Warren, I think there’s a problem with the linked piece. I believe the newly elected MLs’a last name begins with a “D” and not a “B” as is reported in the story.
He counters snobbery with “reverse snobbery”. And I’m sure his idea of “common sense” as a Wildrose guy bares no resemblance to actual common sense, and actual intelligence.
Still, I think there’s some truth that there is a “ruling class” in this country who lacks a lot of common sense. But it has nothing to do with living in the city. It has to do with living in this tight network of politicians, pundits, lobbyists, executives, and lawyers who have a lot of ideas in common, none of them all that sensible in 2012.
Bikman represents the core Conservative vote. Old white and crabby. They’re crabby because they are losing control of society and are thrashing around desperately before they have their heart attacks. Remember — there’s more of us than them. Eventually well work through our phony electoral system and undo every batshit policy they’re working on right now. Imagine all that hard work cheating your way to power, developing idiotic policies only to have them undone before you as your eyes mist over on the way to the floor after your aortic rupture. Conservatism was a mirage, your life a waste.
Bikman is mouthing inanities as old as the human race when villages started to appear and rural people claimed their superiority over all the village folks.
I grew up in rural Alberta and moved to the city when I went to college at are 13. Getting an education would turn me into an effete and stupid female, was their opinion.
Rural folks thought I had opted a life of crime and debauchery in the big City of Edmonton! Many rural Albertans, including my inlaws, still think the same way.
Rural Albertans are vastly overrepresented in the Legislature. The number of rural seats should be slashed and the number or urban and suburban seats should be increased.
The likes of the Wild Rose Alliance yahoos could rant and rave all they want but would have no power to impose their inanities and the mainstream of Albertans, the majority of whom have a great deal of common sense.
Did they not just stop Albertans from going over the proverbial ideological cliff?
This guy comes from the southwest of the province, which is predominantly Mormon. Many of the rest of the riding are the descendants of US immigrants who came in from the northern mid-west in the early 1900s, as did my grandparents.
The Mormon contingent originally left Utah to avoid the anti-bigamy laws Utah adopted as a condition of entering the union. The area is home to a number of notables, such as the Blackmore clan, and Cleon Skousen. Google will help you get background. Some of it is not pretty.
That said, I grew up there, and most of our neighbours were pretty good people, regardless of faith or background. A couple of my teachers in high school were openly anti-semitic, not that they had ever met any Jews.
It was a bastion of Social Credit, then Reform etc.
I grew up with the first MLA to be elected as an avowed separatist, as part of the WCC.
There is a deep grain of political nuttiness there, and while the rest of the province is socially- and commercially oriented toward Calgary or Edmonton, the orientation in the deep south of the province is toward the US. Educational ambitions are mostly toward BYU.
So yes, the politics is US Republican in nature, and they are deeply, deeply conservative. Many people hold dual citizenship.
Well said, Cynical. You are very accurate about Alberta. The rank and file membership
of Social Credit, Reform/Alliance and now Wildrose, which is basically dominated racists,
sexists, bigots, homophobes, misogynists, patriarchs, rednecks, religious fundamentalists
and Anglo-Saxon chauvinists often muse aloud about how “Canada is founded upon Christian
principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”; while at the same time
publicly denouncing religious extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan and proclaiming their solidarity
with George W. Bush’s illegal and imperialistic crusade in Iraq. Actually, Canada was founded
on the destruction of the pre-existing and non-Christian aboriginal societies, the subjugation of
the Quebecois with the triumph of the British over the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759
and as a reactionary British redoubt against the American Revolution.
For much of Canada’s long history of religious bigotry, anti-Catholic reaction was dominant,
and it was always bound up with anti-French prejudice. The 19th century was marked by
vicious campaigns and riots against impoverished Irish Catholic immigrants fomented by
predominantly Protestant rulers. Orange Ontario was deeply anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic.
Run by the White Anglo Saxon Protestant Orange Order, Toronto of the 1920s and 1930s
was known as the “Belfast of Canada.” Here and on the Prairies, the Orange Order was
heavily interpenetrated with the Ku Klux Klan terrorists whose specialty was anti-Catholic
cross-burnings. After World War II, Catholic immigrants from southern European countries
were the targets. Today Muslims (and Hindus and Sikhs) have largely displaced Catholics
and Jews as the scapegoats of choice. Many of these same individuals have since
infiltrated the ranks and membership of the Social Credit Party along with the Reform Party,
Canadian Alliance, and most recently the Conservative Party of Canada. Even today, great deal of
anti-French, anti-Catholic, and anti-Quebecois sentiment is to be found in the grassroots rank and
file membership of the new Conservative Party of Canada. The Reform Party itself was largely
founded on a core anti-French and anti-Quebecois sentiment.
Of course, this does not mean that everyone associated with the Orange Order in Canada whether
past, present or future was or is anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. Furthermore, countless Canadians
of White Anglo Saxon Protestant heritage and faith have fought hard to bring about anti-discrimination
measures and equality of opportunity for women, visible minorities, aboriginals, and peoples with disabilities.
The Protestant faith has also been at the centre of fighting for peace, equality, tolerance, and social justice in
Canada, and has made immeasurably positive contributions to Canadian society. Nor does it mean that all
Canadian Conservatives think this way. Red Tories such as former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
leader and Prime Minister Joe Clark and leader of the Ontario PC Party John Tory, are examples of kind, caring, compassionate, modern, pragmatic, and centrist Conservatives. Red Tories such as John Robarts, Bill Davis,
Larry Grossman, John Tory, Hugh Segal, Danny Williams, and the current Premiers of Alberta and Newfoundland
& Labrador, Allison Redford and Kathy Dunderdale, are prime examples that Red Toryism does work well.
The problem is the mean minded, spiteful, frugal, sour, dour, divisive, recklessly populist, unfettered capitalist,
rabidly individualistic American Republican-style Conservatives such as Rob Ford, Tim Hudak, Mike Harris,
Ralph Klein, Danielle Smith, Link Byfield, Ted Morton, et al who will ultimately discredit and destroy Canadian
Conservatism in their salivating over Ameri-KKK-a and the Republi-KLAN Party.
Conservatives such as Joe Clark and John Tory most likely read high brow, upper crust and intellectual
publications such as The Economist whereas Conservatives such as Rob Ford, Tim Hudak and Danielle
Smith most likely prefer to listen to right-wing shock jock loud mouths such as Beck, O’Reilly and Limbaugh.
Its a clear difference of not only Conservative ideology but also of class, refinement, couth, tact, temperament,
discernment and breeding (or lack thereof).
I believe I have said this before here…but I personally believe Canadian Conservatism took a wrong turn
when it stopped courting middle class professionals in BMWs and began to court Joe Six Packs in pickup trucks…
This has got to be the most idiotic comment I have seen yet on this Site. I didn’t think I was I bigot but I could be persuaded to be bigoted towards a person with such asinine views. What a patronizing bunch of crap.
Warren, I think there’s a problem with the linked piece. I believe the newly elected MLs’a last name begins with a “D” and not a “B” as is reported in the story.
Tell them.
I believe that was an attempt at humour, Warren 😉
Sorry Warren. I should have included this after my comment
http://youtu.be/oShTJ90fC34
“I think if you want me to comment on something, you have to share it before hand.”
Another not terribly impressive response.
To paraphrase Bill Mahr: Wildrose didnt win because the (city)electorate didnt understand Bumpkin…….
BTW, I wonder how Mr. Tulk is enjoying his crow…..
Um, bud, the PCs won more seats and votes than Wildrose did, not just overall, but in rural ridings too. Who is it you think has more common sense???
Money and the ethnic vote.
He counters snobbery with “reverse snobbery”. And I’m sure his idea of “common sense” as a Wildrose guy bares no resemblance to actual common sense, and actual intelligence.
Still, I think there’s some truth that there is a “ruling class” in this country who lacks a lot of common sense. But it has nothing to do with living in the city. It has to do with living in this tight network of politicians, pundits, lobbyists, executives, and lawyers who have a lot of ideas in common, none of them all that sensible in 2012.
“Common Sense” has been debased by Mike Harris, just as “accountability” has by Harper.
Why Alberta’s Wildrose Party is not long for this world
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2012/04/why-albertas-wildrose-party-not-long-world
Bikman represents the core Conservative vote. Old white and crabby. They’re crabby because they are losing control of society and are thrashing around desperately before they have their heart attacks. Remember — there’s more of us than them. Eventually well work through our phony electoral system and undo every batshit policy they’re working on right now. Imagine all that hard work cheating your way to power, developing idiotic policies only to have them undone before you as your eyes mist over on the way to the floor after your aortic rupture. Conservatism was a mirage, your life a waste.
Bikman is mouthing inanities as old as the human race when villages started to appear and rural people claimed their superiority over all the village folks.
I grew up in rural Alberta and moved to the city when I went to college at are 13. Getting an education would turn me into an effete and stupid female, was their opinion.
Rural folks thought I had opted a life of crime and debauchery in the big City of Edmonton! Many rural Albertans, including my inlaws, still think the same way.
Rural Albertans are vastly overrepresented in the Legislature. The number of rural seats should be slashed and the number or urban and suburban seats should be increased.
The likes of the Wild Rose Alliance yahoos could rant and rave all they want but would have no power to impose their inanities and the mainstream of Albertans, the majority of whom have a great deal of common sense.
Did they not just stop Albertans from going over the proverbial ideological cliff?
I think he’s trying to say the city people are wrong about gays and ethnics.
This guy comes from the southwest of the province, which is predominantly Mormon. Many of the rest of the riding are the descendants of US immigrants who came in from the northern mid-west in the early 1900s, as did my grandparents.
The Mormon contingent originally left Utah to avoid the anti-bigamy laws Utah adopted as a condition of entering the union. The area is home to a number of notables, such as the Blackmore clan, and Cleon Skousen. Google will help you get background. Some of it is not pretty.
That said, I grew up there, and most of our neighbours were pretty good people, regardless of faith or background. A couple of my teachers in high school were openly anti-semitic, not that they had ever met any Jews.
It was a bastion of Social Credit, then Reform etc.
I grew up with the first MLA to be elected as an avowed separatist, as part of the WCC.
There is a deep grain of political nuttiness there, and while the rest of the province is socially- and commercially oriented toward Calgary or Edmonton, the orientation in the deep south of the province is toward the US. Educational ambitions are mostly toward BYU.
So yes, the politics is US Republican in nature, and they are deeply, deeply conservative. Many people hold dual citizenship.
Well said, Cynical. You are very accurate about Alberta. The rank and file membership
of Social Credit, Reform/Alliance and now Wildrose, which is basically dominated racists,
sexists, bigots, homophobes, misogynists, patriarchs, rednecks, religious fundamentalists
and Anglo-Saxon chauvinists often muse aloud about how “Canada is founded upon Christian
principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”; while at the same time
publicly denouncing religious extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan and proclaiming their solidarity
with George W. Bush’s illegal and imperialistic crusade in Iraq. Actually, Canada was founded
on the destruction of the pre-existing and non-Christian aboriginal societies, the subjugation of
the Quebecois with the triumph of the British over the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759
and as a reactionary British redoubt against the American Revolution.
For much of Canada’s long history of religious bigotry, anti-Catholic reaction was dominant,
and it was always bound up with anti-French prejudice. The 19th century was marked by
vicious campaigns and riots against impoverished Irish Catholic immigrants fomented by
predominantly Protestant rulers. Orange Ontario was deeply anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic.
Run by the White Anglo Saxon Protestant Orange Order, Toronto of the 1920s and 1930s
was known as the “Belfast of Canada.” Here and on the Prairies, the Orange Order was
heavily interpenetrated with the Ku Klux Klan terrorists whose specialty was anti-Catholic
cross-burnings. After World War II, Catholic immigrants from southern European countries
were the targets. Today Muslims (and Hindus and Sikhs) have largely displaced Catholics
and Jews as the scapegoats of choice. Many of these same individuals have since
infiltrated the ranks and membership of the Social Credit Party along with the Reform Party,
Canadian Alliance, and most recently the Conservative Party of Canada. Even today, great deal of
anti-French, anti-Catholic, and anti-Quebecois sentiment is to be found in the grassroots rank and
file membership of the new Conservative Party of Canada. The Reform Party itself was largely
founded on a core anti-French and anti-Quebecois sentiment.
Of course, this does not mean that everyone associated with the Orange Order in Canada whether
past, present or future was or is anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. Furthermore, countless Canadians
of White Anglo Saxon Protestant heritage and faith have fought hard to bring about anti-discrimination
measures and equality of opportunity for women, visible minorities, aboriginals, and peoples with disabilities.
The Protestant faith has also been at the centre of fighting for peace, equality, tolerance, and social justice in
Canada, and has made immeasurably positive contributions to Canadian society. Nor does it mean that all
Canadian Conservatives think this way. Red Tories such as former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
leader and Prime Minister Joe Clark and leader of the Ontario PC Party John Tory, are examples of kind, caring, compassionate, modern, pragmatic, and centrist Conservatives. Red Tories such as John Robarts, Bill Davis,
Larry Grossman, John Tory, Hugh Segal, Danny Williams, and the current Premiers of Alberta and Newfoundland
& Labrador, Allison Redford and Kathy Dunderdale, are prime examples that Red Toryism does work well.
The problem is the mean minded, spiteful, frugal, sour, dour, divisive, recklessly populist, unfettered capitalist,
rabidly individualistic American Republican-style Conservatives such as Rob Ford, Tim Hudak, Mike Harris,
Ralph Klein, Danielle Smith, Link Byfield, Ted Morton, et al who will ultimately discredit and destroy Canadian
Conservatism in their salivating over Ameri-KKK-a and the Republi-KLAN Party.
Conservatives such as Joe Clark and John Tory most likely read high brow, upper crust and intellectual
publications such as The Economist whereas Conservatives such as Rob Ford, Tim Hudak and Danielle
Smith most likely prefer to listen to right-wing shock jock loud mouths such as Beck, O’Reilly and Limbaugh.
Its a clear difference of not only Conservative ideology but also of class, refinement, couth, tact, temperament,
discernment and breeding (or lack thereof).
I believe I have said this before here…but I personally believe Canadian Conservatism took a wrong turn
when it stopped courting middle class professionals in BMWs and began to court Joe Six Packs in pickup trucks…
This has got to be the most idiotic comment I have seen yet on this Site. I didn’t think I was I bigot but I could be persuaded to be bigoted towards a person with such asinine views. What a patronizing bunch of crap.
Excellent post, Nurie!! Well said.