Alberta Election Thread - Election Day April 16 2019

[CliffFletcher]

I suppose it's a sign of the times, but it's dismaying to see that the GSA issue has gotten 20x more media traction that the fact that under the proposed UCP education act, private school students will be funded at 100 per cent of their public school counterparts. Assuming no increase in education funding, that'll effectively be a transfer of money to children in wealthy and religious families from everyone else.

It's almost as though the hardcore base of UCP support is the wealthy and the religious. Sad that so many people who are neither will go along with this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Interesting string on Vivian Krause Twitter



https://twitter.com/FairQuestions


Progress Alberta has been running a stop Kenney Campaign including digital door knocking, they have training events including giving out laptops and food and training.


They've received a total of $60,000 From Tides.

[Ozy_Flame]

Far-left media outlet that opposes Jason Kenney's campaign and with no political affiliation with a provincial party is funded by far-left progressive policy group.

News at 11?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Far-left media outlet that opposes Jason Kenney's campaign and with no political affiliation with a provincial party is funded by far-left progressive policy group.

News at 11?

Tides US?


How is that not foreign interference. Its another version of Lead now.

[Flamenspiel]

Dp

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Far-left media outlet that opposes Jason Kenney's campaign and with no political affiliation with a provincial party is funded by far-left progressive policy group.

News at 11?

You don't think money coming from outside the country to try and impact an election is worth noting?

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Robbob

You don't think money coming from outside the country to try and impact an election is worth noting?

Nah, we should worry about the economy instead of possible illegal election activity.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Robbob

You don't think money coming from outside the country to try and impact an election is worth noting?

It's no different than Russian bots trying to influence public opinion. It's going to happen in democracies.

Sure it sucks, but what can Alberta do? You can't control the spread of messages by third-parties.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I suppose it's a sign of the times, but it's dismaying to see that the GSA issue has gotten 20x more media traction that the fact that under the proposed UCP education act, private school students will be funded at 100 per cent of their public school counterparts. Assuming no increase in education funding, that'll effectively be a transfer of money to children in wealthy and religious families from everyone else.

It's almost as though the hardcore base of UCP support is the wealthy and the religious. Sad that so many people who are neither will go along with this.

Don’t forget 50/50 diploma exams which disadvantage albertans applying to universities outside Alberta and the elimination of discovery/inquiry based learning and New Math(Whcih needs tweaks as it requires more repetition but the concepts are amazing).

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

It's no different than Russian bots trying to influence public opinion. It's going to happen in democracies.

Sure it sucks, but what can Alberta do? You can't control the spread of messages by third-parties.

Bots on social media is a little different than these donations that are so easy to follow. It is being done in plain sight and wouldn't take much to stop it. Doing nothing just condones the practice.

[CaptainCrunch]

If you're political action or lobby group receives foreign funds you should not be tax free and should have to publicly report your activities and who's paying for them.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Robbob

Bots on social media is a little different than these donations that are so easy to follow. It is being done in plain sight and wouldn't take much to stop it. Doing nothing just condones the practice.

Nah, I don't see any difference between a lobby group trying to influence the message during an election and foreign bots trying to do the same thing over social media.

Also, who is going to stop Tides from donating? Why would Press Progress stop taking donations from them?

Doing nothing about bots also condones complacency and can have negative impacts on elections. But in a world of digital communication, you're fighting an uphill battle.

[puckedoff]

RE: GGG and diploma exams disadvantaging Albertans -

To me that is a little counterintuitive, wouldn't making really hard courses and exams give Albertan students an advantage in that they would be better prepared for University if they choose to go to other Provinces?

I'm guessing you are arguing on the basis of acceptance/scores but I don't think fluffing up their grades will give them any real advantage long term. I'm not against having the 50% diploma for Grade 12 students - at least it standardizes the marks across schools (same exam for everyone, less impact of easy/hard teacher etc).

Edit: RE Foreign funding influencing elections

It should have to be disclosed somehwere, I think people would be interested to know whether the messages they are receiving are from fellow concerned Albertans or are instead meant to further US interests. I agree that it would not be easy especially in the online age.

[PsYcNeT]

I, for one, hold third-party political action groups to a higher standard than the running parties themselves.

Originally Posted by puckedoff

I think people would be interested to know whether the messages they are receiving are from fellow concerned Albertans or are instead meant to further US interests.

Disclaimer: "Concerned Albertans" are only concerned if you are wealthy and straight

[Rando]

Poster for my yard?

[Ducay]

Actually surprised how divisive some of CP has become. Look at prior election threads and it was at least civil discourse based on some common centrist beliefs I think pretty much all Calgarians agree with.

Now we're into the 2-party USA mentality here where you're either on my side or you're the enemy and must be crushed.

[GGG]

Marks play a big part in getting into university. With access to programs being competitive not getting in changes lives.

Teachers give smart kids better marks and are biased with marking exams. So when a student in Alberta is competing with a student from Sask they are at a disadvantage. Not only are their finals weighted 30% they are marked and administered by the school.

You are right it does level the playing field among Albertans. Diploma exam marks in general are lower than the corse work marks entering the exams.

An exam doesn’t improve an educational outcome it just measures it. So I don’t think the concept of Students being better prepared for the next level as a result of heavily weighted exams is true

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Actually surprised how divisive some of CP has become. Look at prior election threads and it was at least civil discourse based on some common centrist beliefs I think pretty much all Calgarians agree with.

Now we're into the 2-party USA mentality here where you're either on my side or you're the enemy and must be crushed.

With the odd exception, the two parties you are talking about are UCP supporters and UCP detractors. And the UCP did this themselves.

Shady backroom dealings, illegal financing, bigot candidates. It's going to illicit responses, especially when most of the province is still going to vote them in anyways.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Actually surprised how divisive some of CP has become. Look at prior election threads and it was at least civil discourse based on some common centrist beliefs I think pretty much all Calgarians agree with.

Now we're into the 2-party USA mentality here where you're either on my side or you're the enemy and must be crushed.

Possibly a result of the attack style campaigns? Instead of trying to get the message out about why you should choose a party based on their platform, they are sending messages why you shouldn't choose the other based on certain people or characteristics. This tends to cause people go into a more defensive mindset, especially if you like some of the policies but possibly not the leader.

[V]

Originally Posted by Makarov

Who else would you propose?

I would propose that not all children need to be protected from their parents. I know I didn’t use green text, but I thought that was pretty clear.