Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Cliff, do you realize how unempathetic you sound when you post things like that? Maybe it's unintentional, but also maybe some self-reflection is in order if you can't at all fathom why politics would be so important to someone's life choices.

If you’re affected by particular health care policies, then fair enough. But most people who I come across complaining about things like provincial health care and education funding haven’t the foggiest idea of how much Alberta spends on those areas compared with other provinces. They believe conservative governments have cut those services to the bone, when the reality is like everywhere else, spending has been going up for decades, and Alberta is at the higher end of spending in Canada.

The kind of hyper-politics and partisanship we see in Canada today is a recent phenomenon. It wasn’t that long ago when spending even 4 hours a week reading or thinking about politics was unusual because there simply wasn’t the content or platforms to spend more. Now a lot of people spend 4 hours a day raging at their political enemies online. It’s no coincidence that as we spend more time on platforms designed to fuel partisan anger, the way we talk about politics has become uglier, and our politics themselves have become uglier. But we’re not gong to hate our way to better governance.

And empathy cuts both ways. Anyone who genuinely believes that the 1 million Albertans who voted UCP in the last election are all either malicious or ignorant is lacking imagination and empathy. People have all sorts of life stories and reasons for voting.

[BowRiverBruinsRule]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

It's gonna be different with this healthcare reform though. We should totally just trust what they told us and see how it plays out.


####ing disaster incoming.

Yep. I have mentioned numerous times. Buckle up. They accomplished their takeover. They are extreme ideologues as well as simply extreme. Their ideology trumps everything. They do not care who they hurt or whether it works or whether it is well thought out or how much it costs to implement. I am worried about Alberta. The damage could and probably will be huge.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

And empathy cuts both ways. Anyone who genuinely believes that the 1 million Albertans who voted UCP in the last election are all either malicious or ignorant is lacking imagination and empathy. People have all sorts of life stories and reasons for voting.

For what it's worth, there are a lot who are both malicious AND ignorant.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Muta

You'd think so, but many Albertans go far out of their way to dunk on Trudeau any chance they get - and that's for a level of government that factors the least into our daily lives as Albertans. We live in a very, very strange world.

I might have different feelings and personal interactions than some (most?) here, but I can't think of the last time I had a conversation with a family member, friend, coworker, etc that lasted more than 30 seconds about the provincial or federal government, or a specific politician... so no, in my experience, the Albertans I interact with frequently don't "dunk on Trudeau any chance they get"... same as they don't dunk on Smith, or Notley, or Poilievre. Granted, if pressed, I think most people I interact with would think most (all?) of them are varying degrees of dumb / useless / ineffectual, but again, (generally) life goes on regardless, which is what's most important to most people.

We need to recognize that we (the we posting in this thread) are a small subset of the general population; one that actually cares enough to read about politics, let alone engage in discussion. If tomorrow every Albertan became a member of Calgary Puck (imagine the pop-up ad revenue!), I'd estimate less than 5 % would click on, let alone participate in this thread.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Still doesn't matter. Notley still needs to resign.

Also I would still be concerned if the NDP had 25 point lead. You can't outstupid the Wildrose voters in Calgary.

This is nothing about the NDP. This is an indictment on the UCP.

To me, it seems they managed to stop the bleeding enough for the election campaign and managed to make themselves look like less like a Wish.com government and more like Amazon for long enough.

But Albertans still got hoodwinked and most definitely got Wish.com.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

And empathy cuts both ways. Anyone who genuinely believes that the 1 million Albertans who voted UCP in the last election are all either malicious or ignorant is lacking imagination and empathy. People have all sorts of life stories and reasons for voting.

I don't think they're all malicious or ignorant. It's pretty hard to be malicious and ignorant at the same time. I do often think that they fail to see the bigger picture or just flat-out don't prioritize the harm that some of the UCP's policies are going to cause in exchange for an insignificant bump to their personal pocketbooks.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I don't think they're all malicious or ignorant. It's pretty hard to be malicious and ignorant at the same time. I do often think that they fail to see the bigger picture or just flat-out don't prioritize the harm that some of the UCP's policies are going to cause in exchange for an insignificant bump to their personal pocketbooks.

there were more than a few Calgarians who said they were going to vote UCP if it meant provincial funding for the flames arena, and to stick it to Edmonton.


people suck.

[cral12]

hopefully not a fata...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1722329001975312788

[Johnny Makarov]

I don't see a problem with that. We can fly all those people who need back surgery to Vietnam so it would ease the number of patients here.

[Monahammer]

I wonder what they're trading Stelmach for supporting the destruction of his only real legacy in office? Must be $.

[cral12]

but wait...there's more:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1722749478950842421

[Fuzz]

If anyone actually believes these lying liars that privatization isn't coming, I've got a beautiful new bridge to sell you in Crimea. Seriously, hit me up, I'll give you great deal.

[TorqueDog]

I still don't get how people seriously entrusted these clowns to run the province. I wouldn't trust them running a bath.

[Izzle]

Same people willing to entrust PP federally.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Izzle

Same people willing to entrust PP federally.

Fool them twice?

[Fuzz]

It's a good thing the UCP has buy in from stakeholders.

There are growing calls for the Alberta government to put the brakes on its plan to gut Alberta Health Services and restructure health-care delivery in the province.

Front-line workers and unions say they weren't consulted about the plan to hive off health-care provision into four new organizations, and they worry the move will drive health-care workers away and jeopardize patient care.

Restructuring Alberta Health Services (AHS) won't fix what's ailing the province's health system, according to Dr. Jon Meddings, past dean of medicine at the University of Calgary.

"The problem we have is a failing health-care system because of a lack of resources, people, beds, [operating rooms] and primary care. It is not a problem of disorganization of AHS," he said.

"I think it's morally reprehensible to be trying to fix an imaginary problem when we have a real crisis happening right now."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...024460?cmp=rss


Hmmm, I wonder how things are this morning?

Spoiler!

Oh ya, that's just great. Try not to need the hospital, people. Better do a re-org to fix this. ####ing morons.

[Yoho]

How much did wait times drop when Rachel Notley was Premier?

[Fuzz]

[DFO]

Yup, massively increasing the overall size of healthcare administration/bureaucracy seems like a prudent use of funds.

[Fuzz]

They told us it would only cost $80 million, roughly the same as a batch of Turkish Tylenol. And they'd never lie or be wrong, so I wouldn't worry about the cost. Vote Blue!