01.28.2019 12:00 PM

Anyone notice what’s missing from this Alberta NDP sign?

39 Comments

  1. Christian says:

    Party logo.

  2. DaveB says:

    What’s the name of the orange party again?

  3. Daryl Gordon says:

    Obviously the word “Alberta”. The only positive for the NDP is Notley’s personal popularity. (Will not be nearly enough). Polling has UCP consistently %25 or better in front of NDP everywhere but Edmonton. UCP has almost full slate of candidates, NDP just over half. Several high profile dipper MLA incumbents not running to avoid the embarrassment of resounding unpopularity leading to crushing political defeat.
    There will be no splitting the right this time and no accidental hard left party governing Wild Rose Country.

    • doconnor says:

      ” Several high profile dipper MLA incumbents not running to avoid the embarrassment of resounding unpopularity leading to crushing political defeat.”

      That didn’t stop them in the last election.

    • Daryl,

      The people are always right, even when they will put in Jason.

      Of course, they will then forfeit their right to bitch and complain about no pipeline deal — cause once Kenney becomes premier, the odds of a deal inevitably go to zero.

      But Albertans ALREADY know that and will put in the UCP regardless.

      https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/keith-gerein-polling-suggests-jason-kenneys-popularity-is-not-keeping-pace-with-his-party

      • Daryl Gordon says:

        With Trudeau taking fire from all sides, rightfully so, let’s hope for the good of the country he forces through several energy projects (eminent domain) He might help his election chances with large infrastructure projects green lighted and the ensuing economic boost. That would also remove several planks from the PC platform.

        Most likely that’s wishful thinking, the virtue signaller in chief will just pander to his special interest groups then disappoint everyone.

        As for Notley, I would like to see her slink out of office under the cover of the smoke from the mothballed coal generating stations coming back on line. Not much sense bankrupting cold, northern nations when China, India et al expand coal power plants as fast as they can build them.

        • Ian says:

          if China and India were building coal plants nearly as quickly as climate deniers have been saying for the past 15 years, there would be tens of thousands of them. They just restarted, unfortunately, after a near 7 year status.

          and if you think the coal plants in Alberta have stopped because of environmental regulation, you know nothing about power markets. Have you considered working for the Trump DOE?

          • Fred from BC says:

            First, what exactly is a “climate denier”?

            Secondly, at one power plant per week per country (the actual stated rate) for 15 years, that’s only 1,560 power plants, not “tens of thousands”. Nice try.

      • Gord Tulk says:

        There is no “deal” for Alberta to make on pipelines.

        This is 100% the constitutional responsibility of the federal government.

        That this country hasn’t created resource and transportation corridors across the country (as Australia has done) is a decades long failing due primarily to a lack of courage to take on Quebec.

        That failing has cost this country trillions in revenues and tax able income.

        • Gord,

          Agreed.

          But would either Harper or Trudeau have had the political courage to put those BC seats in jeopardy? No politician will do anything to threaten their BC support. Hence limbo all around. But that doesn’t make it right. A route to tidewater is an absolute must in my book.

    • The Doctor says:

      Observing that the NDP is probably going to lose big and that UCP is likely to win big is not a value judgment or a statement endorsing Kenney or the UCP. It’s just a statement of a very likely possibility based on current observable facts.

      Besides which, I grew up in Alberta and people from outside of Alberta tend to assume that Albertans vote conservative for uniformly socially conservative reasons. That’s really very far from the case. A lot of support for Conservatives in Alberta, especially in places like Calgary, is purely economics-driven. A lot of Calgarians who vote Conservative are actually quite Blue Liberal/Red Tory/socially liberal when it comes to social issues like abortion, SSM etc. You really should be wary of gross generalizations.

      I agree Kenney is obviously fairly socially conservative. But not everyone that votes for him is.

      • doconnor says:

        I remember a person-on-the-street interview with a woman who had moved to Alberta. She said that she used to vote NDP, but now voted Conservative because that’s what everyone else did.

      • Gord Tulk says:

        Alberta is socially libertarian, fiscally conservative. That is pretty much the case for much of Western Canada save for highly urban areas where reliance on public infrastructure is high.

        • doconnor says:

          “save for highly urban areas where reliance on public infrastructure is high.”

          Don’t more the half the population of Western Canada live in urban areas?

        • Gord Tulk says:

          Yes but very few rely on mass transit.

        • Miles Lunn says:

          You could also say the same thing with Southern Ontario as rural Southern Ontario usually goes heavily conservative too, just not quite as big a blowouts as the Prairies although similar to the BC interior. And even Quebec, rural areas are fairly conservative, its just for cultural reasons as well as the national unity we haven’t generally see it show up in elections, off course last October’s provincial one you did see this.

          In BC and Manitoba over half live in the largest metropolitan area which are not exactly conservative strongholds although they do sometimes win in the suburbs. BC Interior and rural Manitoba are, but same can be said with rural Southern Ontario. In Saskatchewan majority live in small towns and rural areas. Alberta is an anomaly as while Edmonton is progressive like most large cities, Calgary is fairly conservative although largely on the fiscal side, not social side.

      • PK says:

        Lord of the flies

        • PK says:

          They all just tag along to fit in, scared of the social consequences of not voting for lunacy -Notley is a better Ambassador, and what Alberta needs more than anything is a pipeline – so why would you vote for somebody as unlikable as Jason Kenny? You need an ambassador, not an ideological mouth piece – a pragmatist people can trust is always a better choice than that.

    • Pedant says:

      But you quite enjoy spending the cheques coming from those rednecks, dontcha Billy?

      • Pedant,

        We all do. LOL. But in all seriousness, one day Alberta will get fed up of financing generous social programs in other jurisdictions and they will wo(man)-up. Their manifest destiny will finally be realized as they move to join the States. Their mindset has basically been American since forever, so why not?

        • Pedant says:

          Are you reprising the disgraceful 90s/00s-era Liberal smear that right-leaning individuals aren’t “real” Canadians?

          I didn’t know there was a uniform American mindset any more than there is a uniform Canadian mindset.

        • The Doctor says:

          You really have no clue. Most Albertans have no desire to be part of the United States. They’re very proud Canadians. News Flash: The fact that you don’t like Trudeau, the Liberal Party, left-of-centre policies or high taxes does not make you un-Canadian.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          Pedant,

          That ball can bounce in more than one direction: as a for instance, that sovereignists aren’t “real” Canadians.

          I take your point re: your second paragraph.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          Doc,

          It would appear that I’ve underestimated the daylight between Albertans and the Republicans south of the border. I was also wrong for inferring that they are not committed Canadians. And for both I apologize.

          Seems like we live in a nation of thirteen solitudes. What do we truly know about each other?

  4. Sam White says:

    This particular candidate (and many others) need not worry about being on holidays on election night, not paying attention to results.

    As you recall there was quite a few in 2015 who just put their names in to have a name on the ballot and found themselves MLA’s the next morning.

    Not this time.

    Book that trip and don’t look back..

    Unlike election 2015 which caught many by surprise.

    That is all.

    • The Doctor says:

      Election 2015 was not that surprising to people who had been watching closely. The old PC party showed many signs of being in serious trouble heading towards election night. And of the opposition parties at the time, the NDP were clearly in the best position to benefit from a PC collapse. Plus vote-splitting often leads to results like that. We’ve seen that movie lots of times.

    • Pedant says:

      The NDP was firmly and consistently ahead in the polls in the last week of the 2015 campaign. The final batch of polls showed them around 40%. It was not a “surprise”.

      • doconnor says:

        Three to six months earlier when they where nominated, they wouldn’t have expected it.

      • Miles Lunn says:

        It was not a surprise on election night the NDP won, but it was only about 4-5 weeks before it even seemed remotely plausible as once the write was dropped you had a three way race between the PCs, WRP, and NDP. After the debate is when Notley surged ahead which was about 10 days before the election and then it looked likely. In fact it was only about 2 weeks before the election that she even thought she had a chance.

  5. Not surprising given the way the party treated Rachel Notley.

  6. Sam White says:

    The “surprise” I was referring to was for those NDP candidates that put their names in just so the party could have a name on the ballot, then woke up the morning after the election as an MLA.

    I’m from BC and remember well the Socred’s getting tossed in the 70’s, and predicted the same for the PC’s in Alberta, who in many ways were further left than Mike Harcourts dippers in BC.

    I remember moving to AB thinking I was moving to a province full of staunch conservatives with fiscally conservative policies.

    Boy was I surprised..

  7. Dork in East York says:

    Reminds me of the “Team Martin” signs in 2006.

    • Fred from BC says:

      I was thinking that too. Didn’t Jack Layton also try that same strategy?

    • Gord says:

      In the 90s the Manitoba PCs ran as the “Filmon Team”. The PC name was still on all their signs and literature (albeit in microscopic print)

      The Manitoba NDP eventually started putting Gary Doer’s name on their signs but they at least kept the party name prominently as well (albeit rebranded as “Today’s NDP” a la “New Labour”).

      I think this is the first sign I’ve seen where the party label is *nowhere* to be found.

  8. Miles Lunn says:

    Makes a lot of sense actually Notley is more popular than her party even if her popularity is not that great, while Kenney is less popular than his party. Likely won’t work in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul as that is a rural ridings so pretty solidly UCP, but might help in Calgary, smaller urban centres, and capital region around Edmonton where UCP is favoured at the moment but if things tighten up the NDP could hold those so using your best asset makes sense. In 2015, the federal Liberals heavily focused on their leader as he was a lot more popular than their party and it worked. Whether they will do this in 2019, it will be interesting as he is not hated like some on the right think, but certainly not wildly popular like he was in 2015.

  9. PK says:

    Different topic.

    Why haven’t Canadian politicians made privacy an issue. We live in a society with systemic privacy violations that obstruct charter rights, and offer advantages to folks who benefit from said privacy violations – without privacy we live in a decidedly unequal society, and one that is no longer a free society – so why haven’t, like they have in Europe, Canadian politicians highlighted privacy as a political issue – it is fundamental to our freedom, equality rights, and systemic privacy violations offer advantages to folks for no apparent reason but being in the right crowd – that’s a big issue – fundamental to the society – why isn’t it an issue in Canadian politics?

  10. PK says:

    Nothing is more offensive, insulting and obnoxious than intellectual lightweights and bums benefiting from privacy violations and reactionary garbage propaganda – but that’s what this society has become – dilutes the professional community and enables human garbage to be obstructive to freedoms and rights –

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