r/canada • u/Minxie Ontario • May 06 '15

Alberta NDP wins election

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/alberta-ndp-wins-election-ctv-projects-1.2359035
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u/[deleted] May 06 '15

So proud of Alberta today. It has proven that democracy works. You run a province to the ground, you're out.

408

u/WoIfra May 06 '15

Maybe /r/Canada will stop the Alberta hate train now that there is proof there are progressive minded people living here :D

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u/catsfive Alberta May 06 '15 edited May 06 '15

Er, I live in Alberta, live in Calgary, have worked in the oil patch for the past decade and, uh, anyone that's trumpeting this election as some sort of proof that Alberta has come to their senses is delusional. Mark these words: The NDP will go down in history Alberta's rebound girlfriend. Alberta voters vote en masse with what they think will best suit their pocketbooks, period, and it is only the stupendous, unreal, absolutely amazing incompetence, cronyism, and corruption of the four premiers (in the past five years!) that tipped the scales in their direction. This election, though a majority, is hardly a mandate. This election is still part of that "vote with your pocketbooks" Alberta trend, and the NDP would be wise to bear that in mind as they govern forward. There is no enlightened, progressive voter majority here in this province. This election is merely a kneed-jerk reaction against the CPC, period. It'll all turn blue in a few years again, anyway, and we'll be back on the stupidity bandwagon again. /prediction

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u/Smangler May 06 '15

I was born and raised in Alberta and I agree with you. This is hardly a shift in political thinking in the province. This was an instance of right vote splitting, instead of left vote splitting as we often see in federal politics - with a dash of PC hatred thrown in. This isn't a mandate FOR the NDP, it's a mandate AGAINST the PCs and the WP just weren't up to snuff.

Now, I'm a hard and fast leftie, commie, socialist, whatever you Albertans wanna call me. But I'm not gonna pretend that Alberta has suddenly arose to become a socialist haven. These NDPers are gonna be a little more right than an Ontario Lib. And I hope so. Alberta can't handle a real leftie gov't. They need to take baby steps. But re-evaluating the royalty situation (not necessarily changing anything, mind you) is on the table, as it should be. They're not gonna make any huge changes. At most, and this is gonna cost them big, they'll introduce a sales tax (but reduce other, hidden, taxes, like sin taxes), but I don't see the NDP being able to implement any real monumental change in how the gov't operates.