Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

It's official, in polling done by Ipsos and Abacus, Trump was found to have higher popularity in Alberta than he does in the US. UCP import of MAGA to this province is having an effect.

https://cultmtl.com/2024/08/donald-t...united-states/

Some interesting figures when you drill down.

SK/MAN actually have a higher positive opinion of Trump (34 per cent) than Alberta (31).

Age-wise, by far the lowest positive opinion of Trump is among Canadians 60 and older (12), while 18-59 year old demographics are pretty much the same (29-30 per cent).

Among Canadian Conservative supporters, more have a negative opinion of Trump (43) than a positive opinion (38).

[FlameOn]

The grift and pandering to wingnuts continues. UCP reveals plan to transfer operation of hospitals away from AHS to Catholic operator Covenant health. Covenant does not allow staff to provide emergency contraceptives, abortion, medical assistance in dying, and other medical procedures.

https://www.airdriecityview.com/loca...om-ahs-9387543

[Hemi-Cuda]

Dr. Luanne Metz, Alberta NDP health critic, said the loss of these services in hospitals would create major challenges in rural Alberta.

“It will be devastating for these communities if they lose access to a whole avenue of health care that is provided to other Albertans, and that may be reproductive health care as well as medical assistance in dying, which (Covenant) also does not support,” she said.

Rural Alberta getting exactly what they voted for

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Rural Alberta getting exactly what they voted for

Pretty much.

[direwolf]

It's absolutely shameful what this government is doing to my once beloved home province. Embarrassing and despicable.

[FlameOn]

Ed Stelmach and Tyler Shandro are both on Covenant Health's board of directors so this is very much UCP self dealing and kleptocracy. Lagrange tried to push this last time with the Alberta Lab Services being outsourced to Dynalife and it had disastrous results costing Alberta taxpayers over $100M.

Rural Albertans are idiots, they complain about not being able to keep doctors out in their areas, this will only screw them even further. Some of those voters have no sense of reality.

[Fuzz]

Oh look, she's doing exactly what she said she would do.



#### absolutely every one of you mother####ers who voted for this. Idiots. Absolute ####ing morons.

[Fuzz]

The absolute last thing this world needs is religious institutions running more of our public services. Unreal.

[Duruss]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The absolute last thing this world needs is religious institutions running more of our public services. Unreal.

Frankly it's time for torches and pitchforks.

[Yamer]

I've had family work in Covenant Health for 40+ years. It's an absolute #### show, and just so on brand for the UCP.

[Fuzz]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1656335790622883841

Here is where she tells everyone exactly what she wants to do, and now she's doing it. This came out before the election. But hey, at least we got that tax cut she promised, right?

[Fuzz]

In more privatization news, Airdrie gets what they voted for.

Alberta Health is currently exploring a proposed "campus" in the city of Airdrie that would see a "one-stop shop" built that aims to serve most health-care needs in the municipality located north of Calgary. The proposal comes from a private company called One Health Associate Medical.

Proponents behind the project say they hope it could serve as a prototype for other communities across Alberta struggling to serve residents amid a health-care crisis, with a goal of reducing unnecessary urgent care visits and wait times.

But it has simultaneously raised concerns from public health advocates, who are uneasy about the project's potential to reshape the landscape around privately delivered, publicly funded health care in the province.

We're told quite often, you're really close to Calgary. Go to Calgary," said Michelle Bates, executive director of the Airdrie Health Foundation, a charity that raises money for health in the Airdrie area.

"And for a while, that made sense."

But Airdrie is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province, with a population that's surged from around 56,000 residents in 2014 to more than 83,000 residents in 2023.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...care-1.7297676

That a growing community of that size doesn't have a hospital at all should be an embarrassment, and that Calgary has to shoulder the burden doesn't help any. But for the long term plan to be a privately run for profit urgent care centre? Ya, good stuff. I'm sure they won't offload all the stuff that costs too much money to do.

[Roughneck]

The best part about selling off the hospitals is that it's essentially an irreversible move. Sell them off cheap to somebody who commits to ensuring the operational costs, so you can justify the lowball by holding up the continuity of service. You also get a modest, one time bump on the good side of the balance sheet you can parade during an election cycle, while committing to pay for services indefinitely on the other. If at any point capital upgrades are required, the new owner will lobby the government for investment to allow the level of service the government wants, and the private provider would love to provide if it just weren't so uneconomical to pay for those capital upgrades. When faced with the choice of caving to their cronies, or committing huge amounts of capital funding on a new building, the former will be the likely way to go. Win-win for the private sector, lose-lose for the public sector. Like when the Holy Cross got sold off for a few million dollars, then the government had to pay hundreds of millions upgrading Rockyview while still continuing paying for services and upgrades at the Holy Cross. That has the side benefit of a whole lot of lost opportunity for property taxes for the city by having a significantly underutilized 8-acre site in Mission. It solidifies private service at the expense of public by providing no economic path to reverse it, in order to subsidize cronies at a greater cost.



Wait, did I say best part?

[Fuzz]

Well it can be reversed, as they showed us with the lab debacle. We just have to hand over boatloads of cash to reverse their mistakes, and suffer with ####e services in the meantime.

[Bonded]

Anyone who voted for Smith should feel like a clown

[Ozy_Flame]

Most people who voted for the UCP voted for rural governance at the cost of the cities. Even then those rural votes don't know how much this is impacting them, but it's important to stick it to liberal policies.

And it's really, really showing.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Oh look, she's doing exactly what she said she would do.



#### absolutely every one of you mother####ers who voted for this. Idiots. Absolute ####ing morons.

You can tell how absolute kyit the UCP has been when not a single rightwinger from the Federal Politics thread has posted in here the past 6 years.

But this selling hospitals thing is a great idea! Sell off all those rural hospitals so we can get a great arena.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

You can tell how absolute kyit the UCP has been when not a single rightwinger from the Federal Politics thread has posted in here the past 6 years.

It's easier to blame provincial shortcomings in Alberta on Justin. He's the devil incarnate on just about every file affecting Albertans.

[indes]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

It's easier to blame provincial shortcomings in Alberta on Justin. He's the devil incarnate on just about every file affecting Albertans.

Putting a "#### Trudeau" sticker on your truck, while he couldn't even find the city you live in on a map, is pretty much Alberta in a nutshell.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

You can tell how absolute kyit the UCP has been when not a single rightwinger from the Federal Politics thread has posted in here the past 6 years.

But this selling hospitals thing is a great idea! Sell off all those rural hospitals so we can get a great arena.

But apparently CP is a haven for lefties because nobody is able to defend the UCP.

More likely is that the UCP is so far to the right, and going farther, that almost everything is "left" of them.

We're literally selling off public health resources to faith-based organizations that won't perform certain procedures because of religion. In places where that's the only option. But don't you dare call them christofascists - that's just lefty fear mongering.