Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Faust]

https://twitter.com/sphillipsab/stat...297195520?s=21

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Faust

Eight UCP leadership candidates submit documentation and cash to get on the ballot:

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/pol...-documentation

OK, so who is the best option to not drive us over the cliff of insanity?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Reggie28

Anybody here use the UFA card lock station on Meridian road?

Gasbuddy has the price listed at $146.5. It’s not clear if that price includes GST. If that price is correct, with or without GST, it would be worth getting a membership.

20 years ago, there was some type of government inquiry into gas prices and price fixing. IIRC, they determined there was loose price fixing with the major players and the independent stations would drive down the price in the areas they were located. If the UFA isn’t going along with the 30 cent/litre margin, we need to see lineups at their stations to help drive down the margin.

Ufa generally posts rates before tax. If you can get in a ufa group it’s definitely worth the cost savings, it’s driven by usage of the group though I do believe.

[TorqueDog]

^Is UFA Cardlock diesel only within the city? I didn't see anything on their website about regular petrol.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

^Is UFA Cardlock diesel only within the city? I didn't see anything on their website about regular petrol.

No they have regular too.

[TorqueDog]

Just 87 regular or do they have 91?

[Weitz]

That I can’t confirm. I think just 87. But not confidant.

[Nufy]

I have a UFA card through a group on Beyond.

Paid 1.452 / litre + GST on the weekend.

Way more legal than the Safeway scam...

Works for me as all my vehicles only need 87.

[Reggie28]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Just 87 regular or do they have 91?

Gasbuddy has regular, mid grade and diesel listed.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by Nufy

I have a UFA card through a group on Beyond.

Paid 1.452 / litre + GST on the weekend.

Way more legal than the Safeway scam...

Works for me as all my vehicles only need 87.

Is that group open for anyone to join?

What is the Safeway scam?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Faust

Is that group open for anyone to join?

What is the Safeway scam?

Safeway Gas Bar's employee codes were quietly leaked and people used to get between 15-30 cents/litre off. Everyone kept their mouths shut more or less and everything was fine.

Then some dipsh-t at AMP Radio posted it on their Instagram and that was the end of that.

UFA Membership is open to anyone: https://coop.ufa.com/member-benefits

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Nufy

I have a UFA card through a group on Beyond.

Paid 1.452 / litre + GST on the weekend.

Way more legal than the Safeway scam...

Works for me as all my vehicles only need 87.

How does one join the group. I'm a ufa member already? I understand discounts get bigger by volume so the group would help that.

[TorqueDog]

Beyond group details are here: https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/416...leet-discounts

[Nufy]

No reason CP couldn't start their own group...

Just need a member to start collecting and distributing cards on a single account.

[octothorp]

Just digging into the Mainstreet poll that came out the other day.

https://old.ipolitics.ca/wp-content/...Politics-3.pdf

What's fascinating to me is the 'second preference' question for the leadership race. Naturally, Jean voters strongly have Smith as their second choice, and vice-versa. But there's no signs of such a voting block amongst the establishment: McIver voters have Jean as their overwhelming second choice. Sawheney and Toews voters have Smith as their overwhelming second choice. Schultz voters have Toews as their second choice, but not by a large margin. Weirdly, Loewen (who I associate as being more WRP-aligned) voters have Toews as their second choice, but maybe there's some regionalism there where most of Loewen's supporters are northwestern and so have a high comfort with Toews.

Odd for them to include McIver (who, unless I missed something, has not declared), and not Aheer (who has declared).

Anyway, it's possible to kinda simulate a runoff election using these numbers. (Discarding undecideds, and a couple assumptions noted below)

First ballot would be:
Jean: 36.2
Smith: 35.3
Toews: 21.4
Loewen: 3.4
McIver: 1.8
Schultz: 1.2
Sawaney: 0.3

First four runoff rounds based on second-place preferences (applying second-choice preferences to top 3 candidates) would put it at:
Jean: 36.2 + 0.85 + 1.35 + 0.4 + 1.26 = 40.1
Smith: 35.3 + 0.25 + 1.5 + 0.25 = 37.3
Toews: 21.4 + 2.55 + 0.2 + 1.6 + 0.23 = 24

Final round would eliminate Toews, and divide his votes as follows: 57.1% of his to Smith, 24% to Jean, and then assume that the 12% of Toews' voters who have McIver as 2nd choice will break down as 10% to Jean and 2% to Smith, based on McIver voter second-choices.

Jean: 40.6+9 = 49.6%
Smith: 35.3+15.3 = 50.6%

I expect those numbers are off by a lot because the second-choice numbers just sound like voters who haven't really researched second-choices yet, and the undecideds are a huge number... but it does suggest that Toews really has to focus on winning over the establishment second-choice votes just to make it to the final round.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Muta

NDP demands answers on gas prices, says Albertans may be ripped off

https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/07/...s-alberta-ndp/



Surprise, surprise. I'm shocked I tell you.... shocked.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...tional-average

'We won’t accept any games': Kenney wants competition bureau to probe Alberta’s high gas prices

“Alberta, as a whole, the retail margin for this current week up to (Friday) morning is 38 cents a litre and nationally it’s only 16,” said Tombe. “I don’t honestly know what’s behind that. It basically fully is absorbing the provincial tax reduction now.”

What a coincidence, gas prices immediately went down after this came out

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by btimbit

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...tional-average

'We won’t accept any games': Kenney wants competition bureau to probe Alberta’s high gas prices



What a coincidence, gas prices immediately went down after this came out

Truly, #### all of those price gouging losers. A 14-18 cent drop directly after this came out, absolutely ridiculous.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Truly, #### all of those price gouging losers. A 14-18 cent drop directly after this came out, absolutely ridiculous.

Have you missed all the long weekends the past 20 years here?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Have you missed all the long weekends the past 20 years here?

When there is no correlation between gas price rising and time of summer?

We are seeing stickiness on price because companies are trying to maximize profit. Eventually one of them blinks to take advantage of increased sales. This is how competition works. Tsu Tina dropped to 149.9 on Sunday, then Costco SE had to follow. It’s only a matter of time for that to spread. Just as we head into a long weekend.

The more troubling thing is I suspect Kenny will punt on putting the gas tax back in and sabotaged another Alberta revenue stream permanently.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by GGG

When there is no correlation between gas price rising and time of summer?

We are seeing stickiness on price because companies are trying to maximize profit. Eventually one of them blinks to take advantage of increased sales. This is how competition works. Tsu Tina dropped to 149.9 on Sunday, then Costco SE had to follow. It’s only a matter of time for that to spread. Just as we head into a long weekend.

The more troubling thing is I suspect Kenny will punt on putting the gas tax back in and sabotaged another Alberta revenue stream permanently.

Kenny is going to leave with a bang! PST baby!