Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

Ric McIver came to my door about 10 minutes ago - basically he said we should vote for him so he can be the voice of reason when the Premier or the rest of caucus gets crazy ideas.

That says it all right there - he knows DS and the UCP are crap, but he has no choice. I like him and I feel he's represented us well, but I just can't vote for the party he's aligned with. And his reply was very quick - I don't think it's the first time he's had to advocate for himself over the party or Premier.

I have a fantasy that some of these original PCs will walk out and become independents when the crazy starts.

Like I said, a fantasy.

[btimbit]

Looks like I missed my UCP candidate last night when I was at work. Shame, even though he just seems like an empty suit, Calgary-Lougheed is a pretty sure thing for the UCP. I would have liked to at least ask him, despite the fact he won't be getting my vote, to at least try and keep the average middle-class person in mind while his party is doing everything in it's power to turn Alberta into America junior that just caters to the wealthy

[puffnstuff]

Even if I could ignore the top of the **** pile that is the ucp my local ucp candidate isnt worth voting for.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1659962580771717121

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Dion

https://twitter.com/user/status/1659725224441511938

The ndp chose good candidates in the edmonton burbs. Karen is facing Nally in my riding. Ndp win in the city of st albert but the riding has a large rural component... where Karen shaw was just a popular sitting councilor.

They used the same strategy in Fort Saskatchewan and sherwood Park at least. I think they have a strong shot to pick up all 3 ridings.

[MoneyGuy]

I have former colleagues (and friends) running in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain. The NDP challenger has my support but the riding is considered a fairly safe Conservative hold (but no sure thing). I know people here with lots of money who are big UCP donors. Both are working hard. The UCP incumbent is a workhorse.

[Harry Lime]

Such a negative platform.

"If reelected, the United Conservative Party (UCP) plans to sell off most of the province’s remaining twenty-seven thousand social housing units to private landlords.

Alberta is not immune to the country’s housing crisis. The UCP plan comes amid skyrocketing rental costs in the province."

https://jacobin.com/2023/05/united-c...the%20province.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Such a negative platform.




https://jacobin.com/2023/05/united-c...the%20province.

How do you end up linking the Jacobian before just linking the original article for the Tyee.

[Harry Lime]

I don't read either of those publications. I was interested in this platform item and Google the first applicable source.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

I missed a day on the Mainstreet tracking poll. Apologies.

Saturday’s tracker had UCP+2.5, which Maggi breathlessly tweeted was maybe an “untightening” in the race. But… today the margin is back down to about UCP +1.2.

That’s consistent with the post debate “bump” being more statistical noise than any change in underlying voter preference.

https://twitter.com/MainStResearch/s...23382544547841

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

New Abacus poll shows the UCP with slight leads both province wide and in Calgary.

https://twitter.com/DavidColetto/sta...22816856252416

If this is correct, it’s more than enough for the UCP to win a majority. Have not looked at any of the crosstabs yet. What’s strange (to me) is that Abacus has been all over the map, showing NDP +10 just a week and a half or so ago. That prior poll is now starting to look very outlier-ish.

[GirlySports]

https://338canada.com/alberta/districts.htm

UCP 48-39

More troubling for the NDP is likely or better (10%+ margin or above of the margin of error) is 38 to 26 UCP. That may be too many coin flips to win.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Mainstreet’s daily tracker is now up to UCP+4.5. We will want to wait and see what happens when the one day post-debate numbers roll off tomorrow, but if this trend holds it’s another data point suggesting a narrow but possibly persistent UCP lead.

https://twitter.com/MainStResearch/s...07102900523009

[curves2000]

The NDP have been playing this too safe with this whole "we are the adults in the room and we can save health care" mantra.

The UCP have the advantage 100%. Alberta is a conservative province but people are miffed with the UCP . The NDP needs to do a better job SELLING on how they are going to improve quality of life and services for Albertan's outside of what I said.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but we are truly in a bleak place as an electorate if our response to the bizarre, unpredictable and frequently unethical behaviour of our current premier is to go “yeah, but I didn’t get a good enough sales job from the OTHER side.”

We have only one way to express our displeasure with Smith. If we don’t, the message to the UCP will be that Albertans are fine with her behaviour and want to see more. She won’t be deterred by a slightly smaller majority—she will treat it as a mandate and the next 4 years are going to look like the last 18 months, only…. Probably worse because she will assume she has the ringing endorsement of voters for her behaviour.

We will face the same choice with the Trudeau Liberals soon (in my view). It’s an existential question: do we, as voters, have the cojones to say “no, enough. We are drawing the line, and you’ve crossed it so you’re fired. Give us a better option in 4 years and we will see.”

Or do we just mark our ballots for our “teams”, not caring what they do or how they govern, and allow ourselves to be doormats for the politicians who are supposed to serve us, not the other way around?

Like I said, you may be right. But it suggests to me that we’ve lost the thread—again—as an electorate. Voting for a party should never only be about ideology or partisan affiliation. Our democracy depends on it also being the way that we express our displeasure when the people in power abuse or misuse that power, or prove themselves to be ungovernable by traditional democratic rules, systems and customs.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

A simpler way to put it: Danielle Smith is the premier. This election is not about her opponent, it’s about her. What has she done to earn another term?

Anyone considering voting UCP should ask themselves that question.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but we are truly in a bleak place as an electorate if our response to the bizarre, unpredictable and frequently unethical behaviour of our current premier is to go “yeah, but I didn’t get a good enough sales job from the OTHER side.”

We have only one way to express our displeasure with Smith. If we don’t, the message to the UCP will be that Albertans are fine with her behaviour and want to see more. She won’t be deterred by a slightly smaller majority—she will treat it as a mandate and the next 4 years are going to look like the last 18 months, only…. Probably worse because she will assume she has the ringing endorsement of voters for her behaviour.

We will face the same choice with the Trudeau Liberals soon (in my view). It’s an existential question: do we, as voters, have the cojones to say “no, enough. We are drawing the line, and you’ve crossed it so you’re fired. Give us a better option in 4 years and we will see.”

Or do we just mark our ballots for our “teams”, not caring what they do or how they govern, and allow ourselves to be doormats for the politicians who are supposed to serve us, not the other way around?

Like I said, you may be right. But it suggests to me that we’ve lost the thread—again—as an electorate. Voting for a party should never only be about ideology or partisan affiliation. Our democracy depends on it also being the way that we express our displeasure when the people in power abuse or misuse that power, or prove themselves to be ungovernable by traditional democratic rules, systems and customs.

Or the conclusion is that voters are fine with Smith and are fine with Trudeau. Day to day life goes on.

[sketchyt]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Or the conclusion is that voters are fine with Smith and are fine with Trudeau. Day to day life goes on.

Not if you want quality emergency care services.

[Looch City]

So when do we start the CP poll?

[Reggie Dunlop]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1660698544091860993

Danielle Smith doesn't want this guy in jail.