Moving for work when there isn't any is a completely fine suggestion. What do you want the NDP to do? Go pick you some jobs off the jobs tree? Previous governments went all in on oil and here we are.

I agree that the tone and comment was a bit insensitive and the NDP seem to be embarrassing themselves every time they open their mouths but the idea being presented is fine.

OPEC just announced they're going to keep on pumping out more oil. This isn't getting better any time soon.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by RubberDuck

Or just "hunker down"

Unbelievable.

What a bunch of clowns. This is a perfect example of an opportunity to just shut up.

Originally Posted by polak

Moving for work when there isn't any is a completely fine suggestion. What do you want the NDP to do? Go pick you some jobs off the jobs tree? Previous governments went all in on oil and here we are.

I agree that the tone and comment was a bit insensitive and the NDP seem to be embarrassing themselves every time they open their mouths but the idea being presented is fine.

OPEC just announced they're going to keep on pumping out more oil. This isn't getting better any time soon.

Yeah, from your Aunt Marg over a post-Thanksgiving Cinzano by the fireplace, not from the Energy Minister from an Energy Industry Dependent Province who is doing his best to assist commodities prices into nosediving our economy into the pavement.

"Theres no work so just leave."

No mention of the fact that his policies are a contributing factor to said lack of work.

[CaptainCrunch]

If our Energy Minister is that far out of ideas, then there should be a resignation. At this point that comment makes me feel that he has nothing of value to add.

[Resolute 14]

It says a great deal about this energy minister's invisibility that nobody here seems to know what her gender is.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It says a great deal about this energy minister's invisibility that nobody here seems to know what his/ her gender is.

I fixed it for you

[darklord700]

http://www.energy.alberta.ca/About_Us/4034.asp
"Before being elected to public office, Marg was a teacher and administrator with the Peace River School Division for more than 20 years. She left public education to take an executive position as vice president at the Fairview Campus of Grande Prairie Regional College. "

Seeing the energy minister is more qualified to run an educational institution than the O&G sector, move to find work isn't out of line with her qualification.

[Kavvy]

I get where the NDP are coming from, that people should explore other options for work...

but really... what an insensitive and inappropriate comment to make.

no kids or mortgage here, but I can't imagine it is simply easy for a family to pick up and leave, despite struggling to make a payment because of layoffs.

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by darklord700

http://www.energy.alberta.ca/About_Us/4034.asp
"Before being elected to public office, Marg was a teacher and administrator with the Peace River School Division for more than 20 years. She left public education to take an executive position as vice president at the Fairview Campus of Grande Prairie Regional College. "

Seeing the energy minister is more qualified to run an educational institution than the O&G sector, move to find work isn't out of line with her qualification.

truthfully, there hasn't been an energy minister with an energy background for decades... maybe not since the Getty cabinet. Some didn't even have much in the way of management experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ster_of_Energy

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It says a great deal about this energy minister's invisibility that nobody here seems to know what her gender is.

I think it says a great deal that so many are ready to spout off about Alberta's energy minister without knowing anything about them.

It's almost like they don't need to see or hear her in order to disagree.

[troutman]

Rachel Notley assassination chatter 'needs to stop,' Wildrose leader says as Bill 6 anger mounts

'I have a zero tolerance policy for such comments,' Brian Jean says after death threats appear online

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...jean-1.3361063

[Locke]

Originally Posted by troutman

Rachel Notley assassination chatter 'needs to stop,' Wildrose leader says as Bill 6 anger mounts

'I have a zero tolerance policy for such comments,' Brian Jean says after death threats appear online

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...jean-1.3361063

I initially thought they were referencing the 'Thanks Notley' character assassination and was going to suggest that she quit whining.

But no, 'actual assassination' talk is totally unacceptable. You can disagree with her, you can dislike her, you can hate her with the passion of a thousand suns, but no one should even be joking about killing her.

Those people need to be slapped upside the head.

Stick to policy.

[polak]

#Farmers

Honestly the more debates and arguments I see or get into with the anti-bill 6 crowd the more respect I lose for them. A lot of them are truly clueless to the fact that they are not special and that the world doesn't stop for them.

[CliffFletcher]

It does seem that exceptionalism, both the Alberta and the American variety, is pretty much a rural thing. Maybe someone who lives or grew up in a rural community can explain where this idea that there's nothing you can learn from other people comes from.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

It does seem that exceptionalism, both the Alberta and the American variety, is pretty much a rural thing. Maybe someone who lives or grew up in a rural community can explain where this idea that there's nothing you can learn from other people comes from.

I'm not really seeing how this is different from the attitudes of urbanites.



Anyway, the death threat chatter was is stupid, and does need to stop. It's nice to see Jean be the one to say it as well - it is too easily ignored if it just comes from the focus of those who are angry.

But the anger itself is entirely Notley's fault. She took the right idea - safety legislation on farms - and mishandled it in almost every way possible. Her strategy seems to have been to just do nothing and wait out the anger. Instead, her own failure to communicate or respond in any meaningful way only caused it to grow. When she finally made some changes regarding family and friends, it was too little, too late. Trust was completely blown.

It's not surprising the NDP have dropped 12 points in opinion polls in the last two months.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It's not surprising the NDP have dropped 12 points in opinion polls in the last two months.

Did the NDP even have any support in rural Alberta to lose?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Did the NDP even have any support in rural Alberta to lose?

Wasn't rural specific from what i saw.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Did the NDP even have any support in rural Alberta to lose?

That's the thing. Mainstreet's December 7 poll showed that no age group in the province supported Bill 6, Calgary and rural Alberta wildly opposed it, and even Edmonton only managed an even 50% supporting. Notley's handling of this hurt her everywhere.

There are other factors at play, of course. Governments always drop a bit shortly after elections, and governments always pay for economic downturns. So even if you don't think she's making things worse via policy, our recession was going to hurt her anyway. Add in things like the energy minister's flippant dismissal of people who have been forced out of work, and the NDP have pretty much spent the entire fall session fighting fires they lit themselves.

[PsYcNeT]

I'm not going to link to it, because #### Ezra Levant and #### The Rebel, but here is today's awful headline:

Suicides surge in Alberta - the high societal cost of NDP's destructive economic policies

The conservative voices in this province are becoming exceedingly shrill.

[calculoso]

I hope that you don't think that Ezra Levant represents all conservative voices in the province...