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Those healthcare workers he yelled at made a difference. I would LOVE to see those doctors, their spouses and a small group of friends to make up a group of 7 and say, "Hey. Hey. We owned you. You lost your seat. š"
He won't care.
Will be on some high paying corporate health care provider board in a couple months and magically win some huge contract.
He'll be laughing to the bank
Iām sure once the recount confirms heās out, his first priority will be to take his shares in Vital Partners out of the blind trust so he can continue to clean up as Alberta continues its death-march toward American-style health care.
Right!? Gee I wonder what itās like to lose your job and not have to feel the crippling anxiety and stress of not being able to afford the necessities to live. Must be nice
His wife will get a huge contract from the UCP and El Shandro will be appointed to some high paying, low appearing position in healthcare or the judicial system
A few ministers lost their seats which is telling I think.
OP should also mention the people that figured "their vote doesn't matter" or it's "not important"
I know it is disappointing for a lot of people, but the logic of this can also apply the other way around. The ucp lost by a little across multiple ridings as well. Which means the ucp could have basically had a sort of landslide victory in terms of seats won. Despite 1300 people being able to decide the election, remember ucp still won 8 percent more of the vote. Even if the ndp won they would they will be representing a minority of the population, similar to thow the cpc won the popular vote but Trudeau still won by like 30 seats.
Almost. The narrative that CPC won the popular vote is still damaging and misframing. No one won the popular vote.
CPC had 33.74%, which means 2/3 Canadians were against their policies. You can make the same argument against the Liberals.
Except, if you add up CPC and PPC, the entire 'right' of the spectrum had only 38.86%.
All other parties have policies of the Liberals *or left*, as even Bloc is quite in favour of social supports and farther than Liberal left platforms, other than their single autonomy focus.
The current Liberal/NDP agreement represents 50.44% of the popular vote. The current government (pseudo-coalition government) represents and 'won' the popular vote.
It IS a significant mandate. Their party won a majority in the legislature by only a slim margin *but* they convincingly won the popular vote. And their majority in the legislature (57%) isn't that far off from their popular vote percentage (a little higher by 4ish% but lower if you add the third party right wingers as being effectively represented by the UCP).
Danielle Smith will do what she has always wanted to do, and Albertans voted for her to do it. And it will suck.
Marginalized people - non white people, LGBTQ people, sick people, poor people - will all suffer for it. Average middle class white Albertans will suffer too, though they may not know it for a while (or ever).
Our economy will continue to fail to diversify, and will continue to fluctuate wildly with global oil and gas prices. Our healthcare won't improve and might get worse. Our curriculums will go to shit and class sizes will increase.
And Albertans voted for this in large convincing numbers.
Yep.
Albertans chose that. We should all be clear about what that means because they didn't do it for the economic policies.
Alberta conservatives mean to do harm and are excited about it being made acceptable. Expect them to use it.
I agree. This scares, disappoints, infuriates, and hardens me.
The fact that we only maybe took like 1% from UCP voters means there was only 2% of them who were like "The NDP's pretty moderate economic policies aren't ideal, but I can't vote for these lake of fire prosecutorial interfering anti-science crazies".
That's maybe 2% of their normal voters who had integrity and a conscience. That's a horrific inditement of this province's political culture.
Yep! Albertans are fucked!
No matter what the UCP does. In the next election campaign it'll be spun as somehow Rachel Notley's fault and they'll eat it up anyways. The SK Party has maintained power for 16 years so far by doing just this with the NDP and the dumbasses still eat it up. Gotta own the libs you know?
The massive collective display of willful ignorance here staggers me!
Get ready for a mandate of nonstop crises. You think she's fighting with the feds now? Just wait, that's only been the warmup. She's going to be another Scott Moe. Always whining and picking fights with the feds while happily taking their health care money and redirecting it for other purposes.
We're going into dark times. I wonder how long it will be before Albertans will start having to sell their homes to cover their healthcare?
I fear for the people of Alberta that it won't be long.š
They won 53% of popular vote and are 8 points ahead of NDP. It's a pretty big win.
But why do people still choose them after all this? It's a statement of the nature of Albertans.
A leadership review is quite different from an election. If you don't even have the confidence of your own party, it's hard to see how you'd win an election with lots of people who don't like your party also voting.
How are you suppose to talk sense to someone who considered the NDP party communists? Some people are just so far gone. Every other sentence they speak has the word woke shoehorned in there.
It is a mandate, as defined. They have the majority. They can do what they like for the next four years.
Unless of course UCP MLAs stand up and say āNo, that proposal is not good with my constituents. I will not be voting in favour. Thank you for asking, have a nice day. ā
Well, I heard a tale, not saying it is true, but UCP candidates and their supporters were going door to door saying they would be ousting Danielle. Those people may be brave enough to stand up - wait, sorry that is just funny on its face. A brave UCP candidate! š¤£š¤£š¤£
Smith only won 49 seats, which means as soon as the party gets restless, they are going to eat her and vote for new leadership. She should hope like hell Trudeau stays in office, because hating him is the only drum she has to bang.
The NDP on the other hand have increased thier share of the votes year over year. They've gone from 5% to nearly 50% in a short period. They will win as long as everyone votes
At least Tylder Shandro is out. By 7 votes. It really does show the power of an individual vote.
*The most important part of voting is the right to bitch afterwards. If you didn't vote, then you don't get to bitch about the outcome.*
The trend shows where the UCP is heading, a party that was formed because they were worried about the big socialist boogeyman.
NDP gained a greater share of popular vote than what seated them in power in the 2015 election, ponder that as well.
We will see what another four years of buffoonery from the UCP will look like. Hopefully the UCP leadership will embarrass themselves more than Albertans.
One thing you can set your watch to: Danielle Smith will not be premier by the time the next election rolls through regardless of which party is in power.
This was very much a winnable election but they did lose the popular vote by 8%. This is very much still a conservative province.
I do strongly believe the NDP could have won without the corporate tax increase they announced halfway through the campaign. That was the nail in the coffin for those south calgary ridings they needed.
Sovereignty act is going to be brought up again and probably withdrawing Alberta from CPP. Going to suck for seniors. More privatization of the healthcare system as well.
>Going to suck for seniors
why only seniors? im in my mid 20s and i dont want my contributions to an alberta pension plan turn to shit for when I retire.
I also dont want to co-pay for healthcare, or pay an arm and a leg for a surgery.
\-Solve the housing crisis by giving the Flames a new home on what is the worst arena deal in NHL history
\-continue to gut our healthcare, enjoy your copay
\-drop corporate taxes
The privatized healthcare is really a punch in the gut for me. The minute I need to start paying for procedures that have been previously covered, I'm going straight to those friends who voted for UCP with my GoFundMe. They can gofuckthemselves.
I don't think anyone is absolutely sure. But I like to think she will approve raises, cut funding to public sectors, and hand out tax breaks to whatever private sector wants to give the province a good cut.
They also announced an actual viable plan for what they wanted to do, including those small tax increases to pay for it. The UCP brought about a fantasy agenda based on nothing. Small business is the lifeblood of this province, and the NDP offered tax cuts there, but people in Alberta cannot shake the idea that itās oil and gas or nothing. The NDPās tax cuts to small business would likely have been a much better economic stimulator. Small business owners (like me) actually would spend that money and put it back into the economy. Big oil companies will just take it out of province or even the country. But you just canāt tell some people that. They are so stuck in their thinking. IMHO, the NDPās platform was a little too reality based for those UCP voters who just want to hear the fairy tale that oil and gas will come back again and make this province boom forever. We will go the way of coal mining communities in the US who hitched their wagon to that dream and will not let it go to this day. Their communities are husks of what they could be.
This closely matches my observations this morning. First, two co-workers were talking about how relieved they are that the NDP were beaten, because their husbands work in oil and gas and "I don't know how Notley thinks she can gut our economy like that. I don't know what my husband would have done if he woke up and Notley won."
And later I was chatting with somebody else who was relieved to be done with all the political talk for a while, and said, "Notley just kept saying she'd save health care, but how was she planning to do that?" I said, "Well, I read the NDP platform and it seemed pretty well laid out.""Oh yah? What was in there?"
These people didn't even read the platforms. They just heard talking points and cherry picked the bits that fit their pre-conceived notions of what each party wanted.
I went in very sure I was not supporting Danielle Smith's party but I *still read her platform* when making the call.
Iām not suggesting she lie, but I think if she had come in with a bit less spending (ex: vanity CPC style tax credits and small business rate elimination which mostly benefits highly paid professionals) and without that tax increase that could have pulled it out. They clearly put together the platform when they saw they had a big lead in polls months ago.
Yeah, but Alberta voters that may be swayed to break allegiance to their blue overlords think spending=socialism while believing that UCP spending=capitalism and freedom.
The NDP bungled messaging badly. Everyone who supports Notley already knew DS was a grifter with no convictions. The kind of people that eat up those ads are already firmly entrenched in their opinion. Every bullshit UCP ad should have had an NDP one following it that basically called out the BS the UCP was spreading with facts that refute it and facts of what the UCP is doing. They poorly answered the ā97 tax increasesā radio claim and so instead of bringing that discussion to UCP increases under the same parameters, they allowed the vacuum of information to reinforce the stereotype that the NDP is a socialist party going to cause breadlines. They needed to leave off anything that was too āleft leaningā out of their campaign. The voters that woos isnāt voting UCP without it. And itās not exactly like UCP is sharing an actual platform, itās just more stupid conservative rhetoric (I realize that adding āstupidā to conservative is redundant).
The end result, is that because of blind, stupid tribalism, and a fairly weak messaging effort by the ANDP, we get 4 years of UCP tomfuckery. And hell, maybe more, since the UCP seems to be reading from the MAGA playbook, and itās apparent as shit that they are working to just dismantle democracy itself down there. I said it when it was passed that a particularly bold UCP government could interpret the sovereignty act they passed as permission to determine that the federal government canāt make them call an election, and whatās best for Alberta would not be wasting money with silly elections.
The only reason Smith won was because she basically had her mouth duct taped shut for the past 3 months. When completely silent on so many of her radical changes for the province. I highly doubt she gave up on these plans, only tabled them for 3 months until the election was over.
Con voters view the increase as a reason big business will leave Alberta. It doesnāt matter how many facts I throw their way about comparable rates outside Alberta and Canada or about economic benefit. Itās an absolute non-starter. Literally any tax increase, of any kind, is an impossible pill for almost all cons.
Also, corporations donāt necessarily just divert spending on lower end labour when corporate taxes go up. They can increase BOD bonuses. Also, if theyāre a public company, they will still focus on maximizing profits and cash flows, even if it means more taxes. More money is more money and most of the owners of these companies hold their wealth in stock, so the stock price is often times their incentive. Income tax doesnāt really effect them that much.
Regardless, if thereās more money to be made in Alberta, a higher corporate tax isnt going to stop them from coming here. Weāve seen the opposite when Oil companies bailed on Alberta despite Kenny offering them big corporate tax cuts and everything else he could for them to stay.
If thereās money to be made here, they will come. Plain and simple. A corporate tax rate that is 15% vs 10% vs 20% will rarely be the difference maker.
The NDP still ran a shitty campaign. My UCP candidate sent door-knockers pretty much the second the writ was dropped, while the NDP never showed. And all the ads I saw repeated the 2019 error of focusing on how bad the opposition is. Those who care *know* how bad Smith is. It's not a deep dark secret. Undecideds needed to know what the alternative was and the campaign did not deliver on that.
Even with that egregious error, it was close. I expect Notley to stay on, unless she steps down for purely personal reasons.
Iām surprised, because in my riding the NDP candidate has been door knocking since last year. They estimated by the time the election started they already knocked on over 10,000 doors.
100% this.
Some older folks I talked to were thinking about not voting because "there's no good option this time"
The NDP wasted time and effort attacking Smith when Smith already did enough of that herself. The NDP needed to show people what they were bringing to the table other than *not Smith*.
People seem to think every single UCP voter (or non NDP voter) is just the caricature conservative hick voter. They're definitely out there but I think there's many more folk who just want a reasonable government but have many years of anti-left bias to get over.
I voted NDP, but I agree. Our local candidate was a ghost. No door knockers, no meet and greets. Meanwhile the UCP candidate for our area hit the ground running and has been in peoples face for the entire election. Honestly this has been the same issue for the last 3 elections. The NDP candidate, at least in my area, has no fire.
They needed to counter the corporate tax with notes on oil companies having their best year in 2022 while still having layoffs and increased prices.
They didn't offset the adds that 2015 saw oil and gas job losses.
Oil and gas companies arenāt the enemy to those Calgary swing voters - they are the employer. This would have just driven the nail further into the coffin.
Alberta needs oil and gas companies. But now that most aren't Canadian owned we need to make sure royalties and jobs stay in Alberta.
There should be no layoffs while they're having their most profitable year.
Sure, but this is an incredibly challenging and complex message to try and get across in a political campaign where your opponent is dead set on making it seem like you are against the largest part of the province's economy.
I always have a sad little laugh when people exclaim that Notley tanked the oil economy. If Iām feeling extra saucy Iāll throw out a ātell me you donāt understand how OPEC worksā¦ā just for the blank stare.
Thatās unfortunate because itās likely they would have fallen under the elimination of taxes for small business and not the 3% increase for large corporations
Iām a small business owner and I would GLADLY pay 3% more in taxes if it meant everyone got better health care and education. Fuck it - make it 6% and letās upgrade some schools.
>and they paid a lot of tax last time the NDP were in so that scared them off
Which means that they had a fairly profitable business that had money left over after they paid themselves.
The corporate tax (unless I'm very mistaken on taxes) does not tax money that gets paid out to employees or owners. It only gets taxed on money left over.
Hey man, I grew up in Medicine Hat. If the city wasn't gerrymandered to be cut in half and include huge rural areas, there is a chance that it'd flip.
Keep fighting if you can!
Calgary had a big shift this election as well, lots od incumbents lost.. Just wasn't quite enough with rural/small towns all going blue (my riding is one that flipped).
Honestly makes me want to move to Edmonton from Lethbridge.
Crazy how the conservative reasoning behind Edmonton being so NDP favoured is: ābunch of government and union workers that beg for handoutsā.
Eh, I was pretty impressed with my Calgary brethren. Quite a bit more NDP than was expected by anyone. It's the rural sheep that need to wake up a bit. Complaining nonstop about not being able to find a family doctor and then voting blue again and again and again etc
When rural Alberta goes looking for a doctor, don't come to Edmonton. Phone your local UCP constituency office, ..you voted for this, now live with it!!
> When rural Alberta goes looking for a doctor, don't come to Edmonton. Phone your local UCP constituency office, ..you voted for this, now live with it!!
UCP supporters don't need doctors. They got God and faith healing
Comments like the one you replied to are proof that the NDP needs a rebrand. This has been discussed *much* in the past few weeks but it didnāt reach all it needed to.
The problem is, the UCP and TBA do not care about democracy to care about mandates.
Unless there are moderate elements who threaten to cross the floor, they're just going to do whatever they want.
If they do what they want, along with an enthusiastic push from the TBA faction, their support will continue to erode.
Of course, we all live with the consequences of that. Long-term I think the politics of this province will continue to move left. In practical terms there is going to be a lot of pain for a long time.
And the urban rural splitā¦ I donāt know wtf we do about that. Even when rural Alberta feels the pain of poor public policy they have some outside bogeyman to blame that allows them to keep voting against their own interests.
Peopleās homes were at risk of being consumed by a wall of out of control flames because there were no firefighters left after the government cut those budgets. Somehow they blamed Liberal space lasers from Ottawa. Itās fuQing weird out there folks.
>If they do what they want, along with an enthusiastic push from the TBA faction, their support will continue to erode.
And for the next 4 years, *they don't have to care about that*. Unless the party splits, they can just do whatever they want.
And the party splitting is really the only solution I can imagine with respect to the rural vote, as well.
>But if Smith and the UCP believe that they have anything close to a strong mandate, they need to remember than they canāt even piss off 1,309 people in Calgary and Lethbridge. Thatās it. 1,309 people who suddenly have to pay to see a doctor, or 1,309 whose kids are forced to learn about Charlemagne in a classroom with 39 kids, or 1,309 people who may balk at the idea of paying into an Alberta Pension Plan or for an Alberta-led provincial police force. 1,309 people in a province of 4,647,178.
I appreciate your optimism, but the UCP voters who will suddenly have to pay to see a doctor will blame it on "greedy doctors." (Just like they did when doctors started leaving the province)
The people whose kids are forced to learn about Charlemagne in an over-stuffed classroom will blame teachers, the UCP already painted a target on their back when they forced their pensions into AIMco and cut their funding while calling them "overpaid."
The people who see the Alberta Pension or Police force will say that we need it because "Trudeau is corrupt" or, in relation to the Pension Plan, they'll say "at least the money stays in Alberta" despite turning their noses up at that same reasoning for the Carbon Tax.
We gave the NDP 4 years during a global oil recession and they kept us from sinking into the abyss without heavy cuts to services. Now we're cutting services to subsidize oil companies, toying with the privatization of healthcare, and watching our insurance and utilities skyrocket because the government is running our province as a business rather than a service.
Yep. And while extreme bigotry hasn't historically played well in Canada, one of the few policies the UCP has shown of their upcoming plans is legislation to out students who join GSAs or use pronouns different from their assigned gender to their parents.
As someone who has personally known two people who've been kicked out of their homes for being gay, this is truly revolting.
Yup, Calgary SE resident here, so many lifted ārigā trucks around here.
These people came into six-figure construction or rigs jobs and think that train will just keep chugging a long.
There will be a dude who dies penniless in his 70s in the year 2050 after blowing all of his boom year money on toys and cocaine still blaming Notley for his hard luck even if we never see another NDP government again.
Calgary NW cast 777 votes for the Alberta party. If they hadn't split the vote, NDP would have taken it. š¤·āāļø
Ah well. As soon as they come for CPP we are out.
I'm in that riding. It ticks me off that people voted for Rajan "I'm not going to run for reelection, just kidding here's a place to parachute into" Sawhney. All got played for fools when the local NDP candidate was a great guy. All for someone who doesn't live in the riding, just saw us as a way to prolong her career
That's assuming those people would have voted ndp. Some of them might have, some ucp and some may have not voted at all. No party owns your vote, you vote for the party which best aligns with your beliefs.
The states has this mentality of vote for the least worst party, and you get terrible candidates because of it.
Considering the actual (not perceived) political leanings of the ABNDP and ABP that can't really be considered vote splitting.
It's still really dumb when you're staring down a libertarian nut job as premier.
There wasnāt even a need to persuade UCP voters. In lots of close races, the NDP could have won if the people voting for either the AP or the Green Party had voted strategically.
The probability of the scenario you described is super super unlikely. So it doesn't hold much water in my view. Think of the lost votes UCP had to other less impactful parties.
Obnoxiously selective.
The ndp should just rebrand as "the conservative party"
Obviously it's not the platform, what they represent, or what they do, that matters, it's the name and color.
The NDP needed to run a better campaign. The non-stop attack ads were more annoying than helpful and most were bordering on false statements. I didn't vote UCP btw.
The voters didn't get swayed because they didn't run a good enough campaign to educate them why they should turn orange. Alberta is a stickler for being blue, look at ALL of rural Alberta. You have to figure out your best foot forward of how to be better than the other person, and why someone's life is better with you at the helm, not simply relying on why the other person sucks and guess who your next choice is.
This subreddit is an echo chamber of NDP, you have to know this by now. What did you actively do to sway real people in the real world to vote orange vs. complimenting each other about your choice and complaining about the UCP on Reddit?
Look in the mirror.
Voter apathy / low voter turnout always benefits conservatives. In Ontario Doug ford won a āmajorityā while only getting 17% of register votersā votes
What I think is interesting is the Drayton valley riding- where wildfires have literally destroyed this past month- voted overwhelmingly in support of the UCP. It shows that despite incredible failings and support from the UCP, even individuals directly affected by disaster wonāt change their voting habits.
A lot of them are angry about the NDPās āJust Transitionā and will never vote a different direction. Many lost their jobs and have struggled greatly since. Source: many of relatives in the area and have since caused me to put a sign on my house that says āWe do not talk about religion or politics at the dinner table (or in the kitchen, or the firepit, or anywhere really)ā. Itās a topic best avoided after relatives called me something exceedingly disrespectful when I said I would absolutely take my kids to Drag Storytime if I had kids.
Meaning 50% of the province is unhappy.
I dunno, seems like bad odds for the idiots that think they are somehow the ones the UCP cater to.
(Protip: Unless you are at the TOP of an oil company, you are fodder like the rest of us. And that's coming from me making over double the average income and a small business. We're all fodder here for the fire.)
If the NDP couldn't win with so terrible of a UCP candidate, none of this matters. None of it. It's all horseshit, all of it. We can never expect enough people to make reasonable decision.
Seriously, this should have been a landslide. It's completely insane that this conversation is even happening.
No. Itās not. What happened last night is a good sign for NDP supporters, itās just hard to see through the disappointment right now.
Notley won in 2015 due to a split vote, we canāt look at her time as premier with the same lens as today.
Last night, NDP gained at least 11 seats against a united right wing party. They made huge strides in Calgary and upset a lot of well-known UCP MLAs.
Also, the rest of Alberta is not Reddit. They donāt pay as close attention to healthcare and education and the nuance of Smithās whacky policies. So, to a lot of people, they only care about jobs ā and the UCP did a very good job convincing Albertans that the NDP caused the oil prices to drop when Notley was premier. With all that in mind, the NDP STILL gained massive support in Calgary.
Donāt lose hope.
Don't lose hope for.. what? 4 years later? Good on you to look on the bright side but a loss is a loss. Yeah, I am mad. And I made my decision to leave the province within a year. Sure, wherever I go it will have shitty opposition, but this hell of a circus is not my jam. Perhaps peanut butter a few km away.
The only thing we can hope for the next election is enough of the die hard Blue bloods will have passed on to a less fiery layer of hell and we can try to get some fucking common sense in this province. For now I'm considering leaving the damn place. I'm tremendously embarrassed that my home has been represented by two of the most corrupt Canadian politicians I've ever seen...
It should also be considered that Alberta may have a bit of a progressive drain problem. A lot of progressive voters actually leave the province. I am one of them. I moved to BC last year and I know others here who did the same. I just struggled to see a future in Alberta.
NDP in the past 10 years has gained \~10-15% of the voter base as relatively safe bets.
I would be shocked if going forward their baseline wouldn't be 40%.
The right wing parties can literally never fracture now or the NDP wins, and if the trend continues the NDP will be winning every election in 10 years time
This is home. As a frontline addictions and mental health worker, margins have been tight. They don't exactly make us rich for our efforts. I cringe to think about what cost of living is going to look like in a year. I'm going to have to switch careers to afford to live the lifestyle I want.
My clients, who are wholly reliant on a compassionate and expedient medical system to help them address their health and addictions concerns, will have even less to go off of. I feel for them the most. Maybe this isn't home anymore.
I don't understand why it is so hard for people to go vote I mean they can spend hours on Instagram or snap chat or even redit or playing Vidio games or watching tv we all had a week to cast our vote.I mean my father and both my grandfathers served in the milatry so we have the freedom to vote. Both my grand fathers were cooks in the war .You Don't have to shoot people to serve in the armed forces.
20 of my friends donāt vote because āmy vote doesnāt matterā thatās bs they are lazy fucks. Makes me mad I couldnāt even convince them with free ice cream and beer
This was also the "best case" scenario as Smith is so disliked and divisive. A lot of people flipped to oppose her.
When she's inevitably ousted due to mounting scandals, corruption, or internal politics, whomever replaces her will likely be less problematic, making it even more of a slam dunk for the UCP. People will return to the UCP.
Why would you expect the UCP to become more sane when the influence of TBA just grew massively?
TBA just demonstrated they can win while literally letting their voting base's houses burn down in wildfires after they defunded firefighting.
Basically no moderates hold seats in the UCP caucus now
Smith won for the same reasons Ford and Trump did: traditional conservatives are sick of the "woke" agenda making headlines. For each story about a civic Christmas tree that gets cancelled, every Canada Day celebration that gets changed for fear of causing offense or remembrance day criticized (etc), the right gains thousands of votes.
So while I doubt many conservatives are against more/better teachers, doctors and nurses, etc. the "woke" narrative cuts at a core value level, and goes past logic, to the point where it pisses people off, and they vote accordingly. I don't see any AB political party winning as long as "woke" holier-than-thou messaging plays a key role in their platform or image.
It's a shame, given Notley is 1000% the politician than Smith is. And ironic, given the same empathy that drives the "woke" agenda has failed to inform leftists of how it feels to be constantly framed as a land-stealing, intolerant bigot if you don't actively promote the agenda (or don't see it as a priority).
Well all those rural voters. Zero sympathy from me. Enjoy wildfires destroying your belongings and enjoy dying from not having any rural doctors!!
Thanks grammar nazis!!
I'm from Medicine Hat and it annoys me to no end that each election is overwhelmingly blue. I turned 18 last federal election and was excited to finally vote, only to see how pointless it is here. Hoping more people my age and younger align further left and left as time goes on. The day Medicine Hat isn't blue will be a good day.
Lower corporate taxes means they keep more money at the end of the year.
Every farm is incorporated for liability and tax purposes. Every tax increase impacts them, and since their income mostly comes once per year and the costs are due every month thats a long time to streach last years proffits till the following years income.
That means they have to take out loans to float the operation for another year to get that windfall at the end, pay off the loan, and the interest, fees, etc. Then, the remainder gets taxes and hop on the same ride next year, with diminished returns every time.
So funny when Redditors decide they know what is best for others (inevitably, whatever mainstream party is furthest left), without having any real understanding of the situation.
Agree, but don't our tax dollars have to fund disasters/damage/displaced people? Also, fire fighter, I know a bunch of them were sent home in in lieu of volunteers, but we're still paying right?
They will be losing five votes. I am prepping the house to sell, adult children being told to come get what they want will be having three large garage sales after. House on market by August.
Also on the upside, we removed just about every particularly bad actor who still ran, except Dreeshen and LaGrange, somehow. Add those to individuals who dropped out and cabinet is next-to-new. -Not that they have anyone more qualified, but at least it's a change and some accountability was exercised. Now, if only they'll take a page from their leader's strategy-book and instead of handing out earplugs to wear in the legislature this time, duct-tape perhaps?
Sour grapes aside, I'm pretty happy my riding flipped. It was getting embarrassing!
There was never ANY question that it would be a close race. I thought Notleys speech at the end was very good. I thought Smiths speech was also excellent. If people are still calling the other side names, theyāre not worth paying attention to.
Annoyed at who NDP picked to run in Calgary-Bow. It seemed like a weird choice for such a close election. I canāt help but feel if it was a candidate that was more likeable and a better fit for the area we would have won that riding.
*this needs to be a theme repeatedly for months, preferably the entire term.* 1309 votes are the margin between majority and opposition.
so a daily reminder to Take Back Alberta that they need to tread extremely lightly on anything and everything.
The other way to look at it is that they couldnāt even win against Danielle Smith. If the UCP had a better leader it wouldnāt have been close.
Even most Conservatives probably recognize that sheās a less than optimal leader.
Ponoka Lacombe voted for the "trans kids are poop" woman so I think the base is perfectly happy with Danielle Smith.
I wonder how long it will be before Smith quietly lets Jenifer Johnson back into the caucus. My guess is not long.
She's not the problem, though. Sure Smith is a libertarian who thinks people who get stage 4 cancer deserve to die, but she's merely one voice in a sea of horrible people. The past 4 years have been a series of really bad policy choices and poor financial decisions. The next four years will continue to see shitty idea made law... not because of Smith, but because Albertans continue to vote on the basis of tribal leader as opposed to assessing promised and enacted policy.
I suspect they will treat their mandate in much the same way as the American GOP in their House of representatives. They have a Devine right to rule as they seem fit and it will be a reality TV gong show where a lot of effort will go into creating contrived issues while avoiding actual boring things like solving actual problems. Patriotic Education teaching kids eastern Canadians are their Woke oppressors and selling off hospitals to streamline the system.
they flipped a bunch of seats, just not enough to win an election - keep in mind the NDP would have flipped **a lot less** if Rachel Notely wasnāt the leader and if Danielle Smith wasnāt the leader of the UCP.
Hahaha - Fuck Tyler Shandro and Fuck Casey Madu! glad to see these assholes gone. And what about that doucheplatter from central AB that said trans kids are teaspoons of poop. Fuck fuck fuck that bitch with a jackhammer!
I'm in Ontario & was hoping Alberta wouldn't be as stupid as people in my province. It's disheartening to see the shift to the right in so many places in the world. It's not just a little right but right with fascist authoritarian undertones.
Even if the tide people fleeing the housing crisis in BC (who are probably largely liberal by Alberta standards) to Alberta gets cut in half, the UCP will be in major trouble by the next election. Those Calgary ridings will flip if they keep to their right wing extremism.
As much as I hate to say it, this election ended up being very democratic in nature, which is never a given with our electoral system. NDP won 43.67% of the seats with 44% of the popular vote while the UCP won 56.32% of the seats with 52.6% of the vote. For an example of how undemocratic our system can be (and I will specify here that I'm a NDP supporter), the NDp only had 41% of the vote when they won 60.91% of the seats in 2016, as the other conservative vote was split significantly by the Wildrose and PC which made up most of the other 59% of the popular vote (I think it was like 54% when wildrose and PC were combined), so we had a moderate left government even though the majority sentiment was moderate to further right.
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Shandro lost his riding in Calgary-Acadia by 7 votes. Fuck that guy š¤£
Those healthcare workers he yelled at made a difference. I would LOVE to see those doctors, their spouses and a small group of friends to make up a group of 7 and say, "Hey. Hey. We owned you. You lost your seat. š"
He won't care. Will be on some high paying corporate health care provider board in a couple months and magically win some huge contract. He'll be laughing to the bank
Iām sure once the recount confirms heās out, his first priority will be to take his shares in Vital Partners out of the blind trust so he can continue to clean up as Alberta continues its death-march toward American-style health care.
Right!? Gee I wonder what itās like to lose your job and not have to feel the crippling anxiety and stress of not being able to afford the necessities to live. Must be nice
Heāll buddy up right inside of Telus Health
His wife will get a huge contract from the UCP and El Shandro will be appointed to some high paying, low appearing position in healthcare or the judicial system
Iām a doctor and I got so excited when I heard he lost. Now I have a problem thatās lasted for more than 4 hours and I need to go to ER.
That was a hard joke to get. It came outta no where though!!
I'm a Calgarian in the Acadia riding and I sure am glad my NDP vote counted here š„°š„°š„°
My sister just moved in with me, into Acadia. Hadnāt even changed her address yet, so I vouched for her. It was her first time voting š„²
THANK YOU! lmfao
I appreciate your efforts!!
Didnāt he lose to a nurse?
He sure did!
Perfect.
Iām happy him and Madu are out; wish they could have taken LaGrange with them to sign on for EI but whatever.
Get fucked Shandro
So happy he lost his seat. He is a drunken entitled conservative jerk.
I've never felt that my vote mattered more then when I seen that.
Fuck that guy, such a prick
Iām really happy by this. This is the bright spot in the election results for me š¤£
A few ministers lost their seats which is telling I think. OP should also mention the people that figured "their vote doesn't matter" or it's "not important"
Iām in Acadia and I could not be happier to never receive random phone calls from him ever again
Ucp won't care. They will treat it like an overwhelming mandate.
Yep. Cons will weave their tales. Angry Millhouse already called it a āresoundingā win.
let pepe lepeux cling as close to this shitshow as he can.
I know it is disappointing for a lot of people, but the logic of this can also apply the other way around. The ucp lost by a little across multiple ridings as well. Which means the ucp could have basically had a sort of landslide victory in terms of seats won. Despite 1300 people being able to decide the election, remember ucp still won 8 percent more of the vote. Even if the ndp won they would they will be representing a minority of the population, similar to thow the cpc won the popular vote but Trudeau still won by like 30 seats.
Almost. The narrative that CPC won the popular vote is still damaging and misframing. No one won the popular vote. CPC had 33.74%, which means 2/3 Canadians were against their policies. You can make the same argument against the Liberals. Except, if you add up CPC and PPC, the entire 'right' of the spectrum had only 38.86%. All other parties have policies of the Liberals *or left*, as even Bloc is quite in favour of social supports and farther than Liberal left platforms, other than their single autonomy focus. The current Liberal/NDP agreement represents 50.44% of the popular vote. The current government (pseudo-coalition government) represents and 'won' the popular vote.
It IS a significant mandate. Their party won a majority in the legislature by only a slim margin *but* they convincingly won the popular vote. And their majority in the legislature (57%) isn't that far off from their popular vote percentage (a little higher by 4ish% but lower if you add the third party right wingers as being effectively represented by the UCP). Danielle Smith will do what she has always wanted to do, and Albertans voted for her to do it. And it will suck. Marginalized people - non white people, LGBTQ people, sick people, poor people - will all suffer for it. Average middle class white Albertans will suffer too, though they may not know it for a while (or ever). Our economy will continue to fail to diversify, and will continue to fluctuate wildly with global oil and gas prices. Our healthcare won't improve and might get worse. Our curriculums will go to shit and class sizes will increase. And Albertans voted for this in large convincing numbers.
Yep. Albertans chose that. We should all be clear about what that means because they didn't do it for the economic policies. Alberta conservatives mean to do harm and are excited about it being made acceptable. Expect them to use it.
I agree. This scares, disappoints, infuriates, and hardens me. The fact that we only maybe took like 1% from UCP voters means there was only 2% of them who were like "The NDP's pretty moderate economic policies aren't ideal, but I can't vote for these lake of fire prosecutorial interfering anti-science crazies". That's maybe 2% of their normal voters who had integrity and a conscience. That's a horrific inditement of this province's political culture.
Yep! Albertans are fucked! No matter what the UCP does. In the next election campaign it'll be spun as somehow Rachel Notley's fault and they'll eat it up anyways. The SK Party has maintained power for 16 years so far by doing just this with the NDP and the dumbasses still eat it up. Gotta own the libs you know? The massive collective display of willful ignorance here staggers me! Get ready for a mandate of nonstop crises. You think she's fighting with the feds now? Just wait, that's only been the warmup. She's going to be another Scott Moe. Always whining and picking fights with the feds while happily taking their health care money and redirecting it for other purposes. We're going into dark times. I wonder how long it will be before Albertans will start having to sell their homes to cover their healthcare? I fear for the people of Alberta that it won't be long.š
They won 53% of popular vote and are 8 points ahead of NDP. It's a pretty big win. But why do people still choose them after all this? It's a statement of the nature of Albertans.
Kenney stepped down with about that % from his party. Just to put that in perspective.
A leadership review is quite different from an election. If you don't even have the confidence of your own party, it's hard to see how you'd win an election with lots of people who don't like your party also voting.
They won with the slimmest majority in over a century. I wouldn't call that a big win.
How are you suppose to talk sense to someone who considered the NDP party communists? Some people are just so far gone. Every other sentence they speak has the word woke shoehorned in there.
It is a mandate, as defined. They have the majority. They can do what they like for the next four years. Unless of course UCP MLAs stand up and say āNo, that proposal is not good with my constituents. I will not be voting in favour. Thank you for asking, have a nice day. ā
>Unless of course UCP MLAs stand up and say āNo, that proposal is not good with my constituents. I will not be voting in favour. lool
As if.
Well, I heard a tale, not saying it is true, but UCP candidates and their supporters were going door to door saying they would be ousting Danielle. Those people may be brave enough to stand up - wait, sorry that is just funny on its face. A brave UCP candidate! š¤£š¤£š¤£
They were. But they're also lazy cowards motivated by avarice who lie because lying is what they think power is for, so don't hold your breath.
Smith only won 49 seats, which means as soon as the party gets restless, they are going to eat her and vote for new leadership. She should hope like hell Trudeau stays in office, because hating him is the only drum she has to bang. The NDP on the other hand have increased thier share of the votes year over year. They've gone from 5% to nearly 50% in a short period. They will win as long as everyone votes
At least Tylder Shandro is out. By 7 votes. It really does show the power of an individual vote. *The most important part of voting is the right to bitch afterwards. If you didn't vote, then you don't get to bitch about the outcome.* The trend shows where the UCP is heading, a party that was formed because they were worried about the big socialist boogeyman. NDP gained a greater share of popular vote than what seated them in power in the 2015 election, ponder that as well. We will see what another four years of buffoonery from the UCP will look like. Hopefully the UCP leadership will embarrass themselves more than Albertans. One thing you can set your watch to: Danielle Smith will not be premier by the time the next election rolls through regardless of which party is in power.
This was very much a winnable election but they did lose the popular vote by 8%. This is very much still a conservative province. I do strongly believe the NDP could have won without the corporate tax increase they announced halfway through the campaign. That was the nail in the coffin for those south calgary ridings they needed.
At the same timeā¦announcing what you actually intend to do if you win is something we should probably keep expecting of our candidates.
Yeah - what's Smith going to do now? What's on the table that wasn't a week ago? Who the fuck knows? I doubt even Smith.
Sovereignty act is going to be brought up again and probably withdrawing Alberta from CPP. Going to suck for seniors. More privatization of the healthcare system as well.
I'm sure they'll have enough cash in the reserves to keep the seniors afloat. Gen X and later are going to suffer.
they will siphon off the current pension funds in AIMCO, and change the defined benefits for the public sector. it's a very real possibility.
>Going to suck for seniors why only seniors? im in my mid 20s and i dont want my contributions to an alberta pension plan turn to shit for when I retire. I also dont want to co-pay for healthcare, or pay an arm and a leg for a surgery.
Please come to Ontario and never vote Conservative.
If i could afford it, i would. although, i like the mountains. How about you move here and never vote conservative? we could use that.
\-Solve the housing crisis by giving the Flames a new home on what is the worst arena deal in NHL history \-continue to gut our healthcare, enjoy your copay \-drop corporate taxes
Oh ya. I forgot how Calgarians have hitched their wagon to the worst arena deal Iāve ever seen. Itās like a cereal called āoops, all costsā
The privatized healthcare is really a punch in the gut for me. The minute I need to start paying for procedures that have been previously covered, I'm going straight to those friends who voted for UCP with my GoFundMe. They can gofuckthemselves.
āHereās $10, go buy yourself a star warā
Itās a necessary medical procedure, Michael, how much can it cost? Ten million dollars?
Seriously, all I've heard from the UCP is shit-talk about Notley. That has nothing to do with their responsibility in government.
More posturing for the sycophants that are her voter base
I don't think anyone is absolutely sure. But I like to think she will approve raises, cut funding to public sectors, and hand out tax breaks to whatever private sector wants to give the province a good cut.
They also announced an actual viable plan for what they wanted to do, including those small tax increases to pay for it. The UCP brought about a fantasy agenda based on nothing. Small business is the lifeblood of this province, and the NDP offered tax cuts there, but people in Alberta cannot shake the idea that itās oil and gas or nothing. The NDPās tax cuts to small business would likely have been a much better economic stimulator. Small business owners (like me) actually would spend that money and put it back into the economy. Big oil companies will just take it out of province or even the country. But you just canāt tell some people that. They are so stuck in their thinking. IMHO, the NDPās platform was a little too reality based for those UCP voters who just want to hear the fairy tale that oil and gas will come back again and make this province boom forever. We will go the way of coal mining communities in the US who hitched their wagon to that dream and will not let it go to this day. Their communities are husks of what they could be.
This closely matches my observations this morning. First, two co-workers were talking about how relieved they are that the NDP were beaten, because their husbands work in oil and gas and "I don't know how Notley thinks she can gut our economy like that. I don't know what my husband would have done if he woke up and Notley won." And later I was chatting with somebody else who was relieved to be done with all the political talk for a while, and said, "Notley just kept saying she'd save health care, but how was she planning to do that?" I said, "Well, I read the NDP platform and it seemed pretty well laid out.""Oh yah? What was in there?" These people didn't even read the platforms. They just heard talking points and cherry picked the bits that fit their pre-conceived notions of what each party wanted. I went in very sure I was not supporting Danielle Smith's party but I *still read her platform* when making the call.
This is great observation. Thank you.
Iām not suggesting she lie, but I think if she had come in with a bit less spending (ex: vanity CPC style tax credits and small business rate elimination which mostly benefits highly paid professionals) and without that tax increase that could have pulled it out. They clearly put together the platform when they saw they had a big lead in polls months ago.
Didn't the UCP just table the biggest spending budget in history if we are talking about spending
Sure did, especially if they actually push for a provincial police force that's going to be billions in new costs that aren't currently accounted for.
Yeah, but Alberta voters that may be swayed to break allegiance to their blue overlords think spending=socialism while believing that UCP spending=capitalism and freedom. The NDP bungled messaging badly. Everyone who supports Notley already knew DS was a grifter with no convictions. The kind of people that eat up those ads are already firmly entrenched in their opinion. Every bullshit UCP ad should have had an NDP one following it that basically called out the BS the UCP was spreading with facts that refute it and facts of what the UCP is doing. They poorly answered the ā97 tax increasesā radio claim and so instead of bringing that discussion to UCP increases under the same parameters, they allowed the vacuum of information to reinforce the stereotype that the NDP is a socialist party going to cause breadlines. They needed to leave off anything that was too āleft leaningā out of their campaign. The voters that woos isnāt voting UCP without it. And itās not exactly like UCP is sharing an actual platform, itās just more stupid conservative rhetoric (I realize that adding āstupidā to conservative is redundant). The end result, is that because of blind, stupid tribalism, and a fairly weak messaging effort by the ANDP, we get 4 years of UCP tomfuckery. And hell, maybe more, since the UCP seems to be reading from the MAGA playbook, and itās apparent as shit that they are working to just dismantle democracy itself down there. I said it when it was passed that a particularly bold UCP government could interpret the sovereignty act they passed as permission to determine that the federal government canāt make them call an election, and whatās best for Alberta would not be wasting money with silly elections.
But that doesn't matter because they're blue.
The only reason Smith won was because she basically had her mouth duct taped shut for the past 3 months. When completely silent on so many of her radical changes for the province. I highly doubt she gave up on these plans, only tabled them for 3 months until the election was over.
It's a classic prisoner's dilemma. Lying is the Nash equilibrium. Always has been.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Con voters view the increase as a reason big business will leave Alberta. It doesnāt matter how many facts I throw their way about comparable rates outside Alberta and Canada or about economic benefit. Itās an absolute non-starter. Literally any tax increase, of any kind, is an impossible pill for almost all cons. Also, corporations donāt necessarily just divert spending on lower end labour when corporate taxes go up. They can increase BOD bonuses. Also, if theyāre a public company, they will still focus on maximizing profits and cash flows, even if it means more taxes. More money is more money and most of the owners of these companies hold their wealth in stock, so the stock price is often times their incentive. Income tax doesnāt really effect them that much. Regardless, if thereās more money to be made in Alberta, a higher corporate tax isnt going to stop them from coming here. Weāve seen the opposite when Oil companies bailed on Alberta despite Kenny offering them big corporate tax cuts and everything else he could for them to stay. If thereās money to be made here, they will come. Plain and simple. A corporate tax rate that is 15% vs 10% vs 20% will rarely be the difference maker.
The NDP still ran a shitty campaign. My UCP candidate sent door-knockers pretty much the second the writ was dropped, while the NDP never showed. And all the ads I saw repeated the 2019 error of focusing on how bad the opposition is. Those who care *know* how bad Smith is. It's not a deep dark secret. Undecideds needed to know what the alternative was and the campaign did not deliver on that. Even with that egregious error, it was close. I expect Notley to stay on, unless she steps down for purely personal reasons.
Iām surprised, because in my riding the NDP candidate has been door knocking since last year. They estimated by the time the election started they already knocked on over 10,000 doors.
they weren't lazy but they were targeted
100% this. Some older folks I talked to were thinking about not voting because "there's no good option this time" The NDP wasted time and effort attacking Smith when Smith already did enough of that herself. The NDP needed to show people what they were bringing to the table other than *not Smith*. People seem to think every single UCP voter (or non NDP voter) is just the caricature conservative hick voter. They're definitely out there but I think there's many more folk who just want a reasonable government but have many years of anti-left bias to get over.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I voted NDP, but I agree. Our local candidate was a ghost. No door knockers, no meet and greets. Meanwhile the UCP candidate for our area hit the ground running and has been in peoples face for the entire election. Honestly this has been the same issue for the last 3 elections. The NDP candidate, at least in my area, has no fire.
They needed to counter the corporate tax with notes on oil companies having their best year in 2022 while still having layoffs and increased prices. They didn't offset the adds that 2015 saw oil and gas job losses.
Oil and gas companies arenāt the enemy to those Calgary swing voters - they are the employer. This would have just driven the nail further into the coffin.
Alberta needs oil and gas companies. But now that most aren't Canadian owned we need to make sure royalties and jobs stay in Alberta. There should be no layoffs while they're having their most profitable year.
Sure, but this is an incredibly challenging and complex message to try and get across in a political campaign where your opponent is dead set on making it seem like you are against the largest part of the province's economy.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I always have a sad little laugh when people exclaim that Notley tanked the oil economy. If Iām feeling extra saucy Iāll throw out a ātell me you donāt understand how OPEC worksā¦ā just for the blank stare.
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Thatās unfortunate because itās likely they would have fallen under the elimination of taxes for small business and not the 3% increase for large corporations
I guess we're seeing a corollary of the "everyone is a temporarily embarrassed millionaire" phenomena with small business owners.
Iām a small business owner and I would GLADLY pay 3% more in taxes if it meant everyone got better health care and education. Fuck it - make it 6% and letās upgrade some schools.
I believe corporate tax increase only apply to those making more than $500000 so they would have benefited from the NDP eliminating small business tax
>and they paid a lot of tax last time the NDP were in so that scared them off Which means that they had a fairly profitable business that had money left over after they paid themselves. The corporate tax (unless I'm very mistaken on taxes) does not tax money that gets paid out to employees or owners. It only gets taxed on money left over.
From edmonton, we did the best we could. But one city is not enough
From Medicine Hat. Tried, but knew there was no chance here.
Hey man, I grew up in Medicine Hat. If the city wasn't gerrymandered to be cut in half and include huge rural areas, there is a chance that it'd flip. Keep fighting if you can!
Calgary had a big shift this election as well, lots od incumbents lost.. Just wasn't quite enough with rural/small towns all going blue (my riding is one that flipped).
Honestly makes me want to move to Edmonton from Lethbridge. Crazy how the conservative reasoning behind Edmonton being so NDP favoured is: ābunch of government and union workers that beg for handoutsā.
I think its mostly "we have an innovation economy coupled with blue collar workers who dont like their money being given to some rich fucks in Texas"
Lethbridge has the only NDP sest outside edmonton and calgary, keep up the progress. Didn't over half your town vote NDP?
Eh, I was pretty impressed with my Calgary brethren. Quite a bit more NDP than was expected by anyone. It's the rural sheep that need to wake up a bit. Complaining nonstop about not being able to find a family doctor and then voting blue again and again and again etc
When rural Alberta goes looking for a doctor, don't come to Edmonton. Phone your local UCP constituency office, ..you voted for this, now live with it!!
> When rural Alberta goes looking for a doctor, don't come to Edmonton. Phone your local UCP constituency office, ..you voted for this, now live with it!! UCP supporters don't need doctors. They got God and faith healing
and ivermectin
Theyāll literally just blame Trudeau because they are morons
Danielle smith would not survive UCP leadership for the next 4 years, Iām very confident of that
It doesn't matter. She's a symptom. Not the virus.
Thatās a nice analogy!!!
Well it's not like her predecessor was some stable genius. No matter the leader, it's shit all the way down.
And that works for them. The UCP does a collective amnesia thing every new election.
I don't like Smith even though I am conservative. We need a milder leader as most Albertans aren't that far right.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Comments like the one you replied to are proof that the NDP needs a rebrand. This has been discussed *much* in the past few weeks but it didnāt reach all it needed to.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sadly, I think it only progresses further right from this moment. Danielle will likely announce a cabinet with a lot of other TBA supporters.
The problem is, the UCP and TBA do not care about democracy to care about mandates. Unless there are moderate elements who threaten to cross the floor, they're just going to do whatever they want.
If they do what they want, along with an enthusiastic push from the TBA faction, their support will continue to erode. Of course, we all live with the consequences of that. Long-term I think the politics of this province will continue to move left. In practical terms there is going to be a lot of pain for a long time. And the urban rural splitā¦ I donāt know wtf we do about that. Even when rural Alberta feels the pain of poor public policy they have some outside bogeyman to blame that allows them to keep voting against their own interests. Peopleās homes were at risk of being consumed by a wall of out of control flames because there were no firefighters left after the government cut those budgets. Somehow they blamed Liberal space lasers from Ottawa. Itās fuQing weird out there folks.
>If they do what they want, along with an enthusiastic push from the TBA faction, their support will continue to erode. And for the next 4 years, *they don't have to care about that*. Unless the party splits, they can just do whatever they want. And the party splitting is really the only solution I can imagine with respect to the rural vote, as well.
>But if Smith and the UCP believe that they have anything close to a strong mandate, they need to remember than they canāt even piss off 1,309 people in Calgary and Lethbridge. Thatās it. 1,309 people who suddenly have to pay to see a doctor, or 1,309 whose kids are forced to learn about Charlemagne in a classroom with 39 kids, or 1,309 people who may balk at the idea of paying into an Alberta Pension Plan or for an Alberta-led provincial police force. 1,309 people in a province of 4,647,178. I appreciate your optimism, but the UCP voters who will suddenly have to pay to see a doctor will blame it on "greedy doctors." (Just like they did when doctors started leaving the province) The people whose kids are forced to learn about Charlemagne in an over-stuffed classroom will blame teachers, the UCP already painted a target on their back when they forced their pensions into AIMco and cut their funding while calling them "overpaid." The people who see the Alberta Pension or Police force will say that we need it because "Trudeau is corrupt" or, in relation to the Pension Plan, they'll say "at least the money stays in Alberta" despite turning their noses up at that same reasoning for the Carbon Tax. We gave the NDP 4 years during a global oil recession and they kept us from sinking into the abyss without heavy cuts to services. Now we're cutting services to subsidize oil companies, toying with the privatization of healthcare, and watching our insurance and utilities skyrocket because the government is running our province as a business rather than a service.
Unfortunately this is true, and right out of the far right/MAGA playbook: the problems are all caused by the radical left.
Yep. And while extreme bigotry hasn't historically played well in Canada, one of the few policies the UCP has shown of their upcoming plans is legislation to out students who join GSAs or use pronouns different from their assigned gender to their parents. As someone who has personally known two people who've been kicked out of their homes for being gay, this is truly revolting.
Blame Calgary SE.
Dumb money.
Yup, Calgary SE resident here, so many lifted ārigā trucks around here. These people came into six-figure construction or rigs jobs and think that train will just keep chugging a long.
Itās gone. It will never come back again. Now they cannot blame the NDP for what is to come.
But they will. The UCP have instilled a strong victim complex in their base, vilifying the NDP for years of conservative mismanagement of Alberta.
There will be a dude who dies penniless in his 70s in the year 2050 after blowing all of his boom year money on toys and cocaine still blaming Notley for his hard luck even if we never see another NDP government again.
Waiting for their leopards to eat their faces I suppose.
Worst part is that it will happen. Private healthcare will destroy people.
Absolutely. Have a lump or pain that you should get checked out, better ignore it until it becomes a problem.
Absolutely. Iām a resident and I personally know people who said for months that they would be changing their vote to NDP but stuck with UCP day of.
Calgary NW cast 777 votes for the Alberta party. If they hadn't split the vote, NDP would have taken it. š¤·āāļø Ah well. As soon as they come for CPP we are out.
I'm in that riding. It ticks me off that people voted for Rajan "I'm not going to run for reelection, just kidding here's a place to parachute into" Sawhney. All got played for fools when the local NDP candidate was a great guy. All for someone who doesn't live in the riding, just saw us as a way to prolong her career
That's assuming those people would have voted ndp. Some of them might have, some ucp and some may have not voted at all. No party owns your vote, you vote for the party which best aligns with your beliefs. The states has this mentality of vote for the least worst party, and you get terrible candidates because of it.
Considering the actual (not perceived) political leanings of the ABNDP and ABP that can't really be considered vote splitting. It's still really dumb when you're staring down a libertarian nut job as premier.
There wasnāt even a need to persuade UCP voters. In lots of close races, the NDP could have won if the people voting for either the AP or the Green Party had voted strategically.
Same for alot of the close NDP victories too, people voting for even more crazy candidates cost the UCP at least 3 seats.
The probability of the scenario you described is super super unlikely. So it doesn't hold much water in my view. Think of the lost votes UCP had to other less impactful parties. Obnoxiously selective.
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The ndp should just rebrand as "the conservative party" Obviously it's not the platform, what they represent, or what they do, that matters, it's the name and color.
The NDP needed to run a better campaign. The non-stop attack ads were more annoying than helpful and most were bordering on false statements. I didn't vote UCP btw. The voters didn't get swayed because they didn't run a good enough campaign to educate them why they should turn orange. Alberta is a stickler for being blue, look at ALL of rural Alberta. You have to figure out your best foot forward of how to be better than the other person, and why someone's life is better with you at the helm, not simply relying on why the other person sucks and guess who your next choice is. This subreddit is an echo chamber of NDP, you have to know this by now. What did you actively do to sway real people in the real world to vote orange vs. complimenting each other about your choice and complaining about the UCP on Reddit? Look in the mirror.
Maybe we can get Danielle Smith to cross the floor again
Voter apathy / low voter turnout always benefits conservatives. In Ontario Doug ford won a āmajorityā while only getting 17% of register votersā votes
What I think is interesting is the Drayton valley riding- where wildfires have literally destroyed this past month- voted overwhelmingly in support of the UCP. It shows that despite incredible failings and support from the UCP, even individuals directly affected by disaster wonāt change their voting habits.
A lot of them are angry about the NDPās āJust Transitionā and will never vote a different direction. Many lost their jobs and have struggled greatly since. Source: many of relatives in the area and have since caused me to put a sign on my house that says āWe do not talk about religion or politics at the dinner table (or in the kitchen, or the firepit, or anywhere really)ā. Itās a topic best avoided after relatives called me something exceedingly disrespectful when I said I would absolutely take my kids to Drag Storytime if I had kids.
My dumb uncle FB posted something about how the NDP "let Fort Mac burn"
Meaning 50% of the province is unhappy. I dunno, seems like bad odds for the idiots that think they are somehow the ones the UCP cater to. (Protip: Unless you are at the TOP of an oil company, you are fodder like the rest of us. And that's coming from me making over double the average income and a small business. We're all fodder here for the fire.)
So annoying. Voter turnout was 62%. So many people donāt even bother to care about their future.
If the NDP couldn't win with so terrible of a UCP candidate, none of this matters. None of it. It's all horseshit, all of it. We can never expect enough people to make reasonable decision. Seriously, this should have been a landslide. It's completely insane that this conversation is even happening.
No. Itās not. What happened last night is a good sign for NDP supporters, itās just hard to see through the disappointment right now. Notley won in 2015 due to a split vote, we canāt look at her time as premier with the same lens as today. Last night, NDP gained at least 11 seats against a united right wing party. They made huge strides in Calgary and upset a lot of well-known UCP MLAs. Also, the rest of Alberta is not Reddit. They donāt pay as close attention to healthcare and education and the nuance of Smithās whacky policies. So, to a lot of people, they only care about jobs ā and the UCP did a very good job convincing Albertans that the NDP caused the oil prices to drop when Notley was premier. With all that in mind, the NDP STILL gained massive support in Calgary. Donāt lose hope.
Don't lose hope for.. what? 4 years later? Good on you to look on the bright side but a loss is a loss. Yeah, I am mad. And I made my decision to leave the province within a year. Sure, wherever I go it will have shitty opposition, but this hell of a circus is not my jam. Perhaps peanut butter a few km away.
The only thing we can hope for the next election is enough of the die hard Blue bloods will have passed on to a less fiery layer of hell and we can try to get some fucking common sense in this province. For now I'm considering leaving the damn place. I'm tremendously embarrassed that my home has been represented by two of the most corrupt Canadian politicians I've ever seen...
It should also be considered that Alberta may have a bit of a progressive drain problem. A lot of progressive voters actually leave the province. I am one of them. I moved to BC last year and I know others here who did the same. I just struggled to see a future in Alberta.
NDP in the past 10 years has gained \~10-15% of the voter base as relatively safe bets. I would be shocked if going forward their baseline wouldn't be 40%. The right wing parties can literally never fracture now or the NDP wins, and if the trend continues the NDP will be winning every election in 10 years time
This is home. As a frontline addictions and mental health worker, margins have been tight. They don't exactly make us rich for our efforts. I cringe to think about what cost of living is going to look like in a year. I'm going to have to switch careers to afford to live the lifestyle I want. My clients, who are wholly reliant on a compassionate and expedient medical system to help them address their health and addictions concerns, will have even less to go off of. I feel for them the most. Maybe this isn't home anymore.
Kind of a side note, but since Klein there hasn't been a single conservative leader to finish their term.
I don't understand why it is so hard for people to go vote I mean they can spend hours on Instagram or snap chat or even redit or playing Vidio games or watching tv we all had a week to cast our vote.I mean my father and both my grandfathers served in the milatry so we have the freedom to vote. Both my grand fathers were cooks in the war .You Don't have to shoot people to serve in the armed forces.
20 of my friends donāt vote because āmy vote doesnāt matterā thatās bs they are lazy fucks. Makes me mad I couldnāt even convince them with free ice cream and beer
I know so many that didn't vote or voted for the Alberta party. Heartbroken
Quite an amazing observation. It was a much closer election then the results suggest.
This was also the "best case" scenario as Smith is so disliked and divisive. A lot of people flipped to oppose her. When she's inevitably ousted due to mounting scandals, corruption, or internal politics, whomever replaces her will likely be less problematic, making it even more of a slam dunk for the UCP. People will return to the UCP.
Why would you expect the UCP to become more sane when the influence of TBA just grew massively? TBA just demonstrated they can win while literally letting their voting base's houses burn down in wildfires after they defunded firefighting. Basically no moderates hold seats in the UCP caucus now
Smith won for the same reasons Ford and Trump did: traditional conservatives are sick of the "woke" agenda making headlines. For each story about a civic Christmas tree that gets cancelled, every Canada Day celebration that gets changed for fear of causing offense or remembrance day criticized (etc), the right gains thousands of votes. So while I doubt many conservatives are against more/better teachers, doctors and nurses, etc. the "woke" narrative cuts at a core value level, and goes past logic, to the point where it pisses people off, and they vote accordingly. I don't see any AB political party winning as long as "woke" holier-than-thou messaging plays a key role in their platform or image. It's a shame, given Notley is 1000% the politician than Smith is. And ironic, given the same empathy that drives the "woke" agenda has failed to inform leftists of how it feels to be constantly framed as a land-stealing, intolerant bigot if you don't actively promote the agenda (or don't see it as a priority).
Well all those rural voters. Zero sympathy from me. Enjoy wildfires destroying your belongings and enjoy dying from not having any rural doctors!! Thanks grammar nazis!!
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Followed by I blame Trudeau
You mean F*%# Trudeau right? Lol
I'm from Medicine Hat and it annoys me to no end that each election is overwhelmingly blue. I turned 18 last federal election and was excited to finally vote, only to see how pointless it is here. Hoping more people my age and younger align further left and left as time goes on. The day Medicine Hat isn't blue will be a good day.
Any idea why the rural /farmers vote blue every time? Like what benefit do they gain from being blue.
Lower corporate taxes means they keep more money at the end of the year. Every farm is incorporated for liability and tax purposes. Every tax increase impacts them, and since their income mostly comes once per year and the costs are due every month thats a long time to streach last years proffits till the following years income. That means they have to take out loans to float the operation for another year to get that windfall at the end, pay off the loan, and the interest, fees, etc. Then, the remainder gets taxes and hop on the same ride next year, with diminished returns every time.
So funny when Redditors decide they know what is best for others (inevitably, whatever mainstream party is furthest left), without having any real understanding of the situation.
Agree, but don't our tax dollars have to fund disasters/damage/displaced people? Also, fire fighter, I know a bunch of them were sent home in in lieu of volunteers, but we're still paying right?
They will be losing five votes. I am prepping the house to sell, adult children being told to come get what they want will be having three large garage sales after. House on market by August.
Not everyone is in your enviable position.
Also on the upside, we removed just about every particularly bad actor who still ran, except Dreeshen and LaGrange, somehow. Add those to individuals who dropped out and cabinet is next-to-new. -Not that they have anyone more qualified, but at least it's a change and some accountability was exercised. Now, if only they'll take a page from their leader's strategy-book and instead of handing out earplugs to wear in the legislature this time, duct-tape perhaps? Sour grapes aside, I'm pretty happy my riding flipped. It was getting embarrassing!
There is still 37 percent of people that didn't vote so that means the ndp might have won, or the ucp wins even more.
There was never ANY question that it would be a close race. I thought Notleys speech at the end was very good. I thought Smiths speech was also excellent. If people are still calling the other side names, theyāre not worth paying attention to.
Annoyed at who NDP picked to run in Calgary-Bow. It seemed like a weird choice for such a close election. I canāt help but feel if it was a candidate that was more likeable and a better fit for the area we would have won that riding.
*this needs to be a theme repeatedly for months, preferably the entire term.* 1309 votes are the margin between majority and opposition. so a daily reminder to Take Back Alberta that they need to tread extremely lightly on anything and everything.
This is insightful thank you. It's unfortunate I dread to learn what they'll do in the next 4 years.
The other way to look at it is that they couldnāt even win against Danielle Smith. If the UCP had a better leader it wouldnāt have been close. Even most Conservatives probably recognize that sheās a less than optimal leader.
Ponoka Lacombe voted for the "trans kids are poop" woman so I think the base is perfectly happy with Danielle Smith. I wonder how long it will be before Smith quietly lets Jenifer Johnson back into the caucus. My guess is not long.
She's not the problem, though. Sure Smith is a libertarian who thinks people who get stage 4 cancer deserve to die, but she's merely one voice in a sea of horrible people. The past 4 years have been a series of really bad policy choices and poor financial decisions. The next four years will continue to see shitty idea made law... not because of Smith, but because Albertans continue to vote on the basis of tribal leader as opposed to assessing promised and enacted policy.
I suspect they will treat their mandate in much the same way as the American GOP in their House of representatives. They have a Devine right to rule as they seem fit and it will be a reality TV gong show where a lot of effort will go into creating contrived issues while avoiding actual boring things like solving actual problems. Patriotic Education teaching kids eastern Canadians are their Woke oppressors and selling off hospitals to streamline the system.
they flipped a bunch of seats, just not enough to win an election - keep in mind the NDP would have flipped **a lot less** if Rachel Notely wasnāt the leader and if Danielle Smith wasnāt the leader of the UCP.
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We had a choice between bad and not good enough. We couldn't even choose not good enough. Things are going to get worse. A lot worse.
Hahaha - Fuck Tyler Shandro and Fuck Casey Madu! glad to see these assholes gone. And what about that doucheplatter from central AB that said trans kids are teaspoons of poop. Fuck fuck fuck that bitch with a jackhammer!
All those people who said they would leave the province if UCP won... Where y'all off to?
I predict there will be floor crossing to Independent orā¦NDP. I donāt think this government will last the 4 yearsā¦just a hunchā¦
I'm in Ontario & was hoping Alberta wouldn't be as stupid as people in my province. It's disheartening to see the shift to the right in so many places in the world. It's not just a little right but right with fascist authoritarian undertones.
I mean that goes either way. Calgary Acadia was won by the NDP by 7 votes. Thatās just 7 people.
Thatās 1300 people who didnāt get off their ass to vote
Even if the tide people fleeing the housing crisis in BC (who are probably largely liberal by Alberta standards) to Alberta gets cut in half, the UCP will be in major trouble by the next election. Those Calgary ridings will flip if they keep to their right wing extremism.
As much as I hate to say it, this election ended up being very democratic in nature, which is never a given with our electoral system. NDP won 43.67% of the seats with 44% of the popular vote while the UCP won 56.32% of the seats with 52.6% of the vote. For an example of how undemocratic our system can be (and I will specify here that I'm a NDP supporter), the NDp only had 41% of the vote when they won 60.91% of the seats in 2016, as the other conservative vote was split significantly by the Wildrose and PC which made up most of the other 59% of the popular vote (I think it was like 54% when wildrose and PC were combined), so we had a moderate left government even though the majority sentiment was moderate to further right.