It is remarkable by any measure that the Alberta New Democratic Party raised $7.1 million in 2022, not to mention that $3.2 million of that sum was donated during the fourth quarter, and more than a quarter million dollars on the last night of the year.
The NDP’s fund-raising success speaks to deep unhappiness in Alberta – which a lazy New York Times piece about Premier Danielle Smith’s so-called Sovereignty Act described misleadingly as “heavily conservative” – with the United Conservative Party under both former premier Jason Kenney and Ms. Smith.
That’s not to say the next Alberta general election, whenever it takes place, will be a cake walk for the NDP. But there’s no way it will be a slam dunk for the UCP either, especially with Ms. Smith at the helm and the radical Take Back Alberta group tightening its hold on the party and its constituency associations.
Yes, there are important caveats about the opacity of UCP fund-raising, whose constituency associations don’t have to report their fund-raising results until the end of the year thanks to the previous Kenney UCP government’s changes to Alberta election financing laws. (The NDP raises all of its money centrally and reports it each quarter.)
This was undoubtedly done to give the UCP some kind of strategic advantage in fund-raising, although the effect, presumably unintended, seems to have been to establish a narrative that the NDP is raising far more money than the government party and has more momentum as a result.
Still, the UCP probably has more cash on hand that the quarterly reports make it appear.
The UCP will also have effective access to funds from corporate financed, U.S.-style political action committees that, despite the province’s election financing law, obviously co-ordinate their campaigns with the governing party. The upcoming election campaign will make this fact clearer than ever.
Further, the electoral map in Alberta is undoubtedly weighted in favour of conservative parties and politicians, no matter how unpopular they make themselves in large urban areas.
Still, the fact remains the NDP was able to raise more than $7 million, 80 per cent above the UCP’s official reported fund-raising take for all of 2021. Official party fund-raising fourth-quarter 2022 figures for all parties are scheduled to be published by Elections Alberta next month.
Remember, this was in a year when it was still illegal for unions or corporations to make donations to political parties. So this fund-raising success by the NDP can certainly be taken as a powerful indicator of just how strong the desire is among Albertans for a return to former NDP premier Rachel Notley’s more thoughtful approach to governing this supposedly heavily conservative province.
That the NDP could raise $265,000 in a single day, on New Year’s Eve before the drinks really started to flow no less, truly says both that the party has figured out how to do political fund-raising, and the anger, fear and disgust the UCP’s demonstrated incompetence under Mr. Kenney during the pandemic and its bizarre sovereignty-association campaign under Ms. Smith have aroused among many Albertans.
The NDP’s success was driven by small donors. Contributions came from more than 30,000 Albertans, including 3,500 first-time donors.
Opposition Leader Notley’s pitch is tuned to this reality: “Alberta’s NDP will end the chaos in health care, we will take real and long-term measures to address the cost-of-living crisis and we will deliver on an economic strategy that creates good-paying jobs and drives billions in new investment opportunities,” she said in the party’s news release.
Expect to hear more like that during the campaign.
“We have seen a noticeable surge of support since Danielle Smith took office,” noted NDP Provincial Secretary Brandon Stevens in the news release. “It’s clear Albertans are taking a stand against her chaotic and destructive policies.”
Premier Smith was sworn in on Oct. 11 after she was chosen in a party leadership race in which about 3 per cent of Alberta’s electorate voted. Unexpectedly, she has never pivoted away from the radical sovereignty-association and anti-vaccine platform she advocated to the UCP’s far right base when she was seeking the leadership.
Beyond popular disdain for the government’s response to the pandemic and the chaos in the health care system, University of Calgary political scientist Lisa Young argued in a Substack column yesterday that while in Opposition the NDP has engaged in “a disciplined campaign to build the party machine since the 2019 election.”
“Fund-raising has improved each year,” she wrote. “Candidates have been nominated well in advance of the election. This will give the party a presence ‘on the ground’ that it lacked in previous elections.”
Not only that, but the NDP has nominated serious candidates with sound credentials of a sort that were much more difficult to recruit during the party’s many years in the wilderness before Ms. Notley’s unexpected majority victory in May 2015.
Once the election campaign gets officially under way during the 28-day election campaign period expected to begin on May 1, parties will be limited to spending about $3 million, and candidates to about $53,000 each, Dr. Young noted.
“But spending is unlimited before May 1, so residents of Calgary, Lethbridge, Red Deer and a few other places should expect to be bombarded with election advertising for the next four months,” she said.
Voters can also count on the UCP to pull out all the stops to hang onto government, regardless of the inadequacies of their leader. So expect a harshly negative campaign from the government.
All of this, of course, assumes the next Alberta election will take place as scheduled next May 29. As has been said here before, this is not a sure thing if the UCP continues to poll poorly, as changing the province’s fixed-election-date law would require only a majority vote of the Legislature, easy for a majority government.
While leading in the size of their election war chest, it’s concerning that far too many NDP voters are behaving like the next election is a slam dunk. Indeed, it’s the UCP who are not only playing the underdog roles in all this, they have every intention of playing the victims, which is a pretty rich thing for them to do. Ultimately, Rachel Notley has to be very careful: she has to be conservative while all the while doing the right thing in regard to workers’ rights and enhancing those rights. The last time she went this round, it was concerning that she pulled the teeth from her own progressive labor legislation in the face of the outcry from the Idiot Mob. A lot of the damage she did was to herself, in the end.
And there’s the problem that any whiff of cooperation and partnership with Ottawa in any respect will draw the frothing ire of the Alberta sovereigntist crowd and their fevered conspiracy-addled minds. Danielle Smith intends to play the Alberta Uber Alles card again and again because she can. I recent and weird interview posted on Twitter had Smith declaring that she can just create an Alberta Revenue Agency at a whim to immediate effect. Of course, Smith’s claim of complete and intimate knowledge of how taxation works, where in her mind the whole thing is software-based and can be done with the push of a button, shows how facile her arguments really are, moves her into a position of strength by convincing everyone that everything is a simple fix. For the smooth brains out there, simplicity is a drug they can’t resist. It’s at that point that Notley has to push the enormous losses that are coming by breaking the federal system.
What’s Trudeau to do? Fold his arms and let the mayhem unfold. Let Danielle be Danielle and let Alberta bleed.
Funny to me, in a dark way, that the younger Trudeau seems to genuinely care about Albertans, who in return seem to largely wish he didn’t exist (to put it very nicely).
Y’all remember the outrage when Stelmach had a royalty review? Or when DS joined up with the old PCs?
Or her Lake of Fire moment?
JK basically won the last election enflaming equalization resentment.
Even more recently, we recall how easily worked up so many were about “lockdowns”? And vaccines? And “Sovereignty”?
And now there’s inflation! and gasoline taxes!
I propose, like the middle child, we Albertans cry and whine in a self-centered attempt to get attention. And we vote based on moral indignation or prudish propriety more often than any other rationale.
It seems Smith has been working hard lately to convince Albertans that she is not a kook, despite her ideas and who supported her. She can even sound reasonable and convincing at times, but let’s just say this fundraising result shows many Albertans still have some reservations.
Yes, Alberta has a long history of being quite conservative and some parts still are, but to put it in terms even the NY Times might get, so do Arizona and Georgia, the current purple states of the US.
The fundamental problem for Alberta Conservatives is while we like low taxes, we also like nicely paved roads and well run public services. This only works in the fleeting boom part of our boom and bust cycles. When the boom inevitably goes sour, so do the voters on what is not really conservatism, but politicians who promise we can our cake and eat it too.
We have been told before to look in the mirror by past conservatives who faced that sour mood and I think there are more than a few of us who have and have resolved that we won’t be fooled again.
The woman bearing $100 a month payments for some and a fake smile is not going to be as nice after the election when the economy starts to hit turbulence.
Of course we have seen this same thing before with different conservative leaders and it generally seems to end badly. Of course some people still want to believe delusions, but I think many Albertans are looking to get off this ride before Lucy once again takes the ball away just as Charlie Brown tries to get it.
Hi Dave. Re Smith’s pre-election spending spree, some folks will always take “free” money right now, ignoring the need to pay later. Partly that’s greed, but—we need to remember this—lots of people are truly suffering right now, because of crazy-high inflation.
The problem is, the UCP will spend like old-time rig pigs on a tear in town—until the election is over. Who’s gonna pay for all this spending? “We” are, of course. Smith won’t reverse Jason Kenney’s corporate tax cuts. Ordinary folks will be forced to pay more out of pocket, because Smith knows nothing but corporate appeasement; cut taxes, and cut public services to “pay for” the tax cuts.
The people left with the bill will be those least able to pay it.
DJC…..double take….ad , just below the comments area…
picture of a blue ballot box(?) on an American flag, box has Texas printed on it
Election Excellence for HOAs
Election Buddy …..
damn sidewinder like sneaking up on you…..ugh !!!
Why are the UCP so secretive as to who is donating to their party? The UCP has never been known to play by the rules anyways. Nobody has seen the donors list from the former head honcho of the UCP. Where is it?
Given the controversies surrounding the 2019 provincial election in Alberta, with so much fines being levied for those in the UCP camp for not abiding by elections laws, and the R.C.M.P looking at how the former head honcho of the UCP ascended to power, I don’t think the UCP is going to follow any ethics in the next provincial election in Alberta. They will play dirty to try and regain power, which they do not deserve.
The very pricey shenanigans, which have cost Alberta billions and billions of dollars, hasn’t been good. The UCP gave Alberta a astronomical debt, that sits at about $137 billion.
Medical workers were treated like dirt. Skyrocketing insurance, and utility rates. Those on AISH were treated like garbage, with inhumane cuts to their benefits, and the UCP is trying to win back their support, by throwing them a meagre increase, before a pending provincial election. There were deep cuts to our public education system, including the largest layoffs in Canada’s history, with thousands of educational support staff laid off in early 2020. Senior’s benefits were reduced, and much like those struggling on AISH, the UCP gave them increases to those benefits, because a provincial election is looming.
The Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which is much lower in value, than what should be in it, has nothing being added to it. Anything left in it could likely be used for vote buying by the UCP.
Rural Albertans were also not treated right, with the open pit coal mining issue in the Rockies, the orphan well cleanup issue, and with oil companies being allowed to avoid paying property taxes. On top of that, the UCP is adamant about having the R.C.M.P replaced with a made in Alberta police force, and there is staunch opposition to this by leaders of rural municipalities, because of the exorbitant costs they will have to pay for, with even more increases to their municipal tax rates.
Covid-19 case rates in Alberta were often record breaking for the entire country, and even in the whole North American continent.
These pretend conservatives and Reformers take the cake, and there are Albertans who are dumb enough to support them. They were dumb enough to support Ralph Klein, a Liberal turned Reformer, and the damage he did was very bad. We saw very pricey boondoggles, that also cost us billions of dollars. There were very harsh cuts to the public healthcare system in Alberta, which also put people’s lives at risk. Nurses were laid off in droves, and had to take early retirement, or relocate elsewhere. Hospitals were improperly maintained. The public education system in Alberta also faced steep cuts, and so many teachers met the same fate as nurses did. Utility prices went through the roof, through deregulation. Very risky privatization stunts, such as with driver education, increased accidents.
When Peter Lougheed warned us about these pretend conservatives and Reformers, very few listened to what he had to say. Alas, we are paying very dearly for it. This is truly a horrific mess.
Anonymous I certainly agree with you and the facts prove you are right, yet I am furious that rural Albertans are still ignoring what the Reformers have done to us and them and are still supporting them. I spent most of my banking career working and living in rural Alberta and never once thought they were that ignorant, it’s been a deep disappointment to me. Of course this is a different generation which may be the reason. I have been retired for 29 years. Guys like Bret Larson are nothing more than guys who are really easy to fool and reformers and con- artists love them, as our retired RCMP friends state. Lawyer friends are also right. They tell us that when you confront them ask them to give you a list of what Rachel Notley did to them to make them feel that way and watch the stupid look on their faces . They can’t do it . So where is Bret Larson’s list? I ask them to explain how much they are going to be willing to pay towards the orphan wells cleanup mess their pretend conservative heroes dumped in their laps and that certainly shuts them up. Blaming Notley for spending too much money trying to fix the mess she inherited while we watched what Klein, Stelmach and Redford did to us really proved how stupid these fools are. With Ralph Klein when we asked them to give a list of all the wonderful things he had done for them the only thing they could ever come up with was “ He paid off the debt”. Yet when Stelmach took office he pointed out what us bankers already knew. While Klein was paying off the $23 billion debt , he created a $42 billion infrastructure deficit. All these fools have is the lies these reformers feed them, and we know how stupid that makes them look. Smith keeps whining about all the horrible things Ottawa is doing to us , but never offers to explain what they are. Pierre Poilievre is no different and I think eastern Canadians are already turning against him for being such a fool. His popularity is dropping. He will likely end up like Harper, Scheer, and O’Toole. All mouth and no brains a friend calls them. It’s always someone else’s fault.The conservatives in my world find it hilarious how stupid all of them are. Instead of following the intelligence of Peter Lougheed and catering to the majority of the population, like all intelligent politicians do, these fools cater to the losers like criminal convoy truckers, fools promoting the right to bare arms, treat the most important people in our lies doctors, nurses and teachers like dirt and make up stupid lies like the Carbon Tax will financially destroy all us, global warming is not a problem, green energy won’t work, our oil industry is being attacked by foreign corporations, and Ottawa is stealing all our wealth, while they help the rich steal our oil and gas wealth, and they expect us to be dumb enough to believe them because many people do who aren’t any smarter than them. It isn’t hard to understand why our relatives in other provinces think Albertans are damn fools for putting up with this stupidity, yet any of them who vote conservative are no different . These conservative premiers in other provinces are really no different and no smarter. There really are no true conservatives anymore, showing the people dignity and respect like Lougheed did. These fools don’t care.
Never mind a later election, I think we’ll see an early one, with the writ drop coming very soon.
The UCP affiliated PACs dumped their $ on ad buys at the end of 2022 and the best way to prevent the NDP from spending it’s own ample warchest is to go to a spending capped campaign immediately.
With polls showing things neck and neck, already better than most expected for her, expect Smith to use the time-honoured trick of a budget reveal as a campaign kick-off. Folks will be receiving the first of their Dani Dollars around mid to late February, and “vote for me if you want your other $500” is not lacking in incentive.
Nostrildamnus: You may indeed have the powers of Nostradamus, sir. This is a credible scenario, too. DJC
This is an interesting prediction and, I think, more likely than a delay. It’s still risky for Smith, because of the appearance of “Let’s get this over with fast!” However, you can count on some folks to grab at “free” money right NOW, and ignore the risk of higher bills later.
The presence of American-style PACs is a bad sign; I’d really prefer to see them banned completely. Once these things get established, it’s too easy for dark money to overwhelm everything less. We’ll see soon how many Albertans believe the Republican/ libertarian BS so common in the lunatic fringes of the internet.
re: UCP postponing the 2023 election
As we approached the 2019 election I wondered if the NDP might postpone, but then realized how much negative press that would generate, and would no doubt turn swing voters away from the NDP, and could easily have lingering effects in future elections. I think the UCP would be more inclined to not suffering from the same lingering effect because they could point to the wacky leader they had in 2023 and claim to be a different party now, much like we saw Ralph Klein do as he distanced himself from Don Getty.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people that visit this site, and I am wondering if anyone knows of a situation where a party was polling poorly at the 4 year mark, postponed, and then went on to win. Essentially I am wondering if postponing does little more than delay the inevitable.
Yes, Saskatchewan under the final Devine Conservative government hung on to the 5th year and was destroyed as a government and as a party. Generally speaking waiting to the fifth year never works well, unless you can find a Falklands war, or a National Energy Program to run for, or against. Sometimes even immigrant caravans lies don’t work lol. The old hot buttons like godless com muune izzm just fail. Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t wait manure composting smells worse than fresh, and lies are more likely to be exposed the longer the delay. So the more peeved John and Joanie Voter become, and dare I say likely to vote. They may if government supporters also choose to stay home deliberately. Ow!
Governments in Canda that insist on going down to the 5-year wire, almost alway go down to defeat. Federally, there are a couple of good examples in fairly recent (i.e. post-WW II) history:
– Liberals under Pierre Trudeau, 1974-79, beaten by Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark
– Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney, 1988-1993; Mulroney actually stepped down as PC leader & PM, & was replaced by Kim Campbell — who then presided over what was probably the most devastating defeat in Canadian political history, which left the PC Party of Canada with only two (2) seats in the House of Commons
There are probably also numerous examples from provincial electoral history as well.
So, despite the Constitutional upper limit of the life of a Parliament or a provincial legislature being five years, the voters tend to punish governments that cling to power for that fifth year.
Bob, I think Former Albertan is right about how to win a late election, though I’m not historian enough to find an example. More likely, I think, that a party leader, who expects to lose anyway, might delay in order to force through unpopular legislation. This, in hopes the opposition wouldn’t just revoke it as soon as they’re sworn in.
Even an early election is risky. Jim Prentice lost to Rachel Notley, partly because he jumped early. A projected deficit of $7 billion convinced Prentice he should “seek a mandate.” Instead, he was seeking a new job. (Well, “Look in the mirror” and “Math is hard” finished his chances, but the early call irritated lots of Con supporters.)
A recent comment, which I can’t find for the life of me, pointed out that Smith would be better advised to call an early election—right after the provincial budget is approved in February. That will allow her to honk on about how the UCP is generously helping Albertans hit by inflation—but please note, for once Smith is right. People need help. The fact they’re being helped with their own tax dollars is only secondarily a cynical election ploy of the most blatant kind.
The New York Times has been reporting on Alberta’s dissatisfaction over its place in the Canadian federation like forever.
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/27/archives/prosperous-alberta-wants-bigger-voice-province-a-major-oil-producer.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/19/world/an-alberta-district-elects-western-seperatist-to-first-public-office.html
So?
Hi ronmac. Western alienation has been a thing since John A. Macdonald imposed discriminatory freight rates to protect Ontario industries from American competition. (Ironically, the Crow Rate was initially popular with western farmers for lowering shipping costs—but unpopular with the CPR, because it capped freight rates on “settler supplies” coming, and grain exports going. Can’t win ‘em all….)*
Mainstream media has a long-standing habit of trotting out cheap-and-easy formula pieces about “western alienation.” It’s been a time-saver when they need something to “explain” why the prairie provinces are bitching this time.
The “Western Canada Concept” of Peter Lougheed’s day was the first postwar “separatist” noisemaker to get any traction (as per the second NYT item). It fizzled out quickly, when their only MLA lost the next election.
The only difference today is the presence of Twitter, Facebook et al, which are very good amplifiers for extremist views of all sorts. Recent polls have shown that strong support for separatist or anti-Ottawa sentiment is about 20 to 25% in Alberta. The Take Back Alberta (to the 19th Century) and Free Alberta Fantasy crowds will, like the Maverick Party in 2019, be sorely disappointed—and the attention-grabbing headlines about “western separatists” will again fade away.
*For those who care, a brief article about the Crow rate:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/crows-nest-pass-agreement
To varying degrees I would imagine a great many nations in the world have the same sort of tensions -a region of a country that is far flung from the centers of power forever complaining that it lacks autonomy and is not in control of its own destiny. Canada is not unique.
Very true. One recent example is the “red wall” constituencies in the UK; former Labour voters who felt left out/ left behind/ neglected by Parliament switched in 2016 from Remain to Leave; and in 2019 from Labour to Johnson Conservative. (They’ve been reconsidering recently.) Multiple conflicts exist in the US, including North vs. South; East Coast vs. Midwest (or Rust Belt, if there’s much difference); Evangelicals vs. everyone else; and Trumpies vs. everyone, including themselves. In Canada, there’s French vs. English; Prairies vs. East (more than just Alberta); and settlers vs. First Nations.
Solving regional disputes will never be easy, but I cannot believe the Smith Method of conflict resolution will succeed. Despite all the yammering, Alberta (4.5 million) isn’t that big, that strong or that valuable. Quebecers have learned that they’re better off within Canada, and anyway the Péquiste passions have weakened with the generations. There’ll always be people with more passion than brain who latch onto a bad idea. Our bad luck is that one of them has become Premier.
I will be sending my “UCP Dani Dollars” voter bribe to the NDP. With the political donation tax break as well as helping my excellent local NDP candidate it is a definite “Win Win” for me.
Be sure to write a letter to Premier Smith thanking her for giving you this opportunity to improve the lives of Albertans by supporting the NDP.
What it speaks to is that the ndp is the party for rich government workers. And they did very well during the pandemic.
Hey Brett,
I have no problems with rich government workers. I do have a problem with billionaires though. I’ve yet to meet a billionaire government worker. You realize that you too could be a rich government worker. Your only problem may be getting a university degree first. What’s stopping you?
Sub groups of the population which vote themselves higher pay will inevitably destroy democracy. As to billionaires, it all depends how they get their money. If they provide cost effective services which people choose freely in an open marketplace, those are golden. If they make their money because they are cahoots with the thieves in government, then those are bad. For instance the Chinese government has a lot of billionaires. Most of them bad. And the liberal ndp alliance is growing a new crop of bad billionaires down east right now. So I pretty much agree with you.
“Sub groups of the population which vote themselves higher pay will inevitably destroy democracy.”
That is a perfect description of the Conservative cabinets that voted themselves huge salary increases year after year.
Bret, quick question? you’re saying “that the ndp is the party of rich government workers, and they did very well during the pandemic”…hasn’t the rich UCP government been in power throughout the pandemic ,first under JK and now under DS’s inflated cabinet? or am I missing something?
You’re right, fundamental changes are needed in our society so government unions can’t farm society for their benefit. First necessary change is to make government smaller. If you have cancer, it’s better if it’s smaller as a principal.
Bret Larson: What rich government workers? The UCP have the most hefty government in the history of Alberta, as Danielle Smith, with 27 cabinet ministers, so it must be them. Others aren’t rich.
Bret Larson: What rich government workers? The ones that the UCP laid off.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6759218/alberta-coronavirus-education-layoffs/
Yup, it’s those ultra rich civil servants alright, whose pockets are WAY deeper than those billion dollar oil companies that regularly donate to the UCP!
Bret, maybe it’s time you take your meds and take a giant step back into reality. Batsh*t crazy might appeal to you but it really is not a good look.
One side is legion, while the other isn’t. That makes a big difference.
Bret needs to take two Valium and go for swim. Enough…
Rich government workers, LOL, give me a break. 1. I think you’re thinking of folks in a certain other alberta industry when you say “rich” no one, other than maybe career politicians like Jason Kenney is getting rich in the civil service, that is laughable.
2. There is no evidence whatsoever that “govt” workers support any party universally, and to say as much is borderline slanderous.
Grow up dude.
Former Conservative voter and supporter here.
Our money, and our support, has gone to the NDP ever since the Jim Prentice fiasco.
Could not support the UCP, would never support Danielle Smith. Financially or with my vote.
Not a Government employee. My socioeconomic status would point to a strong Conservative voter. UCP and Smith broke that tie.
Instead of bombarding supporters with annoying emails (something the federal party is now doing), the Alberta NDP used the fourth quarter to promote its impressive slate of candidates on social media and included donation links to their campaigns. There was only the occasional donation link provided to the party usually in a tweet from the leader. This less annoying approach seems to have worked well.
Heres what I did. this is my conversation that last time a party phoned me for money.:
“Hey how are you? Yes, I give monthly, and Ive decided that every time Im contacted to give more I will decrease my monthly contribution by $5.
Please feel free to phone me anytime.
Have a good day.”
Worked wonders.
Haha solid move. I told them my charity is reserved for those who suffer unjustly, and recommended that members of parliament pass laws that will have the taxpayer fund them all equally so that they don’t have to go door to door begging for handouts from people who actually work for a living.
For some reason they haven’t called back. Go figure.
Danielle Smith is a nutcase. The last thing Albertans need is a government that doesn’t care about them. Personally I want my provincial government to work with Ottawa and not be at Ottawa. The only enemy of Albertans are the very small percentage of conservatives who only want to concentrate on Alberta leaving the country of Canada. Justin Trudeau is not the enemy. Just because Smith and a small handful of people say Trudeau is the enemy doesn’t make it true. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government of Canada want a strong Alberta. The liberal government can help with that. However why should they bother helping Alberta when the leader of the UCP government and the UCP government continually bash them publicly. All the UCP government and both UCP premiers have proven is that they are incompetent, arrogant, privileged and entitled with absolutely no regard for Albertans. And Smith tossing a few bucks to people is just an attempt to try to make Albertans forget the atrocious the UCP government committed.
The only enemy of Albertans is Albertans. How did a province this entitled and incompetent ever manage this level of prosperity?
…oh right, they would have the same level of prosperity that Norway does, but unfortunately, Albertans have been impoverished by their only enemy.
Is this a pro NDP portal? Pretty much every commentator is an NDP supporter as far as I read. If indeed it is then this is pretty biased to have a website called Alberta politics.
Andy: Interesting question, actually. This is a commentary blog, essentially written by one person. It’s not a portal to anywhere, even another dimension. My views are pretty obvious and of a type not frequently found in mainstream media, which, whatever you may believe, is almost universally conservative. I have a significant following – about 2.5 million page views a year – and naturally readers skew toward a progressive point of view. Call it woke if you like. That said, there have always been conservative readers, some of whom comment regularly. I do delete some comments, including by people who agree with me, if they stray in to defaming identifiable persons, are abusive or obscene, or are not about the topic of the post. But commentators who disagree, even forcefully, with the arguments I present are always welcome. Some topics receive a large amount of obscene, threatening, and often quite idiotic commentary, among them: advocacy of gun control, calls for sensible COVID mitigation measures, lack of support for the convoy, and other triggers to what I would call Q-adjacent citizens. On those occasions, yes, a lot of comments are sent to the trash. As for the domain name, you obviously don’t understand how that works. It is, in fact, very close to a pure marketplace and the early bird (in this case, me) gets the proverbial worm. When I saw AlbertaPolitics.ca and .com for sale, I acted immediately and paid a small premium for the rights. If someone else thinks they should have it because their politics are different from mine, they’re welcome to make me an offer. It won’t be cheap as even Marxist economists accept the concept of supply and demand. Like any capitalist, I intend to make a profit from my ownership, preferably a significant one, when the time comes to sell. DJC
Andy, call David’s bluff. Make polite, intelligent conservative points, and see if they go through.
Welcome to somewhere outside of the right-wing information silo! Hope we see you again 🙂
Andy Ray: it is indeed a “portal”:
into the world of 3034 Climenhaga with its moon circling as it orbits between Mars and Jupiter, with echoes of the colorful language of Pogo, and the wisps of wisdom by Lars et al.
And just a personal observation, calling out a politician whom I feel is doing a bad job ( slight understatement) , aka Danielle Smith, does not make me a NDPer , it makes me a anti-Smither.
Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken’s possible claim to fame and paycheque bump is as parliamentary secretary of Agri-food Development (https://www.townandcountrytoday.com/athabasca-news/balanced-budget-paves-the-way-for-albertas-success-in-2023-6327234). How many UCP MLAs are NOT in cabinet?
Well, Joan, I asked Professor Bing about that. Here’s the official list on the government web site:
https://www.alberta.ca/premier-cabinet.aspx
I counted 25 cabinet ministers and 12 parliamentary secretaries.
Jason Kenney’s first cabinet had 20 ministers and three (3) associate ministers:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/kenney-names-cabinet-ministers-of-alberta-s-ucp-government-1.5116700
Rachel Notley started with 12 cabinet ministers, but learned that wasn’t enough. She increased her cabinet to 18:
https://globalnews.ca/news/2491195/premier-notley-to-introduce-new-alberta-cabinet-ministers-tuesday/
As noted at the time, even Notley’s expanded cabinet was the smallest in years.
As Anonymous asked (dec17 /indigenous chiefs) ” I wonder which group DS is going to alienate next ? ” Well going by her Twitter account,(5hrs ago) after posting visiting a NE Calgary neighborhood, and wearing a headscarf —- going by the replies, she’s alienated a bunch of her supporters ….so courting a minority group seems to have backfired, especially when she’s being compared to pulling a “Trudeau ” ……..OUCH !!!
all round not a good day for the trumpublicans ….
Knowing how Notley was praising Peter Lougheed and what he had done for this province and promising to get us back up to his royalties and corporate levels I think she needs to make it clear to all Albertans exactly what she was trying to do, how much in deficits did she inherit, and where she had to spend the money to try to fix some of it. Instead of letting these Reformers bad mouth her about spending too much money.
Alan, that’s an interesting point. What if Notley promised to restore Alberta “so Peter Lougheed would be proud”? I wonder how many Old Tories would, however reluctantly, hold their noses and vote NDP “just this once”?
I have found something very interesting since Smith took office. I had been a card carrying conservative for many years, especially when my family was so heavily involved with the Lougheed and Getty governments, and after Klein became premier I dropped my support. Our family had known the Klein family since the early 1960’s and we knew what a jerk Ralph was. Even members of his own family weren’t supporting him. Now since Smith took office I have been getting all sorts of phone calls inviting me to all sorts of UCP gatherings and conference calls. They have obviously gotten a hold of a former membership list and are trying to kick start it. I’m not that stupid.