Alberta Politics Thread v2

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Right in the middle of Edmonton's first round playoff series. Ha ha, just kidding. Edmonton is No Good.

Careful, they may take out their rage in April when Calgary is winning in the playoffs and they all vote NDP!

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

UCP could do me a huge favour and get Kenney out of there, I'm not sure I can stomach voting for him.

Kenney has a face I would never get tired of kicking.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Well, we are giving it a try.
I posted the party website above, I would encourage you to take a look.
If the 2 big options really are unacceptable to you, then I would really encourage you to pass it along to people you know, or even sign up to volunteer.

We've only got so much money and resources, and for people that want to see a change, now is a great time to do a little bit to see that.
It doesn't take much time to have a read, or pass it along.
I hope you like what you see in that link, and I hope you want to do a little more to see the changes you want.

I respect what you're saying. But for example, my twitter feed is set up to follow the major news networks, CBC, Global, CTV, I'm also following Ipolitics, and National News Watch. I also personally follow a bunch of media types from national to provincial.


The Alberta party doesn't really pop up at all in any of these. And its tough to tell someone to search for their website or twitter, if that's the strategy its a losing one because most people who aren't politically engaged aren't going to do searches.


The Alberta Party has to find a way to gain attention, and take better advantage of the press, I mean the last Alberta Party centric article that popped up on my feed was the nominations paper stuff with the leader.


90% of what people base their views on is what's delivered to their desktop, not what they have to find, we're a society of instant gratification, service me individuals.



The hardcore political junkies that do active searches, I guarantee that most of them are ingrained in one political party and changing their vote is impossible. If you want to make real steps in this election, you need to find a way to engage the undecided who are waiting for information not searching it out.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

If someone doesn't want to use Travis as a realtor just because they don't like who he's planning to vote for, that seems incredibly dumb.

+1 - Travis is a very good realtor in my experience. We may differ in our political opinions and biases, but he is a solid professional.

[Travis Munroe]

Originally Posted by troutman

+1 - Travis is a very good realtor in my experience. We may differ in our political opinions and biases, but he is a solid professional.

I appreciate the comment and despite our banter back and forth, I feel comfortable having that debate as we know each other. Perhaps it isn't best on a forum viewed by thousands but so be it.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I respect what you're saying. But for example, my twitter feed is set up to follow the major news networks, CBC, Global, CTV, I'm also following Ipolitics, and National News Watch. I also personally follow a bunch of media types from national to provincial.


The Alberta party doesn't really pop up at all in any of these. And its tough to tell someone to search for their website or twitter, if that's the strategy its a losing one because most people who aren't politically engaged aren't going to do searches.


The Alberta Party has to find a way to gain attention, and take better advantage of the press, I mean the last Alberta Party centric article that popped up on my feed was the nominations paper stuff with the leader.


90% of what people base their views on is what's delivered to their desktop, not what they have to find, we're a society of instant gratification, service me individuals.



The hardcore political junkies that do active searches, I guarantee that most of them are ingrained in one political party and changing their vote is impossible. If you want to make real steps in this election, you need to find a way to engage the undecided who are waiting for information not searching it out.

I don't disagree with you, and part of the issue is that with 3 MLAs it's hard to get that exposure from the press, particularly with how divided the other 2 sides are.

Apart from that, it's a lot harder to make noise when you're not actively fear mongering, and screaming that the other side is the devil.
"We are in the middle, we believe in the fiscal policy these guys do, and the social policy that these guys do" isn't exactly top headline material.

It's an uphill battle for sure, so all I specifically can do right now is tell people to give them a look and hope they like what they see, and if they do, then pass it along to people you know.

[Ozy_Flame]

AP right now is a word-of-mouth party, that really needs to engage the disenfranchised voters from both sides.

I may be biased, but I truly feel they are the party that represents most Albertans, who site somewhere on the slightly left or right of center, or right down the middle. If nothing else, it is the party that should give people the least amount of stress.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Travis Munroe

I appreciate the comment and despite our banter back and forth, I feel comfortable having that debate as we know each other. Perhaps it isn't best on a forum viewed by thousands but so be it.

If someone won't work with you because of the party you vote for I would argue that those are not people that you would want to work with in the first place. There's plenty of people here that admitted they voted for Liberals last election and that doesn't change my opinion of them either way as I have seen rifts in families and friendships over politics which is incredibly silly.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

It might change a bit from the recent issues Kenney has had. I believe this poll was done before any of this Kamikaze campaign issue came into the media spotlight.

No...it was well underway by Friday, though more info came out during that time. Duane Bratt was commenting on this just a while ago and said it hadn't moved the needle one iota.

This election will be about the economy and jobs and pipelines as it stands right now.

The NDP will fight this on social issues as their record on everything else appears dismal to the masses.

It will get personal/ugly as the NDP already started with the attack websites on Kenney. If they want that fight i suspect they will get it in spades, and the UCP will make the connection that they will do to Ottawa what they do to the NDP.

If Kenney and crew keep the focus on spending, job losses, taxes, pipelines, debts and deficits, they win going away as those, right now, are far and away the most important issues to Albertans according to poll after poll.

[Wiggum_PI]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Well that's an interesting question re: was anything illegal.
There are spending limits, and there are limits on who can contribute, specifically, that corporations can't.

If Callaway really took money from a corporation, that's illegal.
If Callaway and Kenny basically colluded to run as a single campaign, then the argument can be made that Kenny was in violation of spending limits, and that he is also on the hook for the corporate donations.

I don't have all the facts, but I'll be watching this pretty closely, as there could be some pretty severe consequences, depending on how things played out.

It sounds more like Kenney just used Callaway as a useful idiot and was willingly to help him discredit and draw attention away from Brian Jean.

Whether this involved funneling money to Callaway and his campaign I don't know, hard to believe he would be that stupid. I will also be watching to see how this investigation ends up.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by transplant99

If Kenney and crew keep the focus on spending, job losses, taxes, pipelines, debts and deficits, they win going away as those, right now, are far and away the most important issues to Albertans according to poll after poll.

Totally agree. I can't wait to see Kenney's real plan on cutting taxes, increasing services, no job losses anywhere and reducing the deficit.

[Ashasx]

Is there really any chance Kenney is replaced when the election is a month away?

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Is there really any chance Kenney is replaced when the election is a month away?

Probably not unfortunately.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

AP right now is a word-of-mouth party, that really needs to engage the disenfranchised voters from both sides.

I may be biased, but I truly feel they are the party that represents most Albertans, who site somewhere on the slightly left or right of center, or right down the middle. If nothing else, it is the party that should give people the least amount of stress.

A lot of the people i know who talk about the Alberta party are afraid the won't follow through on their 'conservative' economic policies if they were to form government. Based on the "left and right" of the party they feel the left will win out in the end and its sort of a pandering to try and steal of the votes from the right.

Whether there is absolutely any truth to this or not its sort of the main reasons I hear about not voting for them.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Bunk

There is a lot of regional disparity. They are much more popular in Edmonton than anywhere else in the province.

To win, you must win in 2 of 3 of Calgary, Edmonton, Rural/Small city.

The NDP and UCP are statistically tied in Edmonton and its a landslide in Calgary and rural as of todays poll.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Weitz

A lot of the people i know who talk about the Alberta party are afraid the won't follow through on their 'conservative' economic policies if they were to form government. Based on the "left and right" of the party they feel the left will win out in the end and its sort of a pandering to try and steal of the votes from the right.

Whether there is absolutely any truth to this or not its sort of the main reasons I hear about not voting for them.

Those people are welcome to see the Shadow Budget in order to make clear, educated decisions about what the Alberta Party would do. Please pass on that information if you are in discussion with them again.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by transplant99

The NDP and UCP are statistically tied in Edmonton and its a landslide in Calgary and rural as of todays poll.

Yep, it'll come down to how efficiently their numbers translate into seats. Like, in Calgary, at 32%, is that sufficiently concentrated geographically so that they can win seats, or is that spread more or less evenly across the city, meaning they might only win a couple? Hard to say.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If someone won't work with you because of the party you vote for I would argue that those are not people that you would want to work with in the first place. There's plenty of people here that admitted they voted for Liberals last election and that doesn't change my opinion of them either way as I have seen rifts in families and friendships over politics which is incredibly silly.

Alberta politics are so moderate that it should not be divisive at a personal level. I hope that it stays that way.

[the_only_turek_fan]

I might take a break from CP until April 17th.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Weitz

A lot of the people i know who talk about the Alberta party are afraid the won't follow through on their 'conservative' economic policies if they were to form government. Based on the "left and right" of the party they feel the left will win out in the end and its sort of a pandering to try and steal of the votes from the right.

Whether there is absolutely any truth to this or not its sort of the main reasons I hear about not voting for them.

This is what really bothers me about politics in general (not directed at you specifically), the assumption that economic and social policy have to be connected on the same side of the political spectrum.

It's entirely possible for me to believe that we should be more prudent on our spending, but that transgender people should have rights.

The NDP and UCP are the parties that have hitched their agendas to one side, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to decouple the two.

Pipelines don't have anything to do civil rights.