Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Reggie Dunlop]

With Nenshi, I think he just had enough of the relentless vitriol and threats that come with public life. It wears a person down.

[Canadianman]

Does anyone want to form a right-wing party with me? That's the vote splitting we really need back.

[powderjunkie]

It's really hard to see how many people using such infantile logic wouldn't just say "pfft, that's just the NDP with a different colour"

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Regorium

The problem with the AB party was that the NDP still existed and it became a vote-splitting exercise rather than a true centrist option.

The AB party was also filled with morons so that didn't help either.

I think the NDP rebrand might help still because it'll prevent another AB party-type to come out of the woodwork to siphon votes away.

Ok sure, but even if all those additional AB Party votes had went to the NDP they still would have only had about 40% of total votes. The issue for the NDP isn’t people refusing to vote for them, it’s people refusing to vote for anyone but conservative parties.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

Does anyone want to form a right-wing party with me? That's the vote splitting we really need back.

Isn't there, like, a dozen of them already?

I want to see the Uplift Mofo Party.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Ok sure, but even if all those additional AB Party votes had went to the NDP they still would have only had about 40% of total votes. The issue for the NDP isn’t people refusing to vote for them, it’s people refusing to vote for anyone but conservative parties.

Right, exactly. And as long as the NDP have the name NDP nobody will ever believe they've become a moderate centre-right choice.

If they changed the name/color they'd have a chance of convincing people they're the non-crazy conservative option for the province, which is their only hope of winning.

I actually think "non-crazy conservatives" would be a good potential name.

[Ozy_Flame]

No, conservatives who are on the fence about the NDP are likely thoughtful enough to give policy and platforms more of a go than simply a shirt color change (unlike the hardcore right-wingers). These same people will probably argue that the conservatives will eventually 'right the ship' and keep voting for them anyways.

Changing the name isn't going to dramatically tip the scales in a new party's favor. Fence-sitting conservatives will still vote blue until something so egregious damages them and they make a single protest vote, before running right back to the Cons. 2015 comes to mind.

[Bigtime]

LOL, Nenshi is not taking this job. Besides he's busy right now championing his book choice for the 2024 Canada Reads competition.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/meet-the-ca...ders-1.7073689

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

LOL, Nenshi is not taking this job. Besides he's busy right now championing his book choice for the 2024 Canada Reads competition.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/meet-the-ca...ders-1.7073689

I think people wish for Nenshi because he is an evidenced based decision maker and his political alignment seemed to be similar to the lougheed conservative.

He really isn’t NDP. He’s a blue liberal / red Tory.

I agree he likely doesn’t run, Hopefully federally after Trudeau

[Ozy_Flame]

Nenshi's brand would work much better federally than provincially IMO. Edmonton is already progressive and you'd probably get a still-fatigued Calgary voting base not moving the needle enough if he was a provincial candidate.

Ontario would salivate over him.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Nenshi's brand would work much better federally than provincially IMO. Edmonton is already progressive and you'd probably get a still-fatigued Calgary voting base not moving the needle enough if he was a provincial candidate.

Ontario would salivate over him.

my mom was his teacher in jr high. came home on first day and told my dad 'future prime minister of Canada in my class' may or may not come to fruition, but I'd like to think (ignoring the politics, just for her sake to make a mic drop call at this point) she still has non zero odds of it happening

[calgarygeologist]

The problem with the Alberta NDP is that they are taking up too much of the center and left and they need to establish themselves as either being an Alberta version of the federal NDP (keep the NDP monicker in this case) or they are a centrist party that is focused on the acute needs of Alberta through a unique political lens (this calls for rebranding the party.)

What we need is a right party (UCP), a center party (Alberta Party or whatever) and a left party (workers/socialist/green party or whatever).

[Muta]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Greg Clark would have been an absolutely awesome premier for this province.

Nenshi, I know he's polarizing, but I've always like the guy - was evidence-based, intellectual, amazing at debates, had a terrific sense for urban policy and development, had actual empathy for people, and really just saw the forest through the trees when it came to social issues. I didn't care about his perceived smugness either, always thought that was a silly reason to hate the guy. Nenshi would be great as a federal politician - I'd take him over Trudeau or Poilievre any day of the week.

[White Out 403]

The real problem with the Alberta NDP was the Alberta voter. The Alberta voter has voted in the same corrupt right wing government , what, 19 of the last 20 elections?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The problem with the Alberta NDP is that they are taking up too much of the center and left and they need to establish themselves as either being an Alberta version of the federal NDP (keep the NDP monicker in this case) or they are a centrist party that is focused on the acute needs of Alberta through a unique political lens (this calls for rebranding the party.)

What we need is a right party (UCP), a center party (Alberta Party or whatever) and a left party (workers/socialist/green party or whatever).

That just guarantees a UCP government forever. Rural Alberta is not voting anything left of the UCP.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Muta

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Greg Clark would have been an absolutely awesome premier for this province.

I've been thinking about this for a bit now, but I think born-again Jeromy Farkas (which is what he kind of is these days) could make a lot of sense as a centrist party.

- Political experience
- Well-spoken Millennial
- conservative by nature, so appealing to rural voters
- socially progressive, community first (especially since his fundraiser)
- Actually from Calgary (which I think was a problem for Notley in the last election)

It seems like he doesn't align with the UCP, and he got a taste of municipal/provincial issues during his tenure.

I am not saying he's the best option (in fact I purposely didn't support him during his 2021 run), I'm just saying he's not the worst option if there was a true centrist party available to vote for that wasn't the ANDP (which assuredly is a centrist party).

This is all assuming he continues to hold his more moderate stance. He even admitted he moderated in his Sprawlcast interview.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

That just guarantees a UCP government forever. Rural Alberta is not voting anything left of the UCP.

I don't think that is necessarily true if we look at 2015. Assuming that the Wildrose Party is equivalent to the current iteration of the UCP there are many rural voters who voted for the more centrist PC party.

The PCs won two rural seats and also split the right vote enough that the NDP even managed to win a lot of rural seats.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Right, exactly. And as long as the NDP have the name NDP nobody will ever believe they've become a moderate centre-right choice.

If they changed the name/color they'd have a chance of convincing people they're the non-crazy conservative option for the province, which is their only hope of winning.

I actually think "non-crazy conservatives" would be a good potential name.

Yeah and the thing is the name change isn't going to convince everyone, but you don't need everyone. Say you change the name and with that 5% of would-be other voters are "dumb enough" to vote for you who otherwise wouldn't because of the name. That's an enormous swing in your favour and definitely enough that you change the name.

Alas, the NDP doesn't actually want to win. It's the same tired story with that progressives/centrists/latte liberals today as it has been for decades. They care less about winning and more about "being right" and telling everyone that.

[btimbit]

At this point I'd just be happy enough with a non-crazy Conservative party

[CliffFletcher]

I’m not sure Nenshi has the temperament for higher office. He’s a smart guy, and I’m in line with most of his policies. But I can’t think of many Canadian politicians who are more antagonistic and less self-disciplined on social media. Routinely getting into pissing matches on twitter is cringey in a mayor. It’s a lot worse for a premier or prime minister.