Hey! It's been a while. For some reason, I have been distracted this week. A likelihood is that we have reached the date of our Provincial Election. Polling Day is Monday 23. Advance polls were yesterday as well as today and Saturday.
For those of you unfamiliar with the politics of this province of Canada, Alberta, let me give you a thumbnail: the same political party (Progressive Conservative) has been in power for 41 consecutive years. Hardly a parliamentary democracy. And the party name may be an oxymoron. They are more Conservative than Progressive! In our last Provincial election, only 4 out of 10 eligible voter=s bothered to vote! Conservative power was simply taken for granted. This has meant that a whole long list of "unusual" arrangements exist in our province, and the scope of corruption is vast.
Since the last election, a pair of new parties have emerged. The Alberta party is a generally centrist party, with much in common with Liberals. They emerged because people within the Conservative party wished to step gently to the left, and the Liberal Party was not an option for them, as the Liberals have a bad name in this province, largely because of events that are over thirty years old!
The Wildrose Alliance Party burst onto the scene after the Conservatives passed a series of legislative bills effectively gutting property owners of their right to challenge provincial expropriation, even denying them access to the courts. Wildrose began with furious rural property owners, and gathered steam from there. Their policies are vague, but considerably to the right of even the Conservatives. They might be called Hyper-Conservatives, angry Conservatives, or - if you are cynical - The Canadian Tea Party.
Other parties in the mix are the Liberal Party (under a new leader, they are revitalized, aggressive. and competent on the centre-left), and the New Democratic party, a social democratic party with long socialist roots, but standing now just a bit to the left of centre.
The big news in this election is that, for the first time in forty years, there is a possibility that the PCs will be unseated by the Wildrose party: Conservatives being bested by conservatives. The polls show the two parties virtually tied, with 25% of voters still undecided. That fact is a new twist to Alberta politics. And it provided a potential opening for candidates from more progressive parties (the Liberals, Alberta party and NDP) to come up the middle and do serious damage!
Those of us who are not conservative, or Conservative, are fearful of a Wildrose victory. They have virtually no candidates with legislative or even administrative experience; their policies are fuzzy and appear to threaten human rights (some of their folk are anti-gay and pro-Caucasian), and they rise on one issue: the land use bills recently passed. Every other party but the PCs have declared they will repeal these bills, but the Wildrose got there first and makes the most noise.
So…! This weekend will provide plenty of excitement and anxiety for many Albertans. Hopefully, this will produce a somewhat higher voter turn-out on Monday. Our last election recorded the lowest voter turn-out in a Provincial election in Canadian history! In Alberta, this aspect of democratic functioning hangs in the balance! I'll keep you posted on this.
A personal word: sorry for the history lesson. It's hard to understand Alberta without knowing some of the history. My personal stake in all this relates to my fear of a Wildrose government. As well as tolerating gay bashing, the party leader, Danielle Smith also backs away from accepting climate change science (threatening environmental concerns locally) and accepted one candidate's declaration that he was a better-suited candidate than his opponents, who are brown - one a Muslim, the other a Sikh! We could be stepping back into the late nineteenth century out here, folks. And I am frightened.
For those of you unfamiliar with the politics of this province of Canada, Alberta, let me give you a thumbnail: the same political party (Progressive Conservative) has been in power for 41 consecutive years. Hardly a parliamentary democracy. And the party name may be an oxymoron. They are more Conservative than Progressive! In our last Provincial election, only 4 out of 10 eligible voter=s bothered to vote! Conservative power was simply taken for granted. This has meant that a whole long list of "unusual" arrangements exist in our province, and the scope of corruption is vast.
Since the last election, a pair of new parties have emerged. The Alberta party is a generally centrist party, with much in common with Liberals. They emerged because people within the Conservative party wished to step gently to the left, and the Liberal Party was not an option for them, as the Liberals have a bad name in this province, largely because of events that are over thirty years old!
The Wildrose Alliance Party burst onto the scene after the Conservatives passed a series of legislative bills effectively gutting property owners of their right to challenge provincial expropriation, even denying them access to the courts. Wildrose began with furious rural property owners, and gathered steam from there. Their policies are vague, but considerably to the right of even the Conservatives. They might be called Hyper-Conservatives, angry Conservatives, or - if you are cynical - The Canadian Tea Party.
Other parties in the mix are the Liberal Party (under a new leader, they are revitalized, aggressive. and competent on the centre-left), and the New Democratic party, a social democratic party with long socialist roots, but standing now just a bit to the left of centre.
The big news in this election is that, for the first time in forty years, there is a possibility that the PCs will be unseated by the Wildrose party: Conservatives being bested by conservatives. The polls show the two parties virtually tied, with 25% of voters still undecided. That fact is a new twist to Alberta politics. And it provided a potential opening for candidates from more progressive parties (the Liberals, Alberta party and NDP) to come up the middle and do serious damage!
Those of us who are not conservative, or Conservative, are fearful of a Wildrose victory. They have virtually no candidates with legislative or even administrative experience; their policies are fuzzy and appear to threaten human rights (some of their folk are anti-gay and pro-Caucasian), and they rise on one issue: the land use bills recently passed. Every other party but the PCs have declared they will repeal these bills, but the Wildrose got there first and makes the most noise.
So…! This weekend will provide plenty of excitement and anxiety for many Albertans. Hopefully, this will produce a somewhat higher voter turn-out on Monday. Our last election recorded the lowest voter turn-out in a Provincial election in Canadian history! In Alberta, this aspect of democratic functioning hangs in the balance! I'll keep you posted on this.
A personal word: sorry for the history lesson. It's hard to understand Alberta without knowing some of the history. My personal stake in all this relates to my fear of a Wildrose government. As well as tolerating gay bashing, the party leader, Danielle Smith also backs away from accepting climate change science (threatening environmental concerns locally) and accepted one candidate's declaration that he was a better-suited candidate than his opponents, who are brown - one a Muslim, the other a Sikh! We could be stepping back into the late nineteenth century out here, folks. And I am frightened.
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