Alberta Politics Thread

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Notley considering passing a law that mandates 30% renewable energy in Alberta by 2030: http://business.financialpost.com/ne...-target-in-law

A law that would be as utterly worthless as the Klein-era Tories' "no debt" law was. It is a meaningless gesture that can be repealed as easily as it could be enacted. The only purpose of such a law is to spend taxpayer money to promote the party.

Notley isnt going to be around 3 years from now let alone 30. Shes barely here now as it is.

She could pass a law that states that the Bow is legally prohibited from rising above its banks for all the good this goofy law does.

Nobody cares, at the moment we're just trying to pass the time hoping that Rachel does as little irreversible damage as possible in the meagre amount of time she has left.

If she honestly just got lost and spent the rest of her term languishing in Toronto or Ottawa we'd all be better off.

Sit on your hands Rachel.

[Cheese]

so much anger in this thread....and yet Albertans have no one to blame but themselves...if blame is to be had.
Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government? The PCs were driven out because they were just as pathetic and wasted millions, if not billions, of public dollars. Yet the angst is so great you'd gladly elect the Cons again?

/Idontcarenoskininthegame

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government?

Without a doubt

[jayswin]

/Idon'tcarenoskinintehgame might be one of the more tasteless, utterly annoying things ever posted on a forum that's clearly dominated by people hurting or having friends/family that are in this province right now.

Good lord, cheese.

[Cheese]

FFS it was a simple question jayswin. I went through at least three horrific downturns in Alberta before I left, I understand completely what the issues are. You read way to much into hashtags.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Cheese

so much anger in this thread....and yet Albertans have no one to blame but themselves...if blame is to be had.
Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government? The PCs were driven out because they were just as pathetic and wasted millions, if not billions, of public dollars. Yet the angst is so great you'd gladly elect the Cons again?

/Idontcarenoskininthegame

Originally Posted by Cheese

FFS it was a simple question jayswin. I went through at least three horrific downturns in Alberta before I left, I understand completely what the issues are. You read way to much into hashtags.

Your "simple question" was buried in a paragraph that reads easily like a condescending and sarcastic talk down. With a bold sprinkle of mockery.

Nevermind the slash (where is the hashtag?) or whatever you mean.

[Cheese]

You actually read all of that into what I wrote? Wow psychic phenomenon is high in Calgary.
What I wrote is fact, Albertan's voted in the current government and hold that blame just like Ontarian's of the 1990s. That's not condescending in any way, regardless of what you "think" I meant. The PCs also wasted m(b)illions of your dollars before being booted. That's a fact and in no way condescending.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Cheese

so much anger in this thread....and yet Albertans have no one to blame but themselves...if blame is to be had.

I didn't vote for Nutley and her clueless government.

Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government? The PCs were driven out because they were just as pathetic and wasted millions, if not billions, of public dollars. Yet the angst is so great you'd gladly elect the Cons again?

/Idontcarenoskininthegame

I'm hoping the Cons and the Rosers can merge to help prevent vote splitting that would allow Nutley to slip in up the middle and win another mandate.

[Resolute 14]

Yes, Cheese, your post was utterly condescending.

It was also meaningless. The fact that the PCs' final years were junk does not change the fact that the NDP government is also junk. The NDP must stand on the actions of its own government. It does not get, nor does it deserve, a pass because you can imagine that someone else could be worse.

[Ozy_Flame]

I think the more important thing is if Albertans want the PC's back, are they going to get a fresh, new, honest, and less entitled group of leaders working for the good of the people (of all political colors), and not the same old band of merry coasters that did nothing to stabilize this province over decades.

I'm betting on the latter.

[Fuzz]

There has been no evidence the PC's have any interest in changing, or reflecting why Albertans kicked them out. So far it seams a lot more of the same, and a fixation on how to win, not how to be electable.

[DiracSpike]

Originally Posted by Cheese

so much anger in this thread....and yet Albertans have no one to blame but themselves...if blame is to be had.
Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government? The PCs were driven out because they were just as pathetic and wasted millions, if not billions, of public dollars. Yet the angst is so great you'd gladly elect the Cons again?

/Idontcarenoskininthegame

I honestly believe that Prentice would've been an excellent Premier. After all the junk leaders and leadership candidates that the PC's threw at us it's tragic that they had burned all their political capital just as Prentice became leader.

Did he foolishly call an election? Was it a mistake to have ####-eating grin press conference welcoming Danielle Smith to the party? Did he underesitmate the NDP and make some election gaffes? Sure, yes to all of that. But he was a smart man and an experienced leader, and I'd feel 200 000% better about this Province if he was in charge right now. RIP

[CliffFletcher]

Prentice's biggest mistake was breaking a cardinal rule of politics: never give people an honest answer to a big problem. Very few voters want to hear the truth, or recognize their own culpability in a bad state of affairs. The job of politicians is to paint earnest, idealistic pictures of how they will govern while vilifying some sinister agent of the community's woes. Internalize all that is good, externalize all that is bad.

Don't expect politicians in this province to make that mistake again. So don't expect the NDP to ever recognize that spending is a problem, don't expect the WR to ever recognize that revenue is a problem, and don't expect anyone to ever again take Alberta voters to task for expecting the highest public spending in the country while paying the lowest taxes.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Prentice's biggest mistake was breaking a cardinal rule of politics: never give people an honest answer to a big problem. Very few voters want to hear the truth, or recognize their own culpability in a bad state of affairs. The job of politicians is to paint earnest, idealistic pictures of how they will govern while vilifying some sinister agent of the community's woes. Internalize all that is good, externalize all that is bad.

Don't expect politicians in this province to make that mistake again. So don't expect the NDP to ever recognize that spending is a problem, don't expect the WR to ever recognize that revenue is a problem, and don't expect anyone to ever again take Alberta voters to task for expecting the highest public spending in the country while paying the lowest taxes.

Sounds like Ontario more than Alberta. I think that was proven to be false with Klein's government, he made the tough choices and Albertan's supported him for it in huge numbers. The PC's had simply become too arrogant and if anything they had/have moved too far to the left. As DiracSpike said, if Prentice hadn't called a ridiculously early election and taken in the defectors with that cringeworthy press conference then he would probably have won at least a minority. If the PC's were to clean up the back room and shift back to the right they would eat the WR's lunch and be well over 50% support again.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Sounds like Ontario more than Alberta. I think that was proven to be false with Klein's government, he made the tough choices and Albertan's supported him for it in huge numbers. The PC's had simply become too arrogant and if anything they had/have moved too far to the left. As DiracSpike said, if Prentice hadn't called a ridiculously early election and taken in the defectors with that cringeworthy press conference then he would probably have won at least a minority. If the PC's were to clean up the back room and shift back to the right they would eat the WR's lunch and be well over 50% support again.

Prentice gave us a budget that was workable, addressed both the revenue and spending side. But noone likes seeing their taxes raised.

He also gave us the "look in the mirror" talk. Which is 1000% true, and people HATED it.

Notley campaigned on taxing those evil corporations and making them pay their fair share. We saw how that worked out.

[Flash Walken]

Taxes in Alberta have to go up, full stop.

If people aren't willing to accept income tax increases that most Albertans won't be burdened by, the Province will have to increase revenue in other ways, including inneficient corporate taxes.

you can't have your cake and eat it too, no matter how often the Alberta voter tries.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Cheese

so much anger in this thread....and yet Albertans have no one to blame but themselves...if blame is to be had.
Does anyone honestly think life would be any better if the Province was being run by the past government? The PCs were driven out because they were just as pathetic and wasted millions, if not billions, of public dollars. Yet the angst is so great you'd gladly elect the Cons again?

/Idontcarenoskininthegame

Gross post.

But lets put it this way first of all

Notley in her campaign didn't talk about implementing a carbon tax. Yet here we are. She made herself as vanilla as possible, keep taxes reasonable for businesses no carbon tax, we're a different alternative.

Based on that, I probably would have voted for her except that I know that the NDP is all about high taxes and massive spending and basically will drive anyone they govern into the dirt eventually.

As far as would it be worse under the other guys, probably not

They probably wouldn't have hammered in a 20% business tax increase, while at the same time creating a ton of uncertainty with the royalty review, while at the same time putting in a massive minimum wage increase, which all of the above chased any possibility of business investment in this province right out the window and screaming as it hit its death on the concrete 20 floors above.

At the same time she basically went to war with the tax payers by putting in a carbon tax which the CTF has now come out with a incremental cost per family of $1000.00 plus while the rebate, which I guess was dart boarded is about $300-$360.00. So in effect she's just completely screwed over the lower and middle income tax payers in this province.

At the same time, she went to speaking engagements out east with a very strong pro union, anti-oil message.

Yup, can't see the previous party doing all of the above in one avalanche movement.

At the same time she literally went to war without consulting with farmers and ranchers and then in a secret back room speech that was recorded laughed about it.

And she increased spending at a massive rate with a lot of it being with expansion of her public sector for no good reason

The PC's might be corrupt, but in terms of looking at what the NDP are doing, they're a far bigger force of economic destruction, a tsunami if you will, then the PC's could ever hope to be.

Oh and as corrupt as the PC's were, the NDP were also caught with selling influence and questionable fund raising very quickly into their government.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Taxes in Alberta have to go up, full stop.

If people aren't willing to accept income tax increases that most Albertans won't be burdened by, the Province will have to increase revenue in other ways, including inneficient corporate taxes.

you can't have your cake and eat it too, no matter how often the Alberta voter tries.

Why we now have a consumption tax coming it. I would argue that the government needs to find a way to shrink their spending habits and specifically their operating costs.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Without a doubt

I'm curious, how would things be so much better?

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Taxes in Alberta have to go up, full stop.

If people aren't willing to accept income tax increases that most Albertans won't be burdened by, the Province will have to increase revenue in other ways, including inneficient corporate taxes.

you can't have your cake and eat it too, no matter how often the Alberta voter tries.

Why can't the government do less in terms of services and involvement in the economy? We all talk about how Albertans want gold plated services without paying higher taxes for them. The end of that discussion seems to always result in left leaning types insisting that taxes must go up and that the business of government cannot be questioned. Why can't we talk about what the populace really wants/needs from the government?