Alberta Election Thread - Election Day April 16 2019

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

With the NDP out of the way, no more excuses. We've been promised jobs, economy and pipelines and anything less will be a debacle of epic proportions.

If the UCP is successful at boosting the Economy, will you come in here to give them credit?

I’ll answer for you: not a chance. You’ll continue the leftist mantra “well Rachel’s situation was different, she had it tougher” or another one I like is “ if it wasn’t for Rachel, this great economy never would of happened”.

[Ozy_Flame]

I get the sense people think I am NDP. I can assure you I am not. I voted AP and have been very vocal about it. I'm just anti-Kenney and UCP. Also I am against FPTP.

This is going to be an exciting four years.

Happy to take all inquiries, comments, and concerns

[dre]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Go ahead and tell me exactly how devastating government debt is to an economy.

That is a good question actually. I guess I look at it like a business. If you are continually in debt maybe you are making bad decisions?

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

If the UCP is successful at boosting the Economy, will you come in here to give them credit?

I’ll answer for you: not a chance. You’ll continue the leftist mantra “well Rachel’s situation was different, she had it tougher” or another one I like is “ if it wasn’t for Rachel, this great economy never would of happened”.

Define "boosting".

We have been promised "jobs". So if we come out in four years with a net of say, 1000 jobs, are we really in a better spot?

Define "economy". Does this mean we have more spending power per capita? More investment?

Define "pipelines". Is Kenney going to take credit for TMX and Line 3? Or more?

"Job, economy, and pipelines" is a dangerously populist quip. I'd like to see the benchmarks he hopes to achieve.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by dre

That is a good question actually. I guess I look at it like a business. If you are continually in debt maybe you are making bad decisions?

Perhaps, but Amazon was running deficits for almost two decades. Tesla still doesn't make a profit. Uber and Lyft have never made a profit. None of the cannabis companies have profits either.

[Hockeyguy15]

Maybe we will get lucky and some of these scandals will catch up with Kenney and he will have to step down. A guy can dream right?

[Zach]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Maybe we will get lucky and some of these scandals will catch up with Kenney and he will have to step down. A guy can dream right?

Guy is pretty slimey but I am pretty sure he will stick around unfortunately.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Perhaps, but Amazon was running deficits for almost two decades. Tesla still doesn't make a profit. Uber and Lyft have never made a profit. None of the cannabis companies have profits either.

In the short to medium term, the stock market is a voting machine. P/E of Amazon is absurd. Same for Tesla.

Those companies have interesting offerings. But ultimately, it doesn't matter how interesting the offerings are if they don't make money, which is the entire point of investing in a company.

In the long term, if a company does not make money, it does not exist. Every. Single. Time.

Unchecked reliance on debt only results in the debts being eventually called.

[Fuzz]

It will be interesting to see if the UCP have any economic success. They've got all the challenges the NDP had. I'm not holding a lot of hope for the declaring war on Canada plan, I just don't see how we have enoguh leverage to make that work.


It will also take a few years, so we will see if his tax plan works but I'm not to confident on that either.


What I do think they will do better on will be putting better people in cabinet. Hopefully Prasad Panda gets the energy file, as he seems to know what he is doing. Who knows, maybe they can wrangle the AHS monster a bit better as well, on the office side. Not a lot of hope on that one for any party though.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Maybe we will get lucky and some of these scandals will catch up with Kenney and he will have to step down. A guy can dream right?

Kenney may very well dissolve the Office of the Election Commissioner. He'll brand it as a cost-saving measure of course.

Here's hoping he doesn't obstruct the RCMP investigation and they can get their work done.

Kind of like how things sounded during the Mueller Report, lets hope Kenney doesn't start honking as they dig deeper

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

It will be interesting to see if the UCP have any economic success. They've got all the challenges the NDP had. I'm not holding a lot of hope for the declaring war on Canada plan, I just don't see how we have enoguh leverage to make that work.


It will also take a few years, so we will see if his tax plan works but I'm not to confident on that either.


What I do think they will do better on will be putting better people in cabinet. Hopefully Prasad Panda gets the energy file, as he seems to know what he is doing. Who knows, maybe they can wrangle the AHS monster a bit better as well, on the office side. Not a lot of hope on that one for any party though.

Reducing the costs of the system should increase our competitiveness globally for capital. His approach may not work. But it isn't going to make the situation worse.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So thinking about the Alberta Party more, and while I understand people wishing they would be the opposition party, aren't they pretty much capped as a regional party? Edmonton is NDP country and as last night showed that won't change much, even when they are way down as a party. Rural areas will always be safely UCP. So that leaves Calgary, which is also pretty safely UCP. I also think a lot of AP support in this election is based on the hope they can be not Kenney/NDP. At some point, you gotta be more than just the least worst option. I also think choosing Mandel was about maybe making inroads in Edmonton, but that clearly didn't matter.

Would Greg Clark have made any difference? Sure, I guess maybe as the face of the party he could have held his own seat with more profile. But they really are basically capped at I would guess 10-15 seats at best. And there's probably no way that will change unless the UCP really falls apart. Doesn't seem like a good long term strategy.

[CaptainCrunch]

Well its a new day yes it is, the sun seems a little brighter, people are walking with a spring in their step, Subway is stocking up on extra meat and extra fresh bread for the Stampede to double meat paradise.


Actually its not really, Lets not exaggerate its the same as yesterday and the day before.


What's going to be interesting to see is the effect of a change in approach.


Lets be honest the province turned on the NDP and delivered a pretty decisive message, and it wasn't because of personalities, it wasn't because of hatred of Notley. Its because people felt that her approach to the economy and the progression of things that are important to people weren't in line with the voters.



Its going to be interesting to see the effects of the UCP in executing their platform, its also going to be interesting to see if a new and tougher approach is going to work or not after Rachel Notley's approach really didn't provide much hope.


I'd like to say something clever like "we're through the looking glass now" or something else that sounds cool and smart and pop culture like.


But at the end of the day, the political landscape and the possible relationships between Alberta and the provinces and Alberta and the Federal government is going to change. I think we all can agree that we hope for some success and movement.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Define "boosting".

We have been promised "jobs". So if we come out in four years with a net of say, 1000 jobs, are we really in a better spot?

Sure, for those 1000 people.

[Ozy_Flame]

FPTP is the real problem here. AP got what, 10% of the vote? They should have 10% of the seats. But that's not how the system works nor will it work. FPTP really serves to benefit the current government.

It bothers me if someone can't win a majority in their riding but yet still get the seat. Should have run-off elections to ensure majority of people confirm their support.

For example, Doug Schweitzer represents Calgary-Elbow with 44% of the vote, but the majority of people didn't vote for him.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Sure, for those 1000 people.

I guess only finishing 1 KM of a full marathon is still progress, sure

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Reducing the costs of the system should increase our competitiveness globally for capital. His approach may not work. But it isn't going to make the situation worse.

Ya, I get that it should. Will be interesting to see if it does. And it can make things worse, becuase if the economy doesn't expand as he has planned, they've just lost as boatload of business tax revenue, which means more debt, or more personal taxes, or vicious cuts.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I guess only finishing 1 KM of a full marathon is still progress, sure

Heh it's still something.

Well see. It's a classic argument. How do you stimulate a stale economy? More stimulus or less regulation.

[Resolute 14]

Worth noting that Quito Maggi still sucks as a pollster. His "statistical tie in Calgary" in Mainstreet's final poll was waaaaaaaaay off.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

In the short to medium term, the stock market is a voting machine. P/E of Amazon is absurd. Same for Tesla.

Those companies have interesting offerings. But ultimately, it doesn't matter how interesting the offerings are if they don't make money, which is the entire point of investing in a company.

In the long term, if a company does not make money, it does not exist. Every. Single. Time.

Unchecked reliance on debt only results in the debts being eventually called.

Right, I'm just playing the analogy to business. But we should all know government debt isn't the same.

Interest that governments pay on their debt go back to either the banks or the citizens, which can manifest themselves in higher share prices or just interest. These payments generated by governments basically goes back into the economy.

Paying a public service worker with government debt means that the government will get some amount back in taxes, a large amount of spending to the economy and the job that the worker is performing. Of course you wouldn't want to pay them with government debt, but sometimes the service is necessary and it's not as expensive as it looks.

So while I agree it's not a great thing long term, it's completely overblown. Government debt is not household or business debt. Personally I wished that Notley had a better plan to get us to balance (a PST perhaps), but the deficits that she ran weren't anything that crazy for the situation we were in.