SAINT JOHN, N.B. – The principal unforced error that most likely cost the Alberta NDP the May 29 election was the foolish decision to blab about a 3-per-cent tax increase for the largest corporations.
When Rachel Notley said that, with an explanation that corporations would be asked to pay just a little bit more, that once-effective line turned out to be just so 2015.
The gig was pretty well up at that moment in Calgary, and the Battleground on the Bow (with apologies to the late Johnny Hopkins) was where the whole thing stood or fell.
True to form, the United Conservative Party lied about this – inflating the 3 per cent to ridiculous 38 per cent. But that hardly matters and was probably not even necessary.
The UCP War Room, hard pressed by the NDP on Premier Danielle Smith’s repeated blunders, fell on this spectacular own goal as if it were Manna from heaven. And who can blame them?
It’s the zeitgeist. Honesty about taxes and the impact of not raising them on services will cost you every time, and not just in Alberta. The best course of action would have been simply to stay silent about this plan.
Of course, had the tax been implemented after, the UCP (in opposition) would have cried that it was never part of the election campaign. But who cares about that? All parties do this, and all parties make the same complaint when anything like it is done against their wishes.
If you think your party should be more “honest” on the tax file, then for all intents and purposes you also think your party ought to always lose.
Voters demand to be lied to about taxes. That is to say, in Alberta they refuse to elect any party or politician that tells the truth about the relationship between cutting taxes and cutting public services.
As stated in this space on election night, despite all the money it raised, the NDP also failed to come up with a focused communications plan that hammered the UCP on three or four economic policy issues – pensions, rebates that are really forced loans, and the corrupt R-Star scam to relieve petroleum companies of responsibility for the pollution they create, for three examples – and explained clearly how the NDP would do things differently.
Ms. Notley’s lacklustre, over-thought performance in the leaders’ debate didn’t help either, but on its own it would hardly have been fatal. Nor was the NDP’s decision to “ignore its base,” as some have complained, if that meant advocating policies that would have sent Calgary voters screaming for the exits. And, unfortunately, that’s a pretty low bar.
In the event, the NDP lost in Calgary by a tiny percentage in several close ridings. I’m pretty sure that if Ms. Notley had never mentioned her unnecessary tax idea that would have been enough to tip several ridings into the NDP column and make the race much closer in several others.
If Ms. Notley’s error cost the NDP the election, the question must now be asked: What will it cost Alberta?
Will Danielle Smith moderate her most outrageous policy plans? Don’t count on it
Will Premier Smith be chastened enough by her party’s election day shrinkage to modify her policy plans, or will she double down on her worst ideas?
Well, we can argue all night about whether the election result was a big whopping mandate Ms. Smith claims it is, or a squeaker in which only about 3,000 votes separated both parties. Paradoxically, there’s an argument to be made for both propositions.
My money is on the UCP persisting with its schemes to seize our pensions to risk them on the oil and gas industry, privatize public health care, create a pliable provincial police force, implement the scandalous R-Star scam to allow oil companies to renege on the polluter pay principle, and permit foreign coal companies to decapitate a Rocky Mountain or three.
When these things come to pass, don’t complain that the UCP didn’t campaign on those issues. It did, in a back-handed way, when Ms. Smith said, nope, she’d wait to talk about that stuff after the election.
If you’re a southern Alberta rancher downstream from an Australian coal mine, don’t expect much sympathy when you cry about the state of your water supply. You know how you voted.
Will Ms. Smith’s government also move to restrict the right to safe abortion? Only if Take Back Alberta Leader David Parker tells her she has to. How likely is that to happen? I’ll leave it to you, dear readers, to speculate.
Finally, how long will it take Ms. Smith to welcome the repellent poop-cookie lady, Lacombe-Ponoka MLA elect Jennifer Johnson, back into the bosom of the UCP Caucus? Probably longer than it would have taken had the seat count been tighter, but not that long just the same.
NOTE: Saint John, N.B., the putative terminus of the doomed Energy East Pipeline, may seem like a strange place to contemplate how the NDP squandered its chance to plant a grown-up government in Alberta, but what else is an Albertan supposed to think about so soon after such an unfortunate election result? One thing is for sure, Energy East never would have been built regardless of what Justin Trudeau thought or did. You see, the Irving Family didn’t really want it badly enough to care. I think I’ll go for a walk now and look at the pretty lights of Irvings’ refinery.
While what’s left of the Resistance, Scott Moe and Doug Ford, are sending out their well wishes for a Happy Pride Month, Danielle Smith is noticeably silent in her regards for the best month of the year. I suppose it maybe because, she’s already declared who her favourite most oppressed people are. And Pride Month always brings an abundance of drag queens, and we all know how tough and fierce they can be. At the risk of offending her base, she will likely keep her head down until next time she has to keep her head down. Such is the life of Dani.
And it maybe time for CONs to start acting like adults for a change. Skippy Pollivere’s weird exchange with PMJT in the HofC over their respective life experiences, caused Skippy to belch out an often repeated claim about Trudeau’s work experience venture that culminated in an NDA. Look, if Rebelmedia and the Elger Hiss of our times, Ezra Levant, can’t find that smoking gun, it’s a nothing burger. Ezra maybe a bizarre showboat, but he’s not stupid enough to risk ridicule and a crushing defamation suit. Skippy does like to get all conspiratorial because his base loves that nonsense, even if it pains his caucus.
I can’t discount political analysis because I don’t really give an airborne pigs arse about it! Here’s my song for the Dani Party! She’s all yours now! https://youtu.be/H1P6WBpVwsE?t=3
POGO, ….LOL,
so instead of ‘take this job and…..’ are you changing job to province??
Change is a necessity. We have no control. It is inevitable. Navigation? Now there in lies opportunity for ability. This change to the Dani Party? Disaster! But a learning opportunity! Another song for the UC P’n it all away again? They need all the love they can get! Those of us on the eastern slope watershed? Kiss your ass goodbye! https://youtu.be/nzOHtU8Sb3c
You say “Voters demand to be lied to about taxes. ” but I think this is just the unsophisticated, immature voters, like most rural Albertans. Adult voters understand how things work.
I believe the traditional term is “low-information voters” but in the case of rural Albertans it really should be updated to “no-information voters”.
I believe the reasons for the NDP being defeated were that Danielle Smith and the UCP had been uttering so many lies, and people were gullible, and fell for those lies. Columnists in newspapers, such as Licia Corbella, Lorne Gunter and David Staples, were publishing articles that were inaccurate, and people were believing the lies they wrote. When Danielle Smith was speaking during the provincial election debate, there were so many lies that came out of her mouth. People fell for it. There may also have been trickery involved to get the UCP re-elected. The consequences of this aren’t good. The UCP’s reduction in the corporate tax rate lost us a lot of money, which could be $10 billion, or more, by this juncture, and right after the provincial election, an oil company says they will bey laying off 1500 employees. It wasn’t mentioned before the provincial election in Alberta, because if it were, the UCP would be defeated. If proportional representation had existed, the UCP would not be in power. The NDP would.
When a Party that was supposed to win in a walk-over loses, don’t blame the opposition. Look in the mirror. This reminds me of how Hilary was supposed to be anointed, and then when she lost to Trump, it was the Russians! No, it was her all along. I live in Ontario, so I could see the forest, and not just the trees. IMHO, the people of Alberta have had a good, long look at Ms Notley, and more than enough of them didn’t like what they saw. She was in power once, and she has lost twice since then trying to get back in. Shouldn’t that tell you something?
It is very hard to predict how a change to a proportional system (whether single transferable vote in multi-member ridings, or mixed member proportional representation) would alter how people vote. Smaller parties would almost certainly pick up more of the vote than they do now. But it seems absurd to say that the NDP would have won this election with a proportional system of any kind, given that they lost the popular vote by a fair margin. You might argue that the Liberals, Alberta Party and right wing nutty parties would have taken votes away from the UCP, but the first two (and the Greens) would have been equally likely to take votes away from the NDP.
The NDP would most likely not have won in 2015 with a proportional system give that the combined WIldrose/PC vote was over 5o %. I don’t think the PCs would have propped up a NDP minority government.
DJC, hope you remembered to take your s’wester with you, and watch the clock if you make it down to the shore, those tides come in alot faster than they seem. Enjoy!!
I am in 100% agreement with you. Whoever thought out the 3% tax increase in an election when the UCP was talking tax deductions should be fired now! If RN believed this would sell in Calgary then she has been given too much credit for her political instincts. IMO this may have cost her 4 to 6 very close ridings in Calgary. Notley lost a winneable election and this unforced error will resonate for the next 4 yrs.
Hammer, I could not agree with you more. This has convinced me to attend the next NDP convention. I want an explanation for this tax stupidity and an accounting of the money spent. From the sounds of it, I will not get it since many commentators have noted that party leadership is a closed shop of closed minds. But the NDP is the only alternative we have at this time so we have to work to improve them
excerpt: ‘advocating policies that would have sent Calgary voters screaming for the exits
Excerpt: ‘Ms. Notley’s lacklustre, over-thought performance in the leaders’ debate didn’t help either, but on its own it would hardly have been fatal. Nor was the NDP’s decision to “ignore its base,” as some have complained, if that meant advocating policies that would have sent Calgary voters screaming for the exits. And, unfortunately, that’s a pretty low bar.’
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Thanks for putting this observation/assessment out there. It’s a denial of political realities to argue that NDP should have gone stronger on climate, for example, to win the election.
You are absolutely right, the clever tactic would have been to say nothing about corporate taxes. There were some nervous wavering conservatives and like a loud noise it scared them and forced them back into the herd. Enough to change the course of the election? I don’t know, but perhaps. In any event it sure helped kill any momentum the NDP has and threw the UCP a life saving issue to try hold on to or win their waverers back.
However, having said all that, I still feel the NDP did the right thing here. Maybe that seems naive, but I also realize sometimes there is no reward for that. Perhaps the NDP was remembering how they got pummeled on the carbon tax issue after they did win the 2015 election and so decided to be forthright.
I feel it is better to have some integrity even though it may come at a price. My only criticism of the NDP is they did not forcefully and convincingly make the case for this tax increase when attacked, which I think could have been done. So in my mind it was more of a communications failure than a tactical one.
Smith had the good fortune to take over the UCP after an almost miraculous turn around in oil revenues, but resource prices are a roller coaster and they may have peaked for now. It is easy to promise a lot of things and be all things to everyone when there is a lot of money. However the true test for Smith will come when things get tigher. Just ask Kenney how that went.
So in a few years voters may look much more favourably on those with integrity than those who told them what they wanted to hear, but later ended up disappointing them.
Given the recent large layoffs at Suncor, it looks like the UCP will be pushing harder for even more relief for the O & G industry.
Another tax cut for the industry — at this point why tax them at all?
R-Star. Sure. There’s no reason to burden the industry with their legal obligations. Alberta will foot the bill.
The Royalty Program has been a constant burder on the industry. I mean they do so much for Albertans by taking the fossil fuel resources.
Taxes are evil. But referendums are good, but taxes are still evil.
It’s not like anyone actually likes living in Alberta, anyway.
We’ll find out next week how close close was, but – like BC in 2005 – it looks like less than 3000 votes decided this thing. Then think about the % who voted in advance vs those who showed up on May 29th, and it truly shows the importance of getting out the vote.
Sadly, Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP are very polite and gracious losers. I would prefer they were not so gracious at losing.
Once again we see that Edmontonians and surrounding area are a lot smarter than many Calgarians and rural Albertans. The fact is they weight the facts and know that this Reform Party insanity has got to stop, while these other fools blindly vote for the word conservative and don’t care who is hiding behind the name, or what they do to us.
The truth is these young NDP MLAs are sons and daughters of true Alberta Conservatives who proudly supported the Lougheed and Getty governments and know what we have been screwed out of. All you have to do is look at what Norway and Alaska have accomplished by managing their oil industry properly to see it.
Days before the election the Toronto Star was suggesting vaccination status could be a factor. “Could COVID vaccination status shift the vote in Alberta?” the headline read. The article noted that pollsters were noticing a new factor showing up in their numbers -vaccination status. The unvaccinated were voting for Danielle Smith who declined to get a vaccine and has questioned their effectiveness. More to the point she has questioned the “one size fits all” approach that characterizes western medicine.
Unlike Rachael Notley who was a zealous promoter of the shot and even proposed the province set up a vaccine Gestapo to go door-to-door of the unvaccinated and pressure them. We know where they are, she boasted.
Vaccine reaction update. The WHO is now warning that the Covid 19 shot could induce multiple sclerosis, pointing out that t helper cells are could attack the myelin sheaths on your central nervous system which have a similar chemical profile.
Dishonesty is a hallmark of modern conservatives.
You’re a liar.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-WHO-COVID-multiple-sclerosis-591321248797
Why do you spread misinformation? Do you get some type of thrill? Smith did get vaccinated: single shot J & J while in Arizona. Also, WHO has denied all social media posts claiming a proven causal relationship between vaccines and MS symptoms. I guess Google is one of those MSM fake news outlets.
Ronmac, based on my recollection (faulty at times) of a more detailed article on this WHO study, there were only 2 instances of this problem identified in the study. Another scare tactic from your usual information sources.
Basic fact-checking tells us you are quite wrong about Danielle Smith being unvaccinated. Here the CBC’s Jason Markusoff tells us that Danielle Smith travelled to Arizona for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine. Smith had threatened to sue the CBC before, then backed down. If this weren’t true, she likely would have threatened another lawsuit. It appears you have been duped, or you’re trying to dupe us again, or voters who thought Saint Danielle of the Unvaccinated wasn’t vaccinated were duped, or something. Joke’s on you. Maybe you should do your research.
https://twitter.com/markusoff/status/1579941944725508096
“The WHO is now warning that the Covid 19 shot could induce multiple sclerosis…”
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-WHO-COVID-multiple-sclerosis-591321248797
More YouTube science.
OMG!
Do you people never stop believing / promoting / making-this-crap-up?
Hogwash.
More Covid LIES. The Covid-19 vaccine does NOT trigger MS. Do some damn reading before you post your anti-vaccine bullshit.
Alex: I contemplated deleting this one when I read it but, as I am on the road and lacked the time to check all claims made in comments, left it to my readers to respond, which they have. It was probably a mistake not simply to send it to the trash. DJC
Probably quite a few unvaccinated people were prevented by life circumstances from going out to get shots, having small children or caring for disabled relatives, etc., and would have been happy to have someone come to their homes to give them the shots.
Not all unvaccinated people are stupid rabid antivaxxers who pretend to be victims when they are just a**holes who are too cowardly to get a little shot that they would barely feel.
Also, it looks like the disease covid-19 may contribute to people developng MS. Not the vaccine of course.
https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/news-posts/2023/01/10/ms-could-be-triggered-covid-19-via-molecular-mimicry/
Fact-check on ronmac’s false claim
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-WHO-COVID-multiple-sclerosis-591321248797
“Fiol also noted that the abstract’s introduction makes it clear that other research has found that the type of nervous system damage caused by MS occurs more often after COVID infection than after COVID vaccination.”
Ronmac: This is a fine diversion, but beware of clickbait headlines. The MS link has been reported in a patient only three times out of the hundreds of millions vaccinated in North America and the EU as of January 2022.
Below is a relevant quote from the Journal of Neuroimmunol reprinted by the National Institute of Health. It uses high-level abstract language to say this is a coincidence or the patient was getting MS anyway – no causal connection:
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” there have only been three reports of newly diagnosed MS following exposure to mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The association cannot be determined to be causal, as latent central nervous system demyelinating disease may unmask itself in the setting of an infection or a systemic inflammatory response.”
=============== https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34922126/
Given the very fragile nature of messenger RNA, long term effects seem unlikely. Evolution has created mRNA to quickly fall apart. The real achievement of the new vaccines was protecting the mRNA long enough for it to alert the body to Covid. It is also the reason the effectiveness of the inoculation falls off so quickly.
I would be more worried about Dani’s Gestapo coming around to steal my land than a relatively harmless prick.
It was an official WHO release. Discussion here.
https://youtu.be/I9S2jooTxkQ
And as was pointed out to you, that official release was misreported. To put it kindly.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-WHO-COVID-multiple-sclerosis-591321248797
What did most people in this province vote for? They seem to have voted against so much. They have voted against public healthcare and the Canada Pension Plan. They have voted against themselves and others. They have voted for locking people up indefinitely against their will. They have voted for a law-breaking premier whose cozied up to a hate monger. They have voted for anger. The have voted against trans children. They have voted for a police force responsive to politics rather than justice. They have voted for Ron DeSantis-style government.
They are the victors.
It’s hard to imagine how friendships, let alone the province, can survive this great divide. How can the chasm between core values and belief systems that are so far apart be bridged? How can one accept that the majority want to make life much worse for the minority? Was my theory about Covid-induced cognitive impairment priming the pump for authoritarianism correct? Or was it because so many religions require suffering, even self-imposed, as the route to redemption and the ticket to heaven? Is believing in fairy tales easier than seeing reality?
I don’t know. Secular society was the loser on May 29. Intolerance and indifference were the winners. You cannot vote for a divisive premier and a divisive party without voting for “us” against “them”. This is where we are as Canadians living in Alberta, whether all of us want it or not. Forget cooperation and collaboration. Albertans wanted conflict and strife, less freedom in the name of freedom. Now let’s see it unfold.
Voted against themselves????? Holy hell you are a sorry bunch of losers. Democracy is great until the NDP doesn’t win, right? Thanks for showing your true colours.
I was disappointed I did not hear more specifics on the NDP health care platform. By all accounts, it was thoughtful and detailed, but it was hard to find and seemingly never made front and centre. On the health care file alone, rural Alberta should have ripe for the pickings. However, I feel that the NDP comms team never went for the UCP jugular on this issue.
The NDP platform called for a 3 percentage point increase in the provincial corporate tax rate from 8% to 11%. This is a 37.5% increase.
The UCP was much better prepared to pounce this time than in 2015 when then Premier Jim Prentice fumbled on the difference between percentage point increase and per cent increase during the leader’s debate.
It also didn’t help matters to have economists like Trevor Tombe criticizing the NDP for failing to account for the revenue leakage that would occur from the increase. While Tombe did later walk back a widely quotely comment that the revenue decline could be greater than 50%, the damage was done.
Meanwhile, the NDP’s pledge to reduce the small business tax rate by 2 percentage points to zero on the first $500,000 of active business income got lost in the furore over the increase in the tax rate for larger, profitable corporations.
Usually I appreciate your clear interpretations of political events. You have an amazing ability to place matters in a revealing historical context.
But, I have to call you on the suggestion the NDP made a major strategic mistake by signalling their intention of raising corporate income tax from 8 to 11 per cent (which, if you were anal enough, you could interpret as a 38 increase).
This kind of strategy is what makes so many people so cynical and frustrated with politics. The problem was that Rachel Notley and the NDP didn’t push the UCP vigorously enough to explain the revenue sources for all their promises. And provide a clearer link between its spending plans and how to raise the money. Despite the naysayers, there are many Albertans who understand budgeting.
A big part of thee UCP campaign was to keep pointing out that the NDP did not signal the intention, in the 2015 election, to support a carbon tax.
The NDs should have done a better job of defending that during this election, but, as Alberta burned, the party was too timid to raise the issue of climate change.
If a party of principles, which I say the NDP is, has to hide significant intentions, then we’re done for.
The Party and Rachel Notley have some tough debriefing to do. Rachel is a good campaigner, but a certain energy and joy were missing in 2023. After the leaders’ debate, the dye was cast. It was horrific to watch a super-confident Smith commit misinformation after misinformation. Rachel flailed somewhat, unsure whether to look at the camera or Smith.
She has been a wonderful leader. Before 2015, the 2023 result would have been considered an absolute miracle. She’s been an MLA for 15 years, and I wonder if she;s thinking what the New Zealand prime minister said when she resigned after fewer years in office: “The tank is empty.” It’s Rachel’s call to make, but, if she lacks any enthusiasm for putting all her energy into her role as Opposition Leader, then there are other people in the Party who could assume the leader’s mantle.
For what it’s worth, Albertans should be looking to eastern Kentucky for an illustrative example. Coal jobs, much like oil jobs, started to radically disappear in the 90s, as the industry embraced automation. At the time it was sold as a boon to the industry, everyone will work less hard but make more money. What actually happened is it decimated the workforce, particularly union workers which no longer mine coal in eastern Kentucky, even though coal production is happening at a higher rate today than ever before. What happened next sounds a lot like alberta. A murky lobbying group called “friends of coal” (I <3 oil and gas , anyone ?) did their best to whip these workers into a fake populist frenzy to distract them from the real reason they lost their jobs. Automation.
Oil and gas workers aren’t losing their jobs because of climate change, it’s because of automation, and these people have absolutely been lied to. Unless we (the broader left) can tackle this issue and bring these people on board they will absolutely be the foot soldiers of a fascist wave.
“I hate to say I told you so.” I actually hate how many times I’ve said this while watching the NDP—my party—squirm at the thought of sticking a thumb square in the enemy’s eye, splitting a few lips and busting a few heads. There.
I’ve already reviewed here what happened in BC enough times not to bother going into detail again but, in brief, we have proof, amply illustrated, that trying to compare favourably with voters by turning the other cheek is unsuccessful but parrying with the enemy and hitting back hard when it sticks a thumb in your eye gets results.
Danielle Smith certainly made an almost perfect contrast with compassion, temperance, prudence, and responsibility—let alone common sense— but it wasn’t enough to simply stand Rachel Notley passively beside her (maybe it was the blonde vs brunette, the crisp diction vs marbles, and the clear-eye vs the squinty that emboldened that lazy tactic). Election campaigns are war and no place for pacifist ideologues to strategize. Strategy is war.
Albertans didn’t need a reasonable tax proposal to make up their minds (apparently it did, though for unreasonable reasons), it needed teeth and blood (figuratively speaking) on the floor. Rachel Notley had it halfway fair but failed to attack when Smith casually poured lie after lie upon her. The tax proposal would surely invite attack but it definitely would have been better to not mention it if there was no intention to defend them forcefully.
Could the NDP have won if Notley had simply omitted whatever her party’s tax plans were? I don’t doubt that if it wasn’t specifically this issue, Danielle Smith would have attacked something else, anything else, even if she had to make it up. So there was no other way: election campaigns are war and war is fighting like your life depends on it.
The better angel is who we want AFTER the election. This is the NDP’s toughest nut to crack: the people we depend on to do party work between elections —when our party is usually in opposition in some parliament or another —typically feature the laudable idealism members hold dear—they have to in order to keep up morale; but they’re the wrong people to wage war, its only ideal being victory. But that reality unfortunately rubs a lot of Dippers’ ideology the wrong way. Well, you can eat the meat without visiting the abattoir.
Will Danielle Smith respect the fact that Albertans have given her and her party a very-nearly failing grade? I assume that’s rhetorical sarcasm because as long’s we’ve known her up until this very day she has not shown any democratic sense and, the UCP’s recent thin victory notwithstanding, not much political acumen, either.
So the answer has to be: sure she will! She’ll be the absolutely best for all Albertans and a paragon of Canadian federalism! She has a mandate so why wouldn’t she be?
(Reading the link to the Financial Post article about Irving Oil being overtly tepid about refining dilbit piped all the way to New Brunswick, I noticed how 2016 it was: it implied Alberta dilbit is the same as Saudi oil when it said the only reason Alberta dilbit fetched a lower price was because it didn’t have access to tidewater and was forced to accept a discounted price by piping the stuff to refineries in the USA. Let’s just skip right over all the now-disproved conspiracy theories about Americans having Alberta over a barrel (excuse the pun) and bring it right up to the present: Alberta dilbit fetches a lower price because it is the lowest grade of petroleum which costs more to upgrade. There never was any price agreement with “Asian buyers” Big Bitumen promised, and no reason to expect them to pay more for dilbit than it’s really worth. How things have changed in the meanwhile.)
At this point, I am convinced the NDP would lose even if they ran against Satan himself. Notley and her crew are incurable losers who will always find a way to lose, even when they are guaranteed to win. It’s so frustrating and painful to watch for us progressive socially caring people of Alberta. I hardly know where to start listing all the critical errors that were made during the campaign. Someone should write a book on it. We could call it How to Lose an Election by doing what the NDP does.
Athabascan: Satan would probably win against most candidates because he knows how to campaign effectively. As for that book, now that he’s an NDP supporter, sort of, perhaps Doug Griffiths could write. He could call it 13 Ways to Destroy Your Election Campaign. DJC
I think you must be correct about the 3% for Calgary men. On the other hand, I wonder how well we take into account how and why rural women vote. Think Irene Parlby, not Ernest Manning. Think eugenics, Residential schools, prohibition, Christian education, home remedies. They WILL protect the men and children from themselves and they don’t mind electing stupid men to do it. I was appalled to see a photo of a University roommate of mine campaigning with Jennifer Johnson. My old friend and I are both independent, highly educated, well-read and bloody-minded. We have the same background. She went back home, I stayed in Edmonton. I have always voted NDP for the GOOD of HUMANITY. I am starting to become really confused however about what I am voting against.
Someone once said, never underestimate the stupidity of the average voter. Especially, out in Hooterville, Alberta. If you need proof just look at what has happened to the Republican Party.
ronmax,
The WHo said research may have found a link to m s, bus there is almost no evidence of the link at this time. Two individuals found to have m s had the covid vaccine around the same time, but it seems to be a very tenuous link.
One of the researchers who investigated this said that there is a much greater likelihood of m s in unvaccinated people than in vaccinated people.
Here is a link to a nuanced A P article about this claim.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-WHO-COVID-multiple-sclerosis-591321248797
LMAO so flat out lying is how Dave thinks the NDP should have stolen the election. Wow. Just… wow. I saved this blog post so I can post it the next election. Can’t have Albertans forgetting what nasty, anti-democratic trolls you progressives are. This will come back to bite you. “Never write angry”.
Eyeroll. DJC
It is very hard to put your finger on why an election is lost. You seem to be advocating a Mulcair type strategy (from 2015) for the NDP, and that is more or less what Notley’s team were doing. Did not work for Mulcair as the liberals were able to appear more progressive and energetic (those were the days !).
I have done a lot of campaigning and door knocking at elections for the NDP, and not once has corporate tax been raised as an issue. Personal income tax, yes (“NDP raised my taxes to 15 % ” This was in 2019, and those making this claim must have been very rich (look at the threshold where 15 % kicks in) and oblivious to the fact that Prentice had already brought out a budget that raised taxes on the wealthier , and made everyone pay a health care levy) ! Other issues were – did not like the aggressive attack adds and tone of campaign (VERY common complaint even from our supporters in both 2019 and 2023), worried about not telling parents about children joining GSAs, worries about energy jobs disappearing, concerns about healthcare) .
When the UCP were saying that going from 8 percent corporate tax to 11 percent is a 38 % increase they were pretty close. It is a 37.5 % increase. Jim Prentice was condescending with his “Math is hard” comment but he was also right. Going from 10 % corporate tax t0 12 is indeed a 20 % increase. But who cares? Corporate tax is only paid on profits, which companies are able to disguise in many ways (reinvesting in equipment, paying bonuses to CEOs etc). It might make more sense to tax dividends, capital gains, stock options and all those things more effectively and at a higher rate, and not worry so much about the corporate rate. Cutting it seems to result in loss of revenue without creating expansion and jobs (companies do other things with the savings as we saw under the UCP). Raising it causes a stink and less revenue than would be predicted since companies find new ways to reduce their reported profits.
Prentice lost, in my view, because he told some truths about the economy, raised income taxes, produced a stingy mean spirited budget, and called an election earlier than was necessary. He then ran a really lacklustre campaign. I remain completely unconvinced that the defections from wild rose had much to do with it. Just look at all the polls from the 2-3 months after the floor crossings. By announcing his budget he aroused the animosity of the WildRosers and like minded people because he raised taxes, and of the NDP because there would be cuts to services, a health care levy, and increases to personal taxes with no accompanying increase to corporate tax.
My 2 cents.
In a province where the Tories, at their worst, can win 30 out of 34 federal seats, it would require a small miracle for the NDP to defeat a united right-wing. When it happens, it will happen when the economy is a shambles and people are unhappy, even in the small cities (the agricultural and oil seats are never going to vote NDP). I think an effort to blame either the leader’s performance in a debate or an effort to explain how she would pay for all her promises is an escape from the realities of this province’s ideological and economic realities. We remain, at this point, a petro-state.
The brand of the NDP has been riddled ,along with and in conjunction with such harm ,MS.Notley too ,
Before death to Trudeau ,was death to Notley and lots of side kicks and assembly workers ,
Doesn’t help with manufactured regions either,
The Brand has long been diminished,Ms.Notley doesn’t have a chance ,but brings some hope for Albertans like decorum ,Intelligence and respect ,which we deserve ,
Reminds me of Alaska ,when Sasquatch s are victorious
It’s amazing that a tax increase of 3% on corporations, who are soaking the public and making record profits, makes the headlines, raising the ire of the public, but an increase in your cost of living from groceries to cell phone bills of 30% or more rarely makes the news. As usual, the corporate press magnifies and amplifies misinformation (the 38%) while neutralizing the real cost increases of living, to make the 1% richer and more powerful. Isn’t this corporatocracy we live in just wonderful? Welcome to your neo-feudal, corporate state where your new rulers are the corporate class.
One last thing. On the subject of the porcine air force? I can only afford a round for my friends, plus the postage! https://apnews.com/article/book-ban-school-library-bible-fc025c8ccf30e955aaf0b0ee1899608a
I have heard this argument in a couple places, and while it definitely seems possible I think I would need to see polling that the corporate tax rate moved the needle… Was that something on voters’ minds in Calgary? Or is the argument that the UCP’s commercials about whether we can afford more years of Notley wouldn’t have run if the NDP had a platform with no tax increases? And that those were particularly successful swinging Calgary voters?