Premier Danielle Smith greets her supporters in Calgary after her party’s victory in Alberta’s provincial election last night (Photo: Twitter/Adam MacVicar).

Those praying for a degree of sanity to prevail after yesterday’s Alberta provincial election were bound to be disappointed by the apparent result last night.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley concedes the victory to Danielle Smith last night in Edmonton (Photo: Twitter/Saif Kaisar).

At the witching hour, the United Conservative Party was leading or elected in 51 seats and the New Democratic Party in 36. Forty-four seats are required for a bare majority in the Alberta Legislature. The parties were within less than 300 votes from one another in seven ridings, most of them in Calgary. The UCP will have no seats in the city of Edmonton. 

So while the dust was still settling after midnight, a United Conservative victory convincing enough to last four years seemed obvious if the party’s supporters can only resist the temptation to go for each other’s throats.

But it’s hard to believe that after a couple of weeks swaddled in metaphorical bubble wrap, Premier Danielle Smith will be able to resist the temptation to resume telling us her innermost thoughts, ignoring the rule of law to benefit her friends, and pursuing her most dangerous constitutional schemes. 

So hang onto your pensions, folks. Not to mention your Mountie hats! 

While UCP strategists were doubtless patting themselves on the back and breathing well-deserved sighs of relief, last night’s UCP victory may yet prove to be a Pyrrhic one, given the very unstable non-genius at the helm of the party, and the sinister alliance that has her ear. 

Former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

I reckon that in light of her election victory, the UCP will have to give Ms. Smith a couple of years to prove that she can do the job. When she fails to pass that test – a virtual inevitability if the recent past is any guide – the knives will come out.

But Ms. Smith’s Trumpian Take Back Alberta supporters will also be more deeply entrenched by then. 

So don’t count on this being a restful or happy time for the UCP as it turns to trying to put its good-enough mandate to work developing a suite of policies that can satisfy both its infuriated-by-everything base and its remaining sensible MLAs.

The NDP’s problem at this juncture is likely to be rather the opposite of the UCP’s.

With an opponent like Ms. Smith, and an Alberta that is changing before our eyes, the NDP should have been able to do better on May 29. 

If Alberta’s disunited Conservatives jump too readily to each other’s throats, though, its New Democrats are too inclined to sidestep an argument they need to have. 

Latvia: Where third place is good enough for a national holiday! (Image: Kaspars Upmanis).

The NDP campaign may have made a compelling case for why Albertans should not vote for Danielle Smith, but despite being the only Opposition party with broad support, it never made a compelling case why they should support Ms. Notley. 

As former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason said two days before the Ides of March, “if the NDP doesn’t up its comms game immediately, they will lose the election in May. There’s too much at stake to keep fumbling around. Clearly, they need outside help.”

Well, they didn’t up their game. And they did lose the election. 

And so there now needs to be a brisk discussion in NDP circles about why there was never much evidence of what Mr. Mason termed “a coherent communications strategy” that defined “three or four issues that will move the vote we need to move, and hammer them home repeatedly.”

Still, if Latvia can declare a national holiday when their hockey team wins a bronze medal, the NDP Opposition can view the election’s outcome as something of a success – they have 10 more MLAs in the Legislature, a much stronger beachhead in Calgary, and their popular vote has grown to a historic high. 

Alberta needs the NDP to do better, though. So the NDP needs to have that frank discussion about what went wrong with their 2023 strategy, and who needs to be reassigned to other duties as a result. 

That will be almost as hard for the NDP to do as it will be for the UCP to get along without intramural fisticuffs breaking out. 

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92 Comments

  1. Welcome to hell. Fire and brimstone ahead. Kiss the CPP, the RCMP and public healthcare goodbye. Hello, coal mines and selenium in the water. More fire! More brimstone! Sorry, children treated like poop-cookies. Goodbye separation of church and state and judicial independence. Goodbye women’s rights. Hello, overt racism to replace covert racism of yore. Goodbye books. Goodbye Canada. Hello face-eating leopards.

    It’s too dismal for further thought right now.

    1. I’m wondering as a 63 year old Hippy who was born in Alberta and identifies as Progressive Conservative; Which sticker on the rear bumper of my car would illicit the vandalization of my vehicle quickest? A Canadian Flag or a “F” the UPC Sticker?
      I’m picking up bad vibes man, bad vibes.

    2. Couldn’t have said it better.
      If this was the old days and say Joe Clark won, we wouldn’t care nearly as much. There would be sanity and work being done. Now we get to be Florida 2.0 and I am glad I can work from anywhere.

      1. If Albertans are unhappy with the election results, we’d welcome them to B.C. we need teachers, health care professionals, trades people. Yes, housing can be expensive, but we don’t have the UPC or smith

    3. Abs, about those coal mines,
      while everyone was focusing on the wildfires, actual and political….the Narwhal, May 25th, an Australian coal mine is quietly forging ahead…..Grand Cache locals were surprised to hear Mine 14–exempt from Alberta’s pause on coal mining in the Rockies—is poised to start digging.

      And so it begins…..

  2. If proportional representation were a thing, we’d see a different outcome in this last provincial election in Alberta. For example, and context, in June of 1993, Laurence Decore’s Liberals would have been in power, instead of Ralph Klein and the PCs, had proportional representation been in place. That’s what the outcome would be. I do not blame the results of this provincial election on Rachel Notley. The blame lies elsewhere. Columnists, such as Licia Corbella, Lorne Gunter, and David Staples were publishing columns in newspapers that were very inaccurate, and they were defending Danielle Smith and the UCP. They weren’t held accountable for publishing mistruths. There were people who were believing these lies. Anyone that tried to counter what these columnists were saying, would never see their letters published in newspapers. Danielle Smith also was lying, and people fell for the things she was saying. The provincial election debate showed what a liar Danielle Smith was. I saw the debate, and I could hear the lies Danielle Smith was uttering. I even wonder how honest this provincial election was. Was there some type of rigging going on? The last time, there were issues with UCP members, getting financial penalties for contravention of election guidelines, and the previous UCP leader has the R.C.M.P chasing his tail for his leadership race. There is the issue involving vote buying from the UCP. Nicely timed to coincide with the provincial election. Now that the provincial election in Alberta is over, these vote buying giveaways by the UCP will likely cease, because they have a majority government. Up go our power bills, as well as our other utility bills and insurance. Our pensions will likely vanish, with a compromised provincial pension plan. The R.C.M.P will be gone, and a provincial police force will take its place. This will lead to a police state. Protected mountains, and a protected environment, will no longer be a reality, as lax regulations with oil industry development, and allowing open pit coal mining in the mountains will be the norm. Our provincial parks will likely get sold off to the lowest bidder, so developers can take over. Seniors will struggle more, as will anyone on government supports. Tuition costs for post secondary students will swell. The public education system will deteriorate, so the UCP can put in more private schools in Alberta. The public healthcare system will also also suffer even further, so the UCP can get their wish of private for profit healthcare in Alberta. More very pricey shenanigans will also happen. Many people will also lose their jobs, becausethe UCP will do a mass layoff binge. It will be a horrific mess, and people will be leaving Alberta. With the oil prices remaining low, or getting lower, this will compund problems. The UCP are phony conservatives and Reformers, and will be no good for Alberta. Alas, that Alertans never seem to learn.

    1. It is curious that people on the left and the right really have a lot of the same concerns (apart from the “wokeness”, I guess). Liberalism in the economic sense of the word is a blight on humanity. The right tends to blame immigrants and political elites while the left blames capitalism.

      A lot of us on this side of the political spectrum talk about how the right wing votes against their own interests. This election is a perfect encapsulation of that. I think folks on the right would be wise to listen to the old saying “follow the money”. Immigrants by definition have little, they’re just trying to make a better life for their families. The political elites certainly use money as a tool, but only for their own power-hungry purposes – and you have to think about who they court to make use of that money.

      So, what is the root of all evil? Money. The capitalists run the world, and they don’t care about anything but money. The rest of us plebs are living in an Economics 101 textbook where “money can be exchanged for goods and services”. A capitalist has no connection to that definition. Money is just points in a videogame to them. The neoliberal world has been shaped by people who are so disconnected from reality and have personal and philosophical goals so detached from the rest of society that we may as well be ants to them.

      Regular members of the voting public who self-identify as “capitalists” need to think about the meaning of that term. If you’re a capitalist, then where’s all your capital? Where is your factory? You don’t even own your own car! The bank has your balls in vice for the next two decades with a mortgage and your Dodge Ram is leased from the same fat cat bankers.

      There is a LOT of room for compromise between left and right, we just need to think about our similarities rather than our differences. We’re all in the same sinking boat. Politics isn’t a game. It is in the interests of the powers-that-be that we see it that way though, with teams and flags and colours. The public discourse has gone so far off the rails that the actual public interest is lost in the noise.

    2. Yes the Postmedia commentators lie, but I suspect untruths, misinformation, and disinformation on social media circles are as much (or more considering the paper’s subscription woes) to blame.

    3. Instead of proportional representation, keep an open mind about ranked ballots. Conservatives will always be part of the governing equation with proportional representation but with ranked ballots the Conservatives can be frozen out forever and the Conservatives know it. Ranked ballots scare the life out of conservatives as they know they are the second choice of no one. This is why the Conservatives always try to steer the conversation away from ranked ballots to proportional representation whenever there is talk of eliminating the FPTP system.

      To illustrate how fearful the Conservatives are of ranked ballots, Doug Ford has outlawed the use of ranked ballots in Ontario Municipal elections. They do not want that system of voting to establish a beach head.

  3. It was a very long, but disappointing evening for the NDP Like any frustrated opposition that seemed to give it all, this will inevitably lead to a great deal of soul searching about what went wrong. Some of this will be productive, some of this may not be.

    I suspect one place to look will be the effectiveness of negative campaigning particularly with the focus overly on Smith. By briely looking pleasant and non threatening in the election and by not making any more gaffes, she was able to undermine the main focus of that argument against her enough. However, it wasn’t just her own past record, but that of her party which needed more scrutiny.

    Second, as many political commentators noted, it is hard to win the election without many seats outside of Edmonton and Calgary. At this point the NDP seems to have won just two of over 40 of these. The UCP’s stated strategy of relying on rural Alberta and hanging on to enough urban seats seems to have worked. Of course this may not be a great long term strategy for them, with the major cities growing faster than rural Alberta, but anyone wanting to win an Alberta election probably has to do better in the so called rest of Alberta.

    It may soon become apparent with all her spending that Smith’s surplus is a mirage, unless languishing oil prices pick up soon. Voters may also tire of all her battles against Ottawa, particularly if they don’t seem to accomplish much. Lastly, Smith who is capable of appearing reasonable for some period of time is also prone to self destruct, so there is some hope for the NDP in the future. Let’s not forget it took several elections to get rid of Harper federally.

    It would be better if this were not where we were now, but we need to deal with things as they are, not what we would like them to be.

    1. The narrative that negative messaging hurt the NDP very graciously (and erroneously) exonerates the bile spewed by the UCP

  4. Sanity has prevailed. But watch Edmonton fell apart over time. Scary direction there.

    1. It is my duty to inform you that you can not be in your right mind.

      To the non_crazy readership: you see this already in the comments sections. The voters in Edmonton and Calgary, those Soddom and Ghomorra’s of the Prairies, simply don’t count. Because they are hellholes of non-biblical sex, tattoos, people of the wrong pigmentation, and abortions and anyway they are on fire because antifa and BLM. But don’t forget the abortions: the people I am talking about sure haven’t. If there’s to be a split in the UCP, it may well be over that.

    2. No doubt, as an obvious enthusiast for the party of magical thinking, there’s a lot that scares you.

    3. You don’t know a single
      Thing about Edmonton other than the name of the hockey team. Piss off. You ever even been downtown Edmonton, maybe once or twice.

      How bout we roll through the small town you live in and point out the lack of development, shoddy buildings and backward social fabric. Keep our city out of your mouth, YOU don’t live here, and ITS NOT UP TO YOU.

  5. Bob Rae in Ontario 1990-95, Rachel Notley 2015-2019
    Welcome to the NDP One and Done Club

      1. It isn’t always “one and done”. Here in B.C. we thought it was “one and done” when Dave Barrett lost the election and incame Mini Wac. Fast forward and then the NDP, with Mike Harcourt as leader, were elected. Glen Clark took over from him. Then it was back to the right and in the end they went and John Horgan was elected Premier. It doesn’t have to be “one and done” A party needs to find the right new leader or campaign people and work at it. (Harcourt used Gerry Scott as his campaign manager when he ran for Mayor and then again when he ran for Premier) Bob Skelley used Gerry Scott to become leader of the NDP, when Barrett retired and won the leadership. Couldn’t believe that one and neither did a lot of others. Skelley’s “trick” was to use Scott. What I learned from all of this Some times a good leader can still loose elections because those running the campaign as it ought to be.
        Not following the NDP campaign can’t say if the back room people were doing a good job or not, but the results are there. Notley is a good enough candidate and how she lost to Smith boogles the mind. Now of course we are talking Alberta but the things which came out of Smith and Co’s mouths, was just a tad much.

    1. I’ve literally never heard anyone say this before. Why is plagiarism so popular on the right ? The only party that is truly “done in alberta is the PCAA they got hacked to pieces by a bunch of spooked up maniacs. Real classy dunking too, even though as DJC has pointed out we punted ever single UCP mla from the capital, despite them spending a ton of money to run actual candidates, and picked up ten seats and a beachhead in Calgary. If you all think the official opposition did anything but gain momentum you’re the kind of brain dead ideologues we all know you are. Way to vote in a bunch of literally seditionist criminals because you hate gay people. Slow clap.

  6. The NDP will have to begin the process of selecting a new leader. They have some time, but they need to start the process. Unfortunately, Rachel Notley cannot remain the face of the NDP after having spent the entire campaign contrasting herself with Danielle Smith and then losing to that whacked-out menace. But, really, who does the NDP have who is as competent and as respected as Notley?

    Also, the party should perhaps consider a name change? There are too many morons in this province who automatically assume that because they share the same name as the federal NDP, that they are the exact same party and that they March in lock-step with the federals. Alberta is where nuance comes to die.

    For now, it beehooves us to fight the TBA fascist wannabes by pressuring so-called normal conservative MLAs to deny the extremist wing of the UCP from gaining even more control. Though how easy they are to pressure or to get to live up to some code of decency, considering they are willing to align themselves with the most hateful and ignorant members of our society to maintain power, will remain to be seen (who are we kidding, they will kowtow to the far right every chance they get because it’s easier than utilising one’s spine and standing-up against the loud and ignorant).

    1. Almost the entirety of the NDP’s success and growth has been due to Notley’s own personal charisma and likability. There isn’t any obvious successor in the party who could replicate that. (There could be someone, just no one apparent or obvious). I doubt that Notley would step down as leader until she was certain the party would continue to succeed after her. Before Notley leaves, expect to her spend a couple of years promoting and spotlighting prominent MLAs to give the likeliest successors as much of a headstart as possible.

      As for re-branding the party: this has actually been a idea that has been circulated and debated informally within the party for decades, but for most of the Alberta NDP’s existence it just wasn’t feasible, since the provincial party still relied on the federal wing for financial, logistical and operational support, something that would be lost if the party rebranded. However, is the Alberta NDP as it exists today large enough to be self-sufficient? I dunno, possibly.

      1. New leader????? Notley is the best the NDP has in Alberta. She’s pleasant when she speaks and looks good on camera. Wardrobe was good, etc.
        Change the name of the NDP???? Not a smart move and could create divisions which aren’t there now and may cause Alberta’s NDP to loose the support them can get belonging to a national organization. Over the years I’ve heard other provinces send campaign workers to other provinces to asssist. The NDP isn’t big enough in Canada to go it alone in any province.

        First past the post, is going to be with us most likely for the rest of our lives and so you work with it. Changing how we vote detracts from winning elections and there is no guarantee a change in voting methods will ensure a win any where.

      2. I believe the NDP is required to have a leadership convention as early as next year. Don’t get me wrong, Notley was and is great, and she will remain leader for a time, but the optics of her being the leader for the next election are horrible and will hurt the party overall. I predict that by the next election, both the NDP and the UCP will have new leaders.

        As for being strong enough to stand on their own, I think the ANDP is now, definitely. The amount of support they currently have (being the only legitimate alternative to the embarrassing UCP), and the amount of money they are able to raise shows this. The connection to villified federal parties is now an albatross around the provincial party’s neck.

    2. This is a bad take. If you think the entire city of Edmonton would be NDP without Rachel Notley you are dreaming. She does need to ditch her comms people though , and most of the brain trust. They’re idiots.

  7. Smallest majority for UCP or any Conservative government and strongest Opposition NDP in Alberta history !! The road to 44 was a huge challenge for NDP, and WTAF do Calgarians think !!!!
    Will Smith govern according to her wacky ideas ?? Keep your hands off healthcare / CPP/ and the RCMP SMITH !
    Rachel Notley is a SUPERSTAR !!! ( and Brian mason won a total of 4 seats as NDP leader back in the day !!
    Interesting times

  8. The NDs should track their proposed policy outcomes against the UC’s actuals. Spreadsheets. Boring, but effective, when you’re trying to differentiate your product or performance.

  9. The New Democrats managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Before the writ drop they had the UCP on the ropes, but weren’t able to close the deal over the course of the campaign.

    They did end up with more seats in Calgary than they had at dissolution, and will form the largest Official Opposition in Alberta history, but weren’t able to expand their reach into “Otherland”: rural and small-city Alberta, where the UCP has a stranglehold on the electorate.

    All in all, a disappointing and disheartening result.

  10. Get set for another pivot from you-know-who—and then another after that and yet another after that. Danielle Smith doesn’t so much hold principles as host notions in her head. For the foreseeable future–by which I mean much less than four years, but a little longer than a week–Albertans will be living in Danielle Smith’s brain.

    1. Mike: As I noted earlier in this space, it’s the same thing in Sweden, the U.K., and Hungary, too. Actual facts belie this perception, but it is deeply entrenched. Progressive parties need to work with this reality, not deny and ignore it. DJC

  11. I am truly upset about the results. I guess Albertans didn’t suffer enough under the Kenney regime that would have prompted them enough to vote properly. There will be more of the same, but worse for the next 4 years. More waiting time in ER, more regional hospital closures, longer EMS response times, higher car insurance rates, fewer family doctors, higher electricity rates, more severed forest fires, are all in store for stupid Albertans. I would have thought people were fed up, but I was wrong. As for the NDP, WTF were they thinking announcing they were going to raise taxes for big businesses? Idiots! They should have focused on health, education, and pensions. That would have been enough to win. Nearly everyone has been detrimentally affected by the deterioration of healthcare in this province, yet Notley failed to capitalize on their discontentment. How is that even possible? Old people are the most affected by public health policies, and they overwhelmingly vote conservative. This cohort should have been low hanging fruit and still Notley couldn’t win them over using what they cherish the most? Old people, meaning conservative voters, are most fearful of losing their pensions, and access to health care, including their family doctors. Why didn’t she go after that and only that? Instead, she announced a plan to increase taxes for… Never say you will increase taxes during an election – it’s the kiss of death, especially in Alberta! It’ a classic: Bringing a knife to a gunfight! Way to go Hillary. This was your election to win, and you found yet another way to lose it.

    So now, suffer Albertans, you deserve it. I have no sympathy left, as for my neighbours with UCP signs on their lawn, fuck you. Push your own cars out of the snowbanks, and don’t ask to borrow anything, or for any favours.

  12. My lovely parents are buried in Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery, a mere 100 metres from the memorial to Tommy Douglas and his wife. So when I can visit, I am inspired by Mr. Douglas’ words: “Courage my friends, ‘tis not too late to make a better world.”

    Whether it’s with Ms. Notley at the helm, or someone else, I do feel that is the beginning of the end for the UCP. Our job now is to limit the damage they can do before the next election. Courage!

  13. Team Notley needed to be highlighted, not only in individual ridings but throughout the province. Agreed the messaging was “blah.” It needed some bold visioning about where the party would lead Alberta.

  14. Many Alberta seniors have likely put themselves in financial ruin by supporting Smith. They have shown our doctors, nurses, and teachers no respect at all for what these reformers have put them through over the past 4 years and there is reason for them to stay in Alberta and take it again. I think many won’t from what doctors have been saying , they have definitely been warning the people but were ignored. Rural communities will likely lose their health care services and that’s what these reformers have wanted all along. They have told Smith to go ahead and sell off our hospitals and charge User Fees to access our healthcare system. Kick out the RCMP and add the costs to our property taxes. Destroy our Canada Pension Plan. Lawyers have been saying for months that taxpayers will be paying out millions for lawsuits she will create by fighting with Ottawa. Insulting our oil executives for wanting the carbon tax implemented shows how stupid they are, but then comparing 75% of Albertans to Nazis was ignored showing how stupid Albertans are. Like Ralph Klein said “ I could tell these idiots anything and they would believe it.” I think I know who he was talking about.

    1. LOL so a police force isn’t worth a property tax increase but bike lanes are. Hilarious.

      1. LOL the upgrades to the yellowhead cost over a billion dollars. Cars bankrupt cities, not bicycles. What are you even talking about.

    2. Alan K. Spiller: You certainly have it right. This is just like when Ralph Klein was premier. My dad, who is a senior, also told me about the way Ralph Klein bought votes before a provincial election in Alberta. When he got back in the vote buying stopped. The UCP will put people into hardship.

      1. Anonymous I will never forget going through this with Ralph Klein. Nurses bawling their eyes out in my office when Klein destroyed their careers. Some were single moms with teenage kids and they could no longer afford their mortgage payments and I couldn’t help them. A doctor with tears streaming down his face told me that he had 6 patients who desperately needed to be in a hospital and he couldn’t even get one in because of what Klein had done. He said if he didn’t leave he was going to have a nervous breakdown. I helped him leave. Klein’s father Phil said “ Al what in the hell is the matter with that son of mine ? While he gives away billions in oil royalties he is forcing us to try to live without a proper health care system. This could cost some people their lives. Phil was right it did and the lawsuits launched against Klein proved it. One was almost my father. I never want to see this happen again. The Ed Stelmach government told us that Albertans lost 14,783 health care workers because of what Klein did. Doctors told me Albertans almost lost their health care system it was on the verge of collapse. They created Ed Stelmach with saving it by spending millions on buying foreign workers, just in time. We would have been sending people to other provinces. Don Getty told me in 2003 that inviting Liberal Ralph Klein into the Conservative Party was the dumbest thing he ever did, and I certainly agreed.

  15. In her victory speech Premier Smith signaled a nostalgic going back to the policies of the Ralph Klein era. Climate limitations and simple economics mean that approving a bunch of new tar sands plants is not really an option to stimulate the economy any more. Look for more theft of farm and ranch land and water by the energy sector and a lot more conflict.

    Premier Smith also invoked the paranoid fashion of politics by indicating she plans to hold Trudeau responsible for international changes in the energy market. Good luck with holding back that technological tide.

    The UCP’s electoral success demonstrates that a nostalgic electorate has elected a destructive and vicious group to take vengeance on modernity in general and urban Alberta in particular.

  16. A few months ago, I wrote to Rachel Notley’s office, suggesting that they adopt a slogan that was short and punchy, instead of putting out detailed explanations on a variety of platforms. My theory was that many Albertans wanted simple answers to complex problems. Details could come later, when the NDP had the power to enact needed changes. I suggested “Healthcare, housing, hope.” As a senior, I need to be able to access healthcare. My children and grandchildren need housing that they can afford. And we all need hope. I didn’t hear back.

    I despair of what will happen in the next four years.

    1. What will happen next is we’ll fix this overdose problem by giving people help and hope instead of free drugs.

      1. How’s that abstinence based shame based religious based treatment working out? I can’t hear it over the constant sound of sirens from drug poisonings.

  17. While I agree the NDP platform was sadly lacking in proposed policy, given the political environment we live in, I really don’t see how they could have done anything differently. Very sadly I am reluctantly coming to the opinion that Danielle Smith was already the leader of Alberta, and her ascension to the premier’s chair just formalized the matter.
    The UCP, and before that the Progressive Conservative, governing style has been to stick its fingers in its ears, refuse to acknowledge any kind of problem, and kick implementing any kind of a solution down the road. This is the kind of governing style a majority of Albertans want, and vote for.
    When the NDP were elected in 2015 they promptly brought in 3 necessary, but unpopular policies: they raised the minimum wage significantly, implemented farm worker protection and introduced a carbon tax. Raising the minimum wage was long overdue, as it was the lowest in Canada. Even the PCs that preceded them acknowledged it should be raised, but fell back on a line they used much too often, ‘this is not the time.’ Likewise, Alberta was the only province in Canada that had no protection for farm workers, and the carbon tax was really just an inevitability.

    As a result of implementing those policies, Rachel Notley learned the hard way that too many Albertans want a government that will just kick problems down the road, and in my mind, the rest of her premiership, and her years in opposition, was characterized as trying to position herself as that type of leader.

    A recent case in point was ‘just transition’. Just transition is a policy that needs to be pursued, to take some of the pain away from society’s conversion to renewable energy forms. History is filled with huge swaths of people losing their livelihoods when a technological change renders the work that they do obsolete. Shortly after WWII railways switched from coal burning locomotives to diesel, and large numbers of coal miners lost their jobs. More recent, but lesser examples, has been the disappearance of travel agents and film processors. When a government wants to be proactive and try to avoid some of that difficulty, it is a good idea.

    Danielle Smith, however, took the idea of just transition and spun it as proof that the federal government wants to shut down Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and as the leader she is, was able to convince a large number of Albertans it was a bad thing. Just transition is something the NDP could have offered as part of its election platform, but there is no doubt in my mind it would have been political suicide to do so. The political commentators, and the UCP, would just offer it as proof that the NDP is in bed with Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh. I think the same thing would have happened with any other different policy the NDP offered as well.

    As a result, the only thing the NDP could offer as an appealing policy was to be another can kicking government, only without the bozo eruptions – in other words, can kicking lite. As we saw last night, Albertans figured that if they are going to choose a can kicker, they might as well go for the real thing.

  18. Sanity is what you got from the election. Progressives have a problem. When you tax from one to buy votes from another, the person being taxed doesnt like you.

    GO figure.

    But they dont because its good for them, which they cant see past.

      1. It was about alot of things, and depending on who you are.

        It pretty simple for me to vote though. I just ask myself, “who are the totalitarians voting for?”. And I vote against them.

        It was a real simple call this time round.

    1. Except the tax cuts won’t balance increases in fees and other surcharges to access essential services.

      1. Its enough that people decide on what they buy with their labour.

        And not have a bureaucrat along to direct who gets what.

    2. Oh Brett, like your ignorance your trolling knows no bounds.

      I suppose you have no problem with your taxes being used to buy votes in Calgary to build them a shiny new arena? Or is it only bad when it’s someone other than your hero Smith making the promises?

    3. Yeah, OK there. I used to be concerned that you’ve been hallucinating for a long time, however I no longer care any longer. It’s good to redirect that empathy somewhere else. Very Liberating. Thanks for achieving a maximum buzz kill factor. You’ve contributed significantly in my journey of mindfulness.

    4. Bret Larson: What sanity came from this provincial election? How will those voter bribes from the UCP get paid for? The oil prices aren’t climbing, and are going down.

      1. How will they pay for the promises and that shiny new stadium, easy, close a few hospitals, roll back wages for provincial workers, teachers and medical staff, don’t put as much into building new schools and reduce the number of seats at post secondary education institutes and don’t forget to cut welfare.

        Very easy to pay for all of Smith’s promises, but then she might not even deliver on her promises.

    5. Explain, specifically, whom the NDP proposed to tax, and how, and to whom would this money be paid to buy votes? You troll this site and ignore the references made by the blogger in his articles. The province has been literally looted in the form of corporate profits, like some former colony in central Africa, and you just keep churning out kon sentiments like they’re the product of systematic analysis. There’s a reason magical-thinking holy rollers vote for the party of corporate power. Twenty words or less in your next post to explain that nexus. Can’t wait!

    6. FAN FIC WARNING!

      It’s the year 2027:
      – O&G revenues have collapse (again).
      – the UCP has had to reneg on their “No-tax-without-referenda” law.
      – to prevent massive deficits, the UCP cuts to public services have triggered a professional and business exodus, further reducing (income and corporate tax) revenues even further.
      – cities big and small are so alienated they actively work with the feds for funding and attempt to charge rural Albertans extra to access municipal services.
      – yet another highly-foreseeable-natural-climate-change-linked-catastrophe happens and social media starts to refer to the Premier as “Disaster Danielle”
      – TBA, being true to their contrary nature, start in-fight, and splits the UCP again
      – the gov attempts to avoid the election but even they can’t act so cravenly (besides there are TBA people that insist they be allowed to “take back” the province from the pinkos in the UCP)

      Of course, the NDP are elected with a majority running entirely on a platform of “Rep by Pop”. Bill 1 reduces rural electoral strangle hold (“Promise made. Promise delivered”)

      And, the Alberta Party wins the 2031 election with the Greens in opposition.

    7. Bret Larson it wasn’t about charging taxes it was about stealing the peoples corporate tax and royalties wealth by slashing taxes and royalties like they did, to benefit the rich and used it to buy votes, just like this time. Kenney cut corporate taxes by 4% costing Albertans the loss of $9.4 billion. This article was brought to my attention by a former MLA from the Lougheed era and like all the MLAs I got to know was furious with Klein for what he had done to us and the ignorant Albertans who blindly supported him.
      “ Royalties down 32% Billions in federal revenues lost” as it indicates Lougheed was furious also.

    8. We all pay taxes. In fact lower income albertans pay a higher percentage of their income as taxes than high income albertans. Once again you are wrong, and your ignorance belies your prejudice. Real clown stuff.

  19. While at the UCP event on election night in Calgary, there were many interesting and not out of place sights around the hall. For one thing no one I saw wouldn’t be considered out of place at a Convoy protest. There were lots of cowboy hats, trucker caps, soiled denim, and big leather roughrider coats. While appearances were decidedly unconventional, I noticed that the organizers were acting to prevent troublesome incidents from occurring under the watchful media present. The F Trudeau flags were order furled or else ejection was certain. Q Anon signage was also out sight, not to mention whatever else would promote the UCP’s troublesome image. Like Kenney’s entrance into that same hall years before, in a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck, the scene did convey wild jubilation, as though an enslaved people were freed of their yoke and shackles. But like that time, last night’s celebration concealed a darker underbelly of what was to come.

    Emboldened by victory and a confused opposition, Smith and the UCP have every intention of acting on their darkest intentions soon enough.

    1. Very well written, Just Me. You are focused, always relevant. Readers are fortunate you choose to comment.

    2. “Emboldened by victory and a confused opposition, Smith and the UCP have every intention of acting on their darkest intentions soon enough.”

      Word.

      Hang on to your hats, people. My fear is that this election may have been the last chance for Alberta to change direction before global energy markets and the climate do it for you. The results of doing it the hard way will not be pleasant, and may cost Albertan’s their pensions and most public amenities, health care included. And the future. But fear not: you’ll have your own legions of doom.

    3. Darkest intentions?????? WTF are you talking about. Our elections aren’t about “good” vs “evil”, they’re about different people with different ideas. But by all means, divide and catastrophize and obstruct because your team lost. You and people like you- who exist on the left AND right- are why Canadians are at each others throats. Try growing up a little.

      1. Darkest intensions like trying to foment sedition on the border, which TBA was deeply involved in. Why would people be worried about a bunch of poorly informed angry bigots with assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and talk of shooting cops to kick off a civil war in Canada. What’s wrong with that!? Not like the right in Canada has been singularly obsessed with Trudeau since he took office, maybe they should grow up ?

  20. The NDP, and parties on the left in general, need to do a better job of addressing people’s worries in a way that appeals to voters sense of personal values.

    Fundamentally, almost everyone on the left and the right sees the same problems with their lives, their province, their country, and the world. They just ascribe different causes to those problems and therefore, different solutions.

    There are large swaths of the Alberta voting base that will absolutely never vote for anything even approaching left of centre. Those are not the people the NDP has to talk to. A little bit of attack politics is fine, highlight bad behavior and ideas as appropriate. Honestly though, the UCP does a pretty good job of platforming their own deplorables already. The Alberta NDP needs to convince people in the centre that NDP solutions to shared problems address the proper root cause. I recognize that everything nowadays needs to be short and sweet and catchy, but I think political teams can find a way to get a REAL message across that isn’t just throwing policy ideas out into the world. You aren’t doing real work to convince anyone with simply policies, people will either have a first reaction of support or opposition that will harden their view. The campaign should focus on the WHY, not the WHAT and save the nitty gritty for the platform documents. Establish the vision of why life will be better under your government, don’t jump right to how you will do that without people having an understanding of your worldview.

    Maybe it’s because political operatives live in a world where the political philosophy behind movements is very well known and taken for granted. I think a lot of the general population does not really think about politics in a way that includes personal values and principles when it comes to things like taxation and what programs deserve funding. Especially in Alberta there is a knee-jerk negative reaction to things that cost money or government intervention. So don’t lead with that stuff!

    The split between fiscal and social policies is an illusion. Every fiscal decision has a strong moral judgement behind it. Those values behind the policies are the things that need to be elucidated for parties on the left to be successful. I truly believe that a lot of people who have voted to the right their whole lives might change their voting behaviour with a little bit of reflection on the very basics of what they value in their lives, what principles they believe in, and the character of the world and society they’d like to live in.

    Anyways, that was long and rambling. tldr; rename the Alberta NDP the Solidarity Party. Thank you for your time!

    1. Sounds reasonable, Kevin.

      I think the tribalism is huge obstacle, even for a lot of Albertans in the centre.
      Why would we vote Team Orange when we’ve always voted Team Blue? Most of the policy points were drowned out by the sniping on both sides, but even if they’d been loud and clear I’m not sure it would have helped. It seems a lot of us want jobs, health care, and education. We want the streets of our cities to be safe. But both parties tell us they’ll take care of that. “Our” team tells us the other team lies and cheats. They’re part of an ideology that’s “wrong.” The scare tactics just entrench us.

      How does any challenger to the UCP chip away at that?

    2. Elections, for the most part, are simply manifestations of emotional states generated by propaganda. Slavish devotion to business and fear of a backlash of capital flight has been hammered into the population in a way that brings to mind Ewan Cameron’s MK Ultra psychic driving experiments done lo those many years ago in Montreal. I work in a unionized public sector job where the vast majority of my coworkers vote Kon, even though they stand to lose materially with every policy enacted by the mafia party. Reason’s got nothin’ to do with it.

  21. The NDP abandoned their traditional base and it really showed in the results. You can’t be a champion of the worker in Alberta and in the same breath talk about slowing down or outright stopping the main source of good jobs. You can’t claim to be a champion of public education and healthcare with no clear plan to fund it other than raising taxes.

    If the NDP wants to become relevant again outside of Edmonton and parts of Calgary they need to recruit moderate candidates. The activists have taken over despite Notley’s best efforts to keep them quiet. In Red Deer North a very unpopular education minister was voted in in part because someone in the NDP thought it would be a good idea to bring 2 activist MLAs from Edmonton down to help door knock. A largely working class area with a high immigrant population doesn’t take well to someone telling them how their children should be raised. The proof is in the result.

    On a more positive note I have yet to find anyone of any political stripe who is really upset about the results in Calgary Acadia and Calgary Varsity. The Acadia one will likely go to a recount but varsity is a done deal. With the ousting of 3 Kenney loyalists, including the other Nixon also in Calgary, this is now Danielle Smith’s party. It will be interesting to see what happens with the tall Nixon in the west country now that he has lost his protectors.

    The NDP needs to do some serious self reflection on both the campaign and where the party is going. They ran as an opposition party not as a potential governing party who would work for everyone in the province. Time will tell if they change course and operate in opposition for the next 4 years as a government in waiting or continue to be a group of activists disconnected from everyday Albertan’s true concerns.

  22. The NDP must take a fair chunk of the blame for the election results. I have spent nearly 45 years in the field of marketing, and 25 years at the academic level. Marketing 101 states you must be able to find out what the consumer wants and then target them with products and services that fulfill those needs. The NDP did not do this or convey a coherent message to the general public. Instead, it was day after day of DS can’t be trusted. We already knew this, so why not instead of going negative 24/7 explain to me how you are going to fulfill our needs? This was lacking throughout the campaign. When the NDP came canvassing at my door I asked them about their program and their response was that DS could not be trusted, yada, yada, etc… Nothing about how they were going to make my life better. Yes, I voted NDP, but if there was a viable third option I would have rented out my vote to them.
    I agree wholeheartedly with BM, as the communication strategy stunk! In the end, I am totally disillusioned with the NDP, and their 35-38 seats are no guarantee of success in the future. Unless they come with a coherent centralized strategy they will be relegated to the cheap seats for years on end.
    PS… Stating that they were going to raise the corporate tax rate, played right into DS’s teams hands, and they hammered them with it for a couple of weeks, just enough to eke out additional seats in Calgary. I would love to know who thought out that idiocy.

  23. It was striking that climate change and the energy transition played no role in the campaign. Ms. Notley’s NDP is as captured by the fossil fuel industry as the UCP is. People saw this and went for the program that makes no ifs and buts about going full steam ahead on fossils. The NDP would be a little bit less insane about it, but they were heading in the same direction. I am not surprised by the results. Depressed, yes.

  24. In a scant 17 months the BC NDP go to the polls against the United Hooligans – What lessons can be taken from Alberta?

    Really not looking forward to the Nazi carpetbaggers throwing their UCP weight around here.

  25. Two observations.

    That Alberta is a failed oil state has yet again been confirmed. The electors have rejected paying for their public services through taxes, and stranger yet getting their fair share of ownership royalties. Yet they will complain about the continued strangulation of pubic services.

    In any case, Danielle, is likely now cursed. She is saddled with a right wing rural based caucus by and large, in a province which is predominantly urban. How much longer before the UCP loses pretty much all of its urban seats as it’s so unrepresentative of city dwellers and suburbanites? I suspect the urbanites have no use for Doc. Poliver’s famous old fashioned remedy, efficacious in every case and sold with a free copy of yesterday’s National Post.

  26. So the Albertan electorate chose a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry as a Premier in a UCP goverment. It was accurately predicted by the 338Canada Alberta model (with a few more seats, as a matter of fact).
    The same model says that Poilièvre’s PC would also be elected in Ottawa, at least if we consider the Ontario-Alberta continuum only. Fortunately, the Altantic Provinces and Quebec do not buy Poilièvre. So the progressive-leaning persons in Alberta can hope to be spared somewhat at the federal level.
    As is well known (thanks to our blogger especially), Danielle Smith has a great debt to an extremist faction inside her party. She cannot possibly act according to their expectations only, since there are numerous interests and factors to take into account when governing. In the past, right-wing leaders in such a situation chose to get rid of the equivalent faction by killing most of its members. Will she be able to at least fire them? If so, there will be much infighting, as DJC makes clear very accurately.
    To an outsider, current Alberta seems quite advanced in its pregnancy of something entirely new, with a dwindling rural population and an industry that must reinvent itself or die. As regular pregancies, this one implies much suffering. But think of the baby ahead!

  27. I don’t see how some other campaign strategy on the part of the NDP would have helped. There was no chance of conservative vote-splitting in this election leaving the NDP’s chances of forming a government slim. Negative campaigning has been proven effective many times; in this case it was less effective because there is a large minority, perhaps even a majority, of Albertans who simply refuse to consider any other candidate than conservative. These people will never, ever vote NDP. One has to assume that most ‘swing votes’ went to Notley. After all, if a voter claimed to be undecided at the beginning of the campaign, then still ended up voting UCP – even given all empirical evidence showing Danielle Smith to be two-faced, power-hungry and grossly underqualified for the job of premier, not to mention beholden to powerful business interests – then we have to ask whether that voter was ever truly undecided.
    Smith is already the worst premier Alberta has ever had, and yet she was given a clear majority.
    So, there were innumerable good reasons for Alberta voters to cast a ballot in favor of the NDP, and yet it didn’t happen. Not because of a lousy campaign but because of Albertans pathological Pavlovian political predelictions.

  28. Let the postmortem begin…..

    First, The NDP will never have a better chance of beating the UCP than they did this election cycle. Smith and her band of fascists should have been a gift from Odin for the NDP to easily defeat. Instead they brought flowers to a gunfight. If they couldn’t eke out a victory over this group of crazies I’m sorry to say I don’t think they EVER will.

    As for our duly elected Dear Leader, does anyone think it matters if her majority is by 1 seat or 30? Nope, because she can push any legislation through that she desires and it has zero chance of being defeated. All this talk of having the largest Opposition in AB history is a complete waste of time because the NDP have about as much of a chance to shape policy as they did this time last year.

    In other words folks, thanks to the moronic 50% of this province, it’s the same s**t, same pile.

  29. It’s a big and angry thunderstorm and the lining’s very thin and tarnished–but at least Kaycee Madu and Tyler Shandro lost.

    The next bit of fun will be recounts. The NDP won Calgary Acadia and Calgary Glenmore by 7 and 30 votes, respectively. Another nine were decided with less than 1,000 votes. How many recounts will be ordered, I wonder?
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/battleground-calgary-alberta-ndp-ucp-danielle-smith-1.6854447

    It seems we underestimated Danielle Smith’s election team (she kept her mouth shut), and hoped too much of Rachel Notley’s team (they never did hammer home the Smith bad/ Notley good message they needed). I suspect we also underestimated David Parker and his angry rural not-a-political-party.

    Now I wonder how long it will take Danielle Smith to revert to type. How long before she announces that 1) Alberta’s broke again, 2) we have to cut, cut, cut and 3) it’s all Justin Trudeau’s fault. How long before her foot-in-mouth disease becomes active again? How long before David Parker decides Smith isn’t radical enough to suit him?

    We can expect government handouts immediately for oil companies big and small. Expect for-profit clinics to be fast-tracked, which will inevitably drain both money and staff from public health. Oh, and those affordability programs Smith promised? Oil’s selling for less than Smith budgeted (low $70s versus budget estimate of $79). We can’t afford to make Alberta affordable. Expect austerity budget updates before summer’s over.

    Looking east, we can expect much criticism and complaints about Trudeau’s government. I wonder if Scott Moe will adopt Smith as his new life coach? He was mini-me to Jason Kenney, but Danielle may be more cheerful and friendly than Mr. Moe’s used to. Still, Alberta and Saskatchewan are a natural bitching bloc (the votes will follow as night follows day). The new Danielle and Scotty Show will have plenty of material for their farce.

  30. If any Alberta NDP strategists are reading this, here is the advice I hope you take with you going forward:

    1. The NDP bet on attack ads against Danielle Smith. It might’ve worked in another province but the PC/UCP brand is still so strong in Alberta that a leader like Smith who routinely polls with low likability and trust can still win an election. The PCs didn’t collapse in 2015 because people saw Jim Prentice as entitled, arrogant and out of touch, it’s because people saw the entire PC party as an institution in that way. The brand’s value had weakened. I have no idea how, but the NDP needs to find a way to devalue the UCP brand.
    2. Remember the immortal words of Jack Layton. “Love, Hope, Optimism.” Don’t run attack ads without following up with a hopeful and optimistic message.
    3. Do more to reach out to rural voters. Are there unionized oil field workers concerned about worker safety? Are there farmers and ranchers who feel like Alberta’s agricultural industry is constantly neglected in favor of oil and gas? Don’t be afraid to play into Western Alienation a little bit. Talk about the CCF and it’s history, talk about the victories that the CCF fought and won for farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan and how the NDP can carry that torch.

    1. “Are there unionized oil field workers…?” No. Most oil & gas workers in “rural” — meaning outside the two big cities p, even though places like Lethbridge, Red Deer, Fort McMurray & Grande Prairie can hardly be called “rural” — work in what Markham Hislop has called “Little Oil”: those small well-service & industry support businesses that dot the industrial parks of small cities all over Alberta. Very few of them are unionized, & in fact many of them are contractors, not employees. The NDP has worked with Big Oil to come to a meeting of the minds on climate change, even if what they are trying to do is frowned upon by skeptics outside of Alberta — CCUS, anyone?

      But the UCP’s base is firmly entrenched in those “Little Oil” cities and towns, and the view from there is firmly against taking any action on climate, or even believing it requires action or is a real issue for humanity to address. Campaigning for climate action in this part of Alberta is like going to a Newfoundland outport and campaigning against fishing.

      1. jerrymacgp has very accurately characterized the UCP base in “little oil.” In my rural community I see this group is where almost all the votes come from for the UCP’s implicit promise of another oil boom.

        Grain farmers and ranchers did reach out to the NDP’s Ag Minister with some useful suggestions for removing the stranglehold big business has on the Ag Checkoff organizations we are forced to fund. The Ab NDP did the exact opposite. They were warned about being sabotaged by these very well funded industry-captured checkoff groups and we all know how those groups orchestrated a campaign to gut WCB protections for farm workers and the farmers themselves.

        The only consolation I can offer to the NDP is that full time farmers and ranchers are now a very tiny minority scattered across the province, so we have no electoral significance. How trivial are we? Look at the results in Rimbey, Rocky Mountain House – the NDP candidate essentially tied with Tim Hoven, the only full-time rancher on the ballot. Jason Nixon, representing “little oil” and evangelicals handily won the seat.

  31. On the bright side, roughly one third of Alberta voters showed that they have either average or above intelligence and / or a functioning moral compass. (My estimate could be high.) Given the level of discourse in Alberta, this is a surprisingly high. And many of these good people reside in Edmonton, where I live. Also, when the recession hits or oil prices tank when the Ukrainian conflict ends (here’s hoping), Rachel will not be the one in the Premier’s office.

  32. So many UCP MLAs would be unelectable laughingstocks anywhere else in Canada. Some enterprising Albertan needs to develop Alberta DIY surgery kits—as things will only get worse under the UCP. I guess I’ll have to follow my doctor to BC.

  33. BC experienced a similar situation when Christy Clarke overcame the odds in 2013.
    Whilst Clarke lost her seat and had to be parachuted into safe by election seat she pulled a fast on on the sleeping NDP.
    The NDP have seldom been politically smart.
    Good ideas and ideology are not enough to beat the power of greed ,religion and the power of the petroleum lobby!
    Such powers can and do convince people to vote against their own and best interests!

    TB

  34. I believe the supporters of Danielle Smith know what they are getting with Danielle Smith. They do not believe her lies, they merely embrace her particular brand of cruelty. Meanwhile, Take Back Alberta, like rust, will continue to slowly eat away at the fabric of our society. Danielle Smith, wanting to keep her job, will do as she is told by TBA.

  35. The results in the Alberta election were depressing as hell.
    Smith is going to do what she wants and part of that will be doing what the maga lite and the facists in training want. She’ll also be happy to let the oil and gas industry do as they please.
    When Smith starts to change the medical system and health care starts to cost more than people can afford , people who voted for smith ought to be sent a memo about how they voted. When a bad government is elected, you have to live with what you did or die because of it. –lousy health care usually results in an increase in deaths, especially the elderly.

    The UCP is not anybody’s friend. Smith may think she is in control, but really not so much. Its the people who finance her party who are in control.

    People who vote for types such as Smith, Ford, trump, etc. have all drunk the cool aid. They go with the lies because it absolves them of the bad mistakes they have made in life. They get to blame it on others. They’re not responsible for themselves. What the UPC does is creates a scenario where people think they’re part of something, that they will make life better for them and then of course they get to swagger around like they might be something Then they go back to the homes they are going to loose, can’t find a doctor, the province and the province next door is burning along with provinces in other parts of the country. But hey oil and gas is going to make us rich?????
    When I was a kid some one told me during tough times you can get half the working class to kill the other half.
    Oil and gas aren’t doing the environment any good. Doesn’t matter how much money you make, 3 minutes with out air and you die, 3 days with out water you die. 3 months without food you die.

    The adults did this to themselves in alberta. Just too bad it will negatively impact the children who don’t get to vote.

  36. Happy birthday to the man who, most of all, brought us yesterday’s exciting democratic exercise but who, despite that, was barely even alluded to during one of the most closely-fought Canadian elections since BC’s 2017 match when the 16-year BC Liberal incumbent government won its first and last minority and was toppled by a vote of non-confidence on its very first bill. Such won’t likely happen in Alberta anytime soon so he can be right proud of the party he created: it won its maiden contest and, after everything that’s happened since, its first incumbency—albeit without him.

    And that might be the best B-Day present he could ever get: his clutch has successfully fledged, both because of and in spite of him. Congratulations, Jason Kenney! You’ve earned your historical footnote in the foothills of the UCP’s continuing deKlein. And you get to eat your cake, too!

    The little king who was subject of a Queen has been succeeded by a little queen who is subject of a King—the most republican monarchists ever! Not a breeding pair—more a bother and a sinster. Last night was rightly their night: “Look out, Canada!—we got you surrounded!” From now on it’ll be her MAGAsty’s knightly rite.

    But, whether tilting Dipper windmills or the pinball machine of Canadian federalism, Danielle Smith will eventually have to confront what’s chaffing the back of her and her neo-right posse’s chaps: each roundup keeps corralling fewer dogies for branding. That’s a big and important continuity for which Rachel Notley’s Whole-In-The-Wall-Gang can be proud, but, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel!—Smith and Wesson are put up in the hacienda while you and the *oys are still eatin’ beans and blazing yer saddles out on the prairie. What happened?

    Never mind. Now is the time to consider the big picture and what the UCP win means for Canada—including BC where I live, the refugium for expat Albertans who’ve had enough. Now the whole country needs you and the gang who could shoot straight (but not hard enough to beat a blatant threat to Alberta and the whole country). You’ll be kept busy, I’m sure, and I’m relieved about that.

    It comes down to the remaining Red Tories who’ve yet to poop that diluted cookie-dough out of their systems. The NDP made progress last night that means a lot to all Canadians. We need you to invigilate the new government of Alberta. We hope you’ll do a good job, but we know that you know that, sooner or later, something will have to be done about all this.

    The most heartening thing about last night for me was that they say nice guys finish last and the NDP came in second! Like I always say: don’t ever forget to return punches, punch for punch.

    Okay?

    Okay!

    Be well, my Alberta friends.

  37. Say good bye to public health care, what little is left of it, and embrace monthly payments, deductibles, co-payments, caps on existing conditions etc as the private sector takes over completely. After all, deceitful Danielle, like a good corporatist leader, has declared a “strong mandate” to go forward with her agenda of privatizing the province for the 1% to profit, even though she only won 52% of the popular vote. But congratulations to the citizens of Edmonton though, for saying no to the corporatist agenda. But if there is one certainty in Alberta, it’s that the rural peasantry are most easily stupefied. Who but rural Albertans would shoot themselves in the foot and celebrate the fact?

    1. Rural Alberta? They will always vote for a party that spends 841 million on subsidizing their cowboy lifestyle.

      According to the last ucp budget… That sum if money will result in 2000 new jobs!

      The efficiency of the UCP is note worthy: 4.2 million spent per new job in agriculture and forestry.

      It would be more efficient to have 8000 people retire from government immediately and hire some young blood.

      This town needs an enema!

  38. Cities in Alberta separate from Alberta!

    Form your own province!

    Why?

    First and foremost:

    Because F Daniel Smith. I’d like to see more bumper stickers to that effect, on obnoxiously small electric cars.

    Also, Alberta doesn’t care about its cities. Cities just pay taxes and get nothing back. The cities are the economic engine of Alberta and we’re just sick of corrupt UCP politicians living off our hard work and doling out money to loser Albertans in small towns and farms.

    We’re also sick of city tax dollars being used to give cooperate tax breaks to oil and gas and subsidies to gigantic industrial beef farms. That’s beef that we can’t even afford now! It just gets sold to other countries! Our precious oil we pay extra for because it goes to the highest bidder out of province!

    Cities in Alberta don’t need Alberta!

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