Alberta Election Thread - Election Day April 16 2019

[calgarygeologist]

I didn't realize that advance ballots won't be tabulated until Wednesday afternoon meaning that some ridings could go undecided tomorrow night. I heard on the news tonight that the new "vote anywhere" process makes it such that they can't logistically count those votes on election night.

[Ozy_Flame]

Just got a robocall from Alberta Proud. Apparently we need to stop the politics of division by not voting NDP.

Hahahahahaha .... The UCP has been sowing that seed since it's existence. Get the homophobes and bigots out and respect LGBTQ and marginalized groups and then we can talk.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I didn't realize that advance ballots won't be tabulated until Wednesday afternoon meaning that some ridings could go undecided tomorrow night. I heard on the news tonight that the new "vote anywhere" process makes it such that they can't logistically count those votes on election night.

I think that’s ridiculous, actually. In this day and age we can surely get the votes tabulated on the same night. Is it really too much to expect that people open those ballot boxes and count them that evening, and add them to the totals for the others? It seems so crazy that they can do the count Wednesday at 1pm, and not before. The polls are already closed (for the advance), so what’s the issue?

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Just got a robocall from Alberta Proud. Apparently we need to stop the politics of division by not voting NDP.

Hahahahahaha .... The UCP has been sowing that seed since it's existence. Get the homophobes and bigots out and respect LGBTQ and marginalized groups and then we can talk.

I just got one too. Was disappointed that it was a robocall because you can't tell a robot to get ####ed.

[Ozy_Flame]

Calgary candidate Gar Gar runs into someone getting hasty with sign removal. Lots of AP and NDP colors in the back of that van!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1117912476626997249

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Just got a robocall from Alberta Proud. Apparently we need to stop the politics of division by not voting NDP.

You just gotta have fun with them, it's the only way.

Spoiler!

[Weitz]

Whatever I’m doing I need to keep it up. Haven’t got a text or phone call from any party.

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Whatever I’m doing I need to keep it up. Haven’t got a text or phone call from any party.

you only get them if you're an NDP supporter.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I didn't realize that advance ballots won't be tabulated until Wednesday afternoon meaning that some ridings could go undecided tomorrow night. I heard on the news tonight that the new "vote anywhere" process makes it such that they can't logistically count those votes on election night.

Dude from Elections Alberta was on the radio this morning discussing this. By law ballots can only be counted by the returning officer in the riding they are for. They proposed this be changed when they also recommended the vote anywhere process but the legislature rejected the recommendation. They are following the law. Might be a dumb law but it is the law. Maybe next time around that will modify that part for the next election but it’s up to the legislature.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

you only get them if you're an NDP supporter.

You only get them if you're resisting the cult... er, UCP.

[Fuzz]

Brad Wall just called me one behalf of the UCP. Thanks Brad.

[Dion]

The things we learned about Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP

She’s not such an amazing campaigner, after all

This time, Notley struggled with high expectations, turning in a carefully scripted and less-than-dazzling debate performance, and overdoing it on the attack-side rhetoric. While she professed to offer cleaner government than Jason Kenney, she didn’t excel at playing defence when faced with questions about her two unnamed MLAs accused of sexual misconduct while in office.

NDP’s economic solution: more government.

A key basis of her pledge to balance the budget by 2023 is the assumption the Alberta government will make tanker-loads of money by leasing oil-hauling rail cars, another risky venture.

https://www.macleans.ca/politics/6-t...-albertas-ndp/

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by MBates

For someone who is attacking another person for misleading discourse on a topic, there are some interesting parts of this article worth highlighting.

For example, on the equalization referendum:



Literally a clear vote in a referendum would stop a Prime Minister from behaving in this manner. The SCC has unanimously declared there is a legal obligation on the feds and all other provinces to come to negotiate in good faith. Alberta would be in the position to go to the courts to say the feds failed in its legal obligations and the courts would be obligated to order the feds back to the table.

And why throw in the word 'necessarily' in the last sentence? Could it be because the author knows a referendum could give Alberta more leverage than it currently has and nobody will ever know unless it is tried?

I am quick to remind that I actually do not think this is a very good idea because I am rather wary of what opening up the constitution on one issue for one province could lead to. I just do not see why now journalists seem to think they are qualified to definitively predict constitutional law outcomes. Peter Hogg has for decades been a leading constitutional law expert who said Marc Nadon was legally permitted to sit on the SCC. Last I checked, Peter Hogg was completely wrong.

Then on the carbon tax...talk about theatre:



She cannot even maintain her own definitive constitutional opinion for one paragraph in her own article. If the challenge to the federal government's 'right' to impose the backstop is successful, then by definition the federal government is not 'entirely within its rights to invoke its backstop'.

Again, I am not trying to say it is a smart move or not. But I think that a lot of Albertans in this election have decided they are willing to give these things a shot because they have watched 4 years of another strategy that has not worked and so they will take some risks on a completely different approach.

Why does that have to mean they have been tricked into buying snake oil?

On the first point, she isn't suggesting Trudeau would literally say "nah"...it's more like he'd do a repeat of electoral reform and make a show of a 'good faith' attempt. Of course, since the intelligent/strategic folks surrounding Trudeau seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate, I've stopped putting much faith in him doing the 'smart' thing in a given situation...

The point remains - however it plays out, it's unlikely there is a big pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.


The carbon tax situation seems much foggier, but again, it's unlikely that many paths actually lead to prosperity. Carbon taxes were originally a conservative idea - I know I'd prefer to see proposals for how they could/should work better (but of course I understand why neither team is willing to give up such a decisive rallying cry in the instead of doing work to actually make the country better).

I'm not going to reprimand Gerson for hedging/not really predicting outcomes - I think the point is that it's highly unlikely that we hit every green light from an Alberta perspective on these fights, and that even if we did, it's unclear whether it will materially change our circumstances, or if we'll just find something else to be mad at the rest of Canada for (as is our custom).

[wwkayaker]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I didn't realize that advance ballots won't be tabulated until Wednesday afternoon meaning that some ridings could go undecided tomorrow night. I heard on the news tonight that the new "vote anywhere" process makes it such that they can't logistically count those votes on election night.

I was wondering about this too and did some research yesterday. I read that advanced polls in which people are voting in their riding will be counted along with the Tuesday night votes. Only advanced votes where people are voting outside of their riding will be counted on Wednesday. I didn’t find any information regarding how many advance, out of riding votes they are anticipating. I would think the out of riding advance votes would be an insignificant number.

[Cheese]

Good luck Alberta, tomorrow will be another day just like today, with more rhetoric.

[Ozy_Flame]

Not that it matters because polls are never accurate, but Mainstreet's latest poll (conducted April 14th) has the NDP and and the UCP in a near statistical tie for Calgary. The NDP would lead in the popular vote for the combined Calgary/Edmonton results if one were to look at it that way. Of course, it comes down to rural ridings that will carry the UCP through to their victory.

https://www.scribd.com/document/4063...Ab-15april2019

Shouldn't put too much stock into this so since it's Mainstreet, but I have noticed that the various polls in the last month have not shown the absolute dominance some thought would be the case.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Not that it matters because polls are never accurate, but Mainstreet's latest poll (conducted April 14th) has the NDP and and the UCP in a near statistical tie for Calgary. The NDP would lead in the popular vote for the combined Calgary/Edmonton results if one were to look at it that way. Of course, it comes down to rural ridings that will carry the UCP through to their victory.

https://www.scribd.com/document/4063...Ab-15april2019

Shouldn't put too much stock into this so since it's Mainstreet, but I have noticed that the various polls in the last month have not shown the absolute dominance some thought would be the case.

I don’t think there is nearly as much inaccuracy in polling as people think, especially when you look at an aggregate. In a sub-sample (such as by region) there can be a larger margin of error due to the sample being smaller.

And on that basis I’m pretty comfortable saying this thing is all over. We are looking at a 60+ seat UCP majority I suspect.

[killer_carlson]

Hey everybody let's make sure we all vote and encourage our coworkers and families to vote.

Doesn't matter the party. This is a really important decision and it would be great to see voter turnout set record highs.

Best of luck no matter who you support

[Senator Clay Davis]

^^Even if the NDP closed to the gap to say 2-3% in Calgary, they still will lose almost every seat since NDP support is likely consolidated in the inner city ridings. It was always a steep, uphill battle for them in Calgary. Edmonton will keep them from being reduced to single digits, but they're probably capped out at 25-30 seats tonight.

[Erick Estrada]

I for one am very glad the day is finally here. I am so tired of my internet browsing being spammed by NDP ads. Nobody can deny they put a lot of money and effort into getting their ads front and center on YouTube, browser ads, etc.