Hello everybody

[Asher]

Alberta now has Muslim and Jewish mayors in the two major cities, and a female liberal (or red tory, at least) as the premiere with a strong mandate.

The days of right-wing white Christian men ruling the province are over.

Ben and the National Post weep.

[Wezil]

Thanks. I'm obviously not on the ground there so I only have the media reports to go by. I've been reading a lot of columnists explanations this morning (the same columnists that got it so wrong in the first place) but Gurney's seemed like the best explanation I was seeing.

I agree with your comments on polling. Though somewhat older I am similar to the younger demographic in this regard. I don't have a land line at home and hang up immediately on anyone I don't know on my cell. They couldn't reach me if they tried.

Usually the lack of younger response isn't such a big deal in election polling as they are also the least likely demographic to get out and actually vote, but as you mentioned, Wildrose and their candidates hit some hot button issues/arguments that sealed their fate.

[Wezil]

Alberta now has Muslim and Jewish mayors in the two major cities, and a female liberal (or red tory, at least) as the premiere with a strong mandate.

The days of right-wing white Christian men ruling the province are over.

Ben and the National Post weep.

Conservatives don't know what it is to be a conservative anymore. Many carry the label but I see little of it in action.

They have lost their way.

[notyoueither]

That article is not very good. It is playing to stereotypes and is pretty ignorant.

Wildrose never played well to educated, urban, native (born here) Albertans.

[SlowwHand]

Educated, but feel the need to define "native"?

[notyoueither]

Yes, since it commonly has two meanings.

[Asher]

Educated, but feel the need to define "native"?

Alberta has a significant aboriginal ("native") population, distinct from what he was referring to.

[SlowwHand]

Only regard to "going native".

[Asher]

That article is not very good. It is playing to stereotypes and is pretty ignorant.

Wildrose never played well to educated, urban, native (born here) Albertans.

Sure they did, by playing to the oilpatch.

At least in Calgary, they pushed hard to get fiscal conservatives on board (many of which are educated and urban and native (born here)). Fiscal conservativism is popular here, social is poison. I think the Wildrose tried to play the social conservative card to woo the rural, the fiscal to woo the urban...but they didn't count on the urban crowd choosing to vote for social liberalism over fiscal conservativism. Plus, there's the fact that they came off like idiots out of touch with the world didn't help.

[notyoueither]

It is true that they played well to people in the oil industry when all they spoke about was money.

To me, they always were a provincial manifestation of the Reform party. Not scientific, but of the native Albertans I discussed intentions with, not many were going to vote for them.

[Wezil]

I think the Wildrose tried to play the social conservative card to woo the rural, the fiscal to woo the urban...but they didn't count on the urban crowd choosing to vote for social liberalism over fiscal conservativism.

It is not fiscally conservative by any measure to promise yearly bribe cheques. Those claims went out the window with that announcement (see my "losing their way" comment earlier).

It's like the fiscally conservative claim by the Feds. The last fiscally conservative government we had was a Liberal one.

[Asher]

It is not fiscally conservative by any measure to promise yearly bribe cheques. Those claims went out the window with that announcement (see my "losing their way" comment earlier).

Yeah, I thought the same also.

[The Mad Monk]

Yearly bribe cheques?

[Wezil]

The Wildrose party pledged Monday to return 20 per cent of surplus oil and gas revenues to Albertans, a move that harkens back to the $400 “Ralph bucks” given out in 2006.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said their energy dividend would funnel cash away from government and into peoples’ wallets.

“Wildrose believes that Albertans can spend their own money better than government,” Smith said in a news release. “That is precisely why we’ve got a plan to put more money back in their pockets instead of government coffers.”

The plan would not take effect until the province is in a surplus again, but Smith estimates every Albertan would receive $300 in 2015. The last time Albertans got energy surplus cheques from the government was 2006, when then Premier Ralph Klein gave each Albertan $400. The move was lauded by many, but also heavily-criticized by those who said it showed a lack of planning amid the resource boom.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Wi...#ixzz1szGm9git

[Elok]

Could you back up your spurious claim of 'stalking' with any evidence other than the usual self-pity and paranoia ?

You forgot the megalomania; by incorrectly describing him you are committing blasphemy!!1!1!!

[Ben Kenobi]

I didn't call myself that and I don't know how to change it. Therefore it is apolyton's sin.

Nonsense. Look at my title. I believe I am the only perpetual emperor.

[Ben Kenobi]

I've met him. Does that mean my opinion on him gets to win too?

I'm sure he'd have a laugh at whatever you have to post about him.

[Ben Kenobi]

The last fiscally conservative government we had was a Liberal one.

Conservatives haven't been bad (compared with the Obama administration), but I agree, they could have passed a much better budget than the last one that they passed. Really disappointed in Harper not taking the opportunity to kill some of the Trudeau cruft and restore fiscal balance.

[Ben Kenobi]

Not only did the Canucks rightfully lose in the first round embarrassingly early, but the social conservatives in Alberta (Ben's favourites) just got run out of town, largely on bigoted remarks from a homophobic pastor candidate.

I won a huge bet with a friend of mine. He bet me on 99:1 odds against a PC majority.

I told him that his numbers suggested about a 50/50 chance of a PC majority, he said I was a fool. Nice to win money off ignorant Torontonians.

I'm not a Wildrose fan. We've been over that before. There are significant problems with the Wild Rose party, and I warned people about them before that they are not what they seem.

They won't win government with Danielle Smith as leader.

Ben thought he would be leader.

We all come to a fork in the road, and Morton chose the other fork. He chose comfort and security and received neither.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Welcome back Ben. Sad to see you missing for so long, but if something was learned in the void, then all the better.

[Ben Kenobi]

Thanks Spaced. I won't say it was fun being away as I missed my friends and this year has been rather difficult.

[Wezil]

“Our members have now seen that some of our policies were rejected by Albertans, quite frankly,” she said in an interview. “We will be revisiting some of those. You can’t run a government if you don’t get sanction from the people.”

Asked which policies in particular were up for debate, Smith mentioned the “Alberta Agenda” items that call for the province to establish its own pension plan and to replace the RCMP with a provincial police force. Such ideas were touted by a group of conservative thinkers in a famous letter written a decade ago that called for Alberta to build a “firewall” — a term that was used by the PCs to attack Wildrose during the campaign.

Why is this controversial? Replacing the RCMP with a competent force is a fine idea.

[dannubis]

Thanks Spaced. I won't say it was fun being away as I missed my friends and this year has been rather difficult.

Imagine how gay people must feel when not allowed to marry, dickhead.

[Nikolai]

Since you don't know what he has had to deal with, perhaps you shouldn't act like a dickhead yourself?

[Asher]

Why is this controversial? Replacing the RCMP with a competent force is a fine idea.

It's just pointless. The OPP is no better than the RCMP.

In fact, my experience with them is far worse.

The RCMP only applies to rural areas, so why bother?

[Asher]

Since you don't know what he has had to deal with, perhaps you shouldn't act like a dickhead yourself?

We all have things to deal with.

The difference is Ben's goals are to create those things to deal with for other people. His aim is to bring people down and prevent them from being true to themselves.

He deserves what he gets here. Make no mistake about that. He's not a good person.

[Wezil]

It's just pointless. The OPP is no better than the RCMP.

Most everybody is better than the RCMP for regular policing. It's like having the FBI handing out speeding tickets.

In fact, my experience with them is far worse.

Lot's of people killed by the RCMP (the Vancouver guy as one example) had the opposite experience.

The RCMP only applies to rural areas, so why bother?

Alberta is a large province with lots of rural areas for one. Secondly, it would be a large step toward being the Big Boy province Alberta wants to be if they can manage their own policing.

[Hauldren Collider]

Wow, I had no idea the RCMP did local police work. That is kind of strange. I thought they were basically the Canadian FBI/Federal Marshals.

[Wezil]

They are in the provinces with their own police forces (your State Police) but in the smaller provinces they do local policing as well. The province pays the Feds for the service.

[Wezil]

I find it strange Asher would consider policing run by Ottawa to be better than a force run by his own province. At least when something goes wrong with the OPP (as it will in any police force) we don't have to look to Ottawa for redress.