Alberta Politics Thread v2

[Slava]

The worst part is that we finally get some beautiful weather and everywhere is about to be littered with campaign signs.

[Oling_Roachinen]

With all due respect to Mandel and his staff who I believe had health issues. If he couldn't even get his expense paperwork on time, something so minor but so critical, it doesn't really give a lot of confidence of him overseeing the province.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by DiracSpike

Are all BCers currently filing that case to the Court of Appeals? Did I use the word "all"? It's pretty clear I'm talking about the moronic destructive government your Province voted in but take it personally if you want.

Jesus christ relax man, It was ####ing joke.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

This is Greg Clark's riding, so I sure as hell hope not.

That is going to be an interesting one to watch as he is up against Doug Schweitzer who has a very good base of support from his leadership campaign and is well organized and well funded.

[Wiggum_PI]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

What about the fact that he lied about the whole thing though? Going from denying it outright as crazy conspiracy to downplaying it and saying it was just routine communication and now the leaked emails showing just how involved his own campaign team was to Callaway's campaign. Multiple people at the secret meeting have said that Kenney was involved in the discussion and others have said he approached them for similar plans (namely Fildebrandt) but he still denies that he was aware of any kamikaze plan. It's a joke.

If illegal and legal is your defining line for a leader and don't care if they are "sleazy" I guess that speaks volumes towards you.

Lol, there it is the "you're a terrible person if you vote for Kenney!" response. I am gonna vote for Kenney, because 4 more years of Notley would be devastating. Last election everyone just voted to get rid of the PCs so I'm voting just to get rid of the NDP.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

With all due respect to Mandel and his staff who I believe had health issues. If he couldn't even get his expense paperwork on time, something so minor but so critical, it doesn't really give a lot of confidence of him overseeing the province.

It wasn't just him, it was five others as well. I think there may have been a misunderstanding here, and the courts did the right thing by not letting bureaucracy impede democracy. Kenney even said they should be allowed to run. The courts made the right call on this. It could have happened from any party.

For what it's worth, I don't think Mandel will be leader of the party if/when the AP is ready to challenge for a larger role. That's still years away, I think he will seek to grow its profile, that's all.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

With all due respect to Mandel and his staff who I believe had health issues. If he couldn't even get his expense paperwork on time, something so minor but so critical, it doesn't really give a lot of confidence of him overseeing the province.

There was a dispute over what the deadline actually was, and it's not even clear that they weren't filed within the time stipulated by Elections Alberta. The chief officer just didn't stamp them "received" until three days later. It could easily have just been a matter of new rules leading to the department being swamped with paperwork that wasn't previously part of their mandate to deal with. Trying to impose a five year ban on an opposing candidate in those circumstances seems silly and petty.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

With all due respect to Mandel and his staff who I believe had health issues. If he couldn't even get his expense paperwork on time, something so minor but so critical, it doesn't really give a lot of confidence of him overseeing the province.

There was more to it than that, including conflicting information from Alberta Elections about the dates that things were required.

If it was just a matter of "Someone was sick" it wouldn't have been an issue for just him, or just the Alberta Party.

There were people from the UCP who were issued bans as well, though none of them were successful candidates, so it wasn't a simple issue with Mandel not being able to file some paperwork

[FiftyBelow]

Economically and socially, UCP policies would align most with my values and policy leanings. I have no doubt that the UCP will deliver here. However, I'm very concerned about the dirty and potentially illegal tactics that Kenney is accused of. How does one balance the different ethical and moral considerations? That is, taking into account the ethical and moral implications of policy choices, campaign strategies, leadership, tactics, all of it.... How are they prioritized and balanced when making a decision of support? Obviously, no candidate is perfect. I'm really struggling with this as I was ready to jump wholeheartedly into this election. Now, I'm unsure who to support.

[Weitz]

Interesting from Notley at her press conference today:

"The politics of love and hope and optimism always trump the politics of anger, division and fear, and that's why I'm running to be premier," she said.

Yet then she went into full on fear and divisive language. Going to be an interesting campaign this time around.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

This is Greg Clark's riding, so I sure as hell hope not.

He's listed as a candidate on their website:
https://www.albertaparty.ca/stephenmandel

Doug Schweitzer is not going to lose I would think.

He is the future UCP leader.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Wiggum_PI

Lol, there it is the "you're a terrible person if you vote for Kenney!" response. I am gonna vote for Kenney, because 4 more years of Notley would be devastating. Last election everyone just voted to get rid of the PCs so I'm voting just to get rid of the NDP.

I really hate this line of thinking, not only because your choices actually extend beyond NDP or UCP, but I think 100% of conservatives and many centrists would agree that just voting to get rid of a party did not work out last time. Prentice was a very promising leader who tabled a very reasonable budget, and Alberta went “don’t care, bye!”

Not saying Notley is either of those things, but ignoring everything in front of you and just voting on the “don’t care, bye!” sentiment is a sure fire way to repeat past mistakes.

I will vote Alberta Party if nothing changes, but may switch to UCP if (in the very very unlikely event) Kenney is replaced.

If we want an Alberta that makes us proud, we should vote for the party that represents that. If that’s UCP, great! If it’s Alberta Party, great! If it’s NDP, great! But if you’re just voting “I dunno, whichever one I see lots that isn’t the one I hate” then that’s a poor respect of democratic responsibility.

[Ozy_Flame]

Sitting at home and not voting as a protest or lack of interest is worse IMO. There are people in this world who would give anything to have that privilege in a legitimate democracy. Not voting is the very definition of "first world problem".

[Lubicon]

I just realized that the election is right in the middle of university exam time. This will be both my kids first election, they are quite excited about it. However both are scheduled to write exams that day and the next so I don't know how they will feel about taking time out to go vote. Even if it is minimal it will still be 30-45 minutes of valuable time for them and this is mirrored for tens of thousands of students across the province. I'll encourage them to vote in the advance polls if the times work. I recall seeing the rules have changed and you can vote at any advance polling station rather than the designated one in your riding. Hopefully that is the case and hopefully the Universities will have stations set up to make it easier for students to vote.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by FiftyBelow

Economically and socially, UCP policies would align most with my values and policy leanings. I have no doubt that the UCP will deliver here. However, I'm very concerned about the dirty and potentially illegal tactics that Kenney is accused of. How does one balance the different ethical and moral considerations? That is, taking into account the ethical and moral implications of policy choices, campaign strategies, leadership, tactics, all of it.... How are they prioritized and balanced when making a decision of support? Obviously, no candidate is perfect. I'm really struggling with this as I was ready to jump wholeheartedly into this election. Now, I'm unsure who to support.

That to me goes to whether or not you think there is actual linkage between what a candidate is campaigning on and what they will actually do.

Jason Kenny has said a lot of things I didn't believe from the get go (scrapping the carbon tax for example, I don't believe for 1 second he will do anything about it, and will fall back on, "Well Ottawa is going to impose one anyway, so we will keep ours"), the recent news about his campaign certainly aren't making me think I might be wrong about him.

He's shown he will do shady things, and run a dishonest campaign to get elected party leader, and you can decide for yourself what that says about his campaign promises to be Premier, but I would say it doesn't exactly paint him as a guy I would bet on following up on his promises.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I just realized that the election is right in the middle of university exam time. This will be both my kids first election, they are quite excited about it. However both are scheduled to write exams that day and the next so I don't know how they will feel about taking time out to go vote. Even if it is minimal it will still be 30-45 minutes of valuable time for them and this is mirrored for tens of thousands of students across the province. I'll encourage them to vote in the advance polls if the times work. I recall seeing the rules have changed and you can vote at any advance polling station rather than the designated one in your riding. Hopefully that is the case and hopefully the Universities will have stations set up to make it easier for students to vote.

Lets not pretend this isn't planned. They want to make sure as many students are still around and will promote heavily for them to get out and vote.

[GirlySports]

not a good picture.

why are kids front and center at an announcement?

[RyZ]

My twitter feed is full of "Support Notley or you are a racist" type of comments.

This is going to be an awful, awful 6 weeks up to election day.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

not a good picture.

why are kids front and center at an announcement?

Because the White Supremacists weren't allowed in.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Lets not pretend this isn't planned. They want to make sure as many students are still around and will promote heavily for them to get out and vote.

Yeah, what a horrible abuse of democracy...making sure people are around/able to vote. Those dastardly Dippers!