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Alberta Provincial Politics

If an election was held today, who would you vote for?

  • UCP

    Votes: 6 11.1%

  • NDP

    Votes: 42 77.8%

  • Liberal

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Alberta Party

    Votes: 3 5.6%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Total voters
    54
DougB said:
Lots of places spend far less on health and education than does Alberta (ex. Germany, Australia, Japan, Quebec) while offering similar to better health and education outcomes. Past a point, spending does not correlate with quality.
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Quebec spends more per capita on both health and education than Alberta does. I don’t know about Japan snd Germany, but they are also much more densely populated countries and gain some efficiencies from that. Alberta has hospitals and schools scattered around the province covering a large area.
Australia spends 50% more per capita on Education than Alberta does. Health numbers for Australia are all over the place so it’s hard to compare.
As far as in Canada, Alberta is at the bottom for education spending and near the bottom for health spending.
I agree that throwing more money at it doesn’t necessarily make it better, but considering how rich a province Alberta is, we should be up near the top.
 
DougB said:
Mentioning issues like trusting professionals is falling victim to the culture wars, aka noise.

What is the point of incremental social spending if it doesn't deliver measurable results? Sure sending more would be #progressive, but so what?

Operational spending must by definition self-fund.
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I went back and forth about responding but maybe its not a culture war, maybe some people give equal (or even more) weight to social considerations as they do to economic ones.

DougB said:
The decision is between dollars and dollars. Social policy is a fallacy as government follows on social issues,. Social policy is a construct of political scientists as it is great at eliciting emotions to obfuscate holding government to account for delivering measurable results. In an individualistic society, government hasn't had the ability to influence social values in a long time, probably the 70s, but definitely not post-Internet. The NDP is only better for government employees.
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Your decision is between dollars and dollars not mine, but the UCP seems to be on a spending spree of late so your options seem limited.

If social policy is a fallacy then perhaps DS (and the UCP) could stop bringing their own beliefs into government. The recent disastrous failed roll out of the new elementary school curriculum is a great example of how government has the power to influence social values. Good thing our "overpaid" teachers mass rejected it and drove the government to significantly alter it. Our neighbors directly to the south are trying to pass this:

www.iflscience.com

New Montana Bill Would Prevent Schools Teaching "Scientific Theories"

When does a theory become a fact? This bill claims to know.
www.iflscience.com www.iflscience.com

If you don't think portions of non-urban Alberta that wouldn't love this I don't know what to tell you. DS and the UCP pander to these people and would love to implement garbage like this. Our teachers shouldn't be the ones in the line of fire on these issues. I have a moral obligation to vote against the UCP regardless of if I believed the UCP was actually the better steward of tax payer dollars but they haven't proven particularly good at that outside of being during a recovery in oil price.

Just going to leave this here:

www.takingbackalberta.ca

Taking Back Alberta

www.takingbackalberta.ca www.takingbackalberta.ca

"WHO WE ARE
Founded by David Parker in 2022, Take Back Alberta (TBA) is a grassroots movement built to advance freedom and transfer power from the ruling elite to the people of our province.

TBA is supported by a vast, grassroots volunteer network of freedom-loving Albertans from all walks of life."

Suspiciously absent any comment on fiscal conservatism, and whether you'd like to believe it or not these are the people backstopping a healthy number of UCP candidates but continue believing this is a dollars to dollars decision.
 
NDP just announced a plan to allocate $200 million to the Greater Downtown Revitalization, in the form of a downtown post-secondary campus including residences, if elected…

www.wellandtribune.ca

Alberta NDP promises $200 million to create post-secondary campus in downtown Calgary

CALGARY - Alberta’s Opposition NDP is promising up to $200 million to create a post-secondary campus in downtown Calgary if it wins the upcoming elect...
www.wellandtribune.ca www.wellandtribune.ca
 
I'm all aboard for downtown revitalization, but I'm not 100% sure about this. U of C and Mount Royal have both had programs downtown, but those have tended to retreat back to campus. A university campus is a thing for a reason from a research perspective - you want your business researchers talking to the economists talking to the political scientists talking to the historians talking to the sociologists talking to the psychologists talking to the behavioural scientists talking to the biochemists talking to the chemical engineers talking to the civil engineers talking to the kinesiologists talking to the dance department. And so on. For undergrad students, it would be hard to pick up an English elective or whatever if you have to take a train up to campus; the class break is only 10-15 minutes.

Other than SAPL which is already downtown (and my impression is they could stand to talk to more people), there's not a lot of other faculties that make sense. Social Work is relatively independent; you do two years of general studies then two of social work for a BSW, so that might work, and there's plenty of inner city field opportunities. The business school at SAIT perhaps, although it seems like there would be less crossover (you don't have to do an elective in welding or whatever), there is some crossover from other schools in terms of general courses.

The one university that needs space and could move entirely is Alberta University of the Arts, which would be really cool downtown, and help infuse the cultural sector.
 
ByeByeBaby said:
I'm all aboard for downtown revitalization, but I'm not 100% sure about this. U of C and Mount Royal have both had programs downtown, but those have tended to retreat back to campus. A university campus is a thing for a reason from a research perspective - you want your business researchers talking to the economists talking to the political scientists talking to the historians talking to the sociologists talking to the psychologists talking to the behavioural scientists talking to the biochemists talking to the chemical engineers talking to the civil engineers talking to the kinesiologists talking to the dance department. And so on. For undergrad students, it would be hard to pick up an English elective or whatever if you have to take a train up to campus; the class break is only 10-15 minutes.

Other than SAPL which is already downtown (and my impression is they could stand to talk to more people), there's not a lot of other faculties that make sense. Social Work is relatively independent; you do two years of general studies then two of social work for a BSW, so that might work, and there's plenty of inner city field opportunities. The business school at SAIT perhaps, although it seems like there would be less crossover (you don't have to do an elective in welding or whatever), there is some crossover from other schools in terms of general courses.

The one university that needs space and could move entirely is Alberta University of the Arts, which would be really cool downtown, and help infuse the cultural sector.
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Yeah. You need to move an entire programs or build a campus that is capable of delivering an entire program.

If UCalgary is unwilling to find a way to make something work I’m sure someone will be willing to step into the breach given a funding commitment. Organizations are willing to stretch to make things work with funding.
 
Also in regards to the previous conversation about education spending. The NDP increasing spending on Education would only be playing catch up. I'm not sure why there was a general trend in decreasing transfers (Covid related?), but Alberta had a much higher decrease than the other provinces.

April-19-2023-FIgure-1.png


 
Surrealplaces said:
nationalpost.com

Rahim Mohamed: Falling UCP fortunes in northeast Calgary could spell trouble for Danielle Smith

Alberta’s fast approaching provincial election is set to be a game of inches, with Calgary’s northeast quadrant likely to take centre stage
nationalpost.com nationalpost.com
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"Highly competitive northeast quadrant likely to take centre stage" ... ha!

This is a dumb take - NE Calgary is lost to the UCP, as shown by Sawhney's bailout, and Janet Brown's quadrant by quadrant poll results.

It's obvious that the outer suburbs in the NW, SW, and SE are where the election will be won or lost. If the UCP devotes an hour/nickel to holding on to seats in the NE it is a waste of time/money.
 
zagox said:
It's obvious that the outer suburbs in the NW, SW, and SE are where the election will be won or lost. If the UCP devotes an hour/nickel to holding on to seats in the NE it is a waste of time/money.
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Yeah, it's a redundant take. Everyone and their dog has known for a long time that the NE is done for the UCP. It'll be the suburban riding s from SW or SE (Calgary Glenmore, Calgary Fish Creek, or Calgary Peigan) that decide it for Calgary.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Also in regards to the previous conversation about education spending. The NDP increasing spending on Education would only be playing catch up. I'm not sure why there was a general trend in decreasing transfers (Covid related?), but Alberta had a much higher decrease than the other provinces.

View attachment 470798

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Alberta cut post secondary because they needed to cut somewhere and promised not to cut K-12 and health, which were hit hard too solely via increased demand via population growth.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Naheed from the top rope!

www.ctvnews.ca

Naheed Nenshi: Danielle Smith has surpassed all expectations. Not in a good way.

Time will tell if Danielle Smith proves to be a good premier after all, but one thing is certain, writes Naheed Nenshi. 'She has done what I would have thought impossible: she’s made many Albertans long for the leadership of Jason Kenney.'
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
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Petulant, narcissistic and off-topic - I'd expect nothing less of Nenshi. He needs to find a new career as he isn't going to win a federal Calgary seat for the Liberals or get a Senate appointment
 
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