Well Connecticut, US, did have the Connecticut for Lieberman party, whether they wanted it or not.
RickJay:
Just to be pedantic,
There’s no PC party at the federal level.
Such Conservatives as are saying anything, according to the (as always) breathless and poorly headlined Huffington Post article, are Alberta Conservatives who’re doing favours for provincial allies. The federal Conservatives are, quite rightly, not taking a strong stance on who should win a provincial election, which is the way it always goes.
It’s largely a fallacy to think that like government in provincial and federal governments get along, or that unlike governments are enemies. There are links between provincial and federal politics because many of the players and their minions are linked up and they have to play nice in public, but when the business starts that basically matters to a provincial government is how much money the Feds give them, and what matters to the feds is how much the province cooperates with whatever the feds want to do. A Liberal government will cheerily cooperate with the Tories if they get lots of transfer money, and a PC government will cast the federal Tories as the devil incarnate if they don’t feel enough money is being given to them (as happened in Newfoundland quite recently.) Even at the local level provincial and federal counterparts might get along great or might despise each other. I have personal knowledge of a case in the NDP where nearly provincial and federal legislators each consider the other to be roughly equivalent to war criminals.
There is also, of course, the fact that provincial parties don’t always map to federal ones. Alberta has no significant Liberal Party, Quebec has no significant PC or Conservative Party, Saskatchewan has no sitting Liberal or PC members but does have the super-originally-named Saskatchewan Party, and so on.
1)My apologies, apparently I was stuck in 2003…
2)They are statements from elected federal ministers and senators, so we should just ignore what they have to say because it didn’t come straight from the desk of the PMO? I just thought it was amusing that Rona Ambrose is playing the Prophet of Economic Doom. I’m also well aware of how the game is played between provincial and federal politics, and most of the time having people with similar mindsets to your own makes things easier to deal with, although as you have pointed out, that’s not always the case.
Absolutely, especially in Alberta.
And the Manning Centre has been importing Republican tactics in the past few years, for the benefit of Conservative party operatives:
From a 2012 article
OVER TWO DAYS in January, 2010, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy held a campaign school at Delta Ocean Pointe Resort in Victoria in preparation for the 2011 election. … “Topics covered included voter identification. Discussion ensued about suppression techniques. Instructors explained voter suppression tactics were borrowed from those used by the US Republican Party. Many kinds of suppression calls were canvassed. Another instructor gave detailed explanations of how robocalls worked, techniques for recording messages, plus costs involved. He distributed his business card upon request. Instructors made it clear that robocalling and voter suppression were an acceptable and normal part of winning political campaigns.
Election Day pre-analysis
(Alberta election 2015: What you need to know | CTV News )"]NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who promised to balance the books by 2018 with tax increases for corporations and the wealthy, started off as an underdog. But her popularity soared after a strong showing in the leaders’ debate last month. “Now, every single poll is showing that she’s going to win this election today, hard to believe as that is,” Don Martin, host of CTV’s Power Play, told CTV News Channel Tuesday.
The problem with polls : Anyone who followed the 2012 Alberta election knows that political polls can be way off. Heading into that election, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith was the projected winner. But after the ballots were counted on election day, the Wildrose Party ended up with only 17 seats and Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives won a solid majority with 61 seats.
Polls close tonight at 8 MDT.
RickJay:
Just to be pedantic,
There’s no PC party at the federal level.
Such Conservatives as are saying anything, according to the (as always) breathless and poorly headlined Huffington Post article, are Alberta Conservatives who’re doing favours for provincial allies. The federal Conservatives are, quite rightly, not taking a strong stance on who should win a provincial election, which is the way it always goes.
It’s largely a fallacy to think that like government in provincial and federal governments get along, or that unlike governments are enemies. There are links between provincial and federal politics because many of the players and their minions are linked up and they have to play nice in public, but when the business starts that basically matters to a provincial government is how much money the Feds give them, and what matters to the feds is how much the province cooperates with whatever the feds want to do. A Liberal government will cheerily cooperate with the Tories if they get lots of transfer money, and a PC government will cast the federal Tories as the devil incarnate if they don’t feel enough money is being given to them (as happened in Newfoundland quite recently.) Even at the local level provincial and federal counterparts might get along great or might despise each other. I have personal knowledge of a case in the NDP where nearly provincial and federal legislators each consider the other to be roughly equivalent to war criminals.
There is also, of course, the fact that provincial parties don’t always map to federal ones. Alberta has no significant Liberal Party, Quebec has no significant PC or Conservative Party, Saskatchewan has no sitting Liberal or PC members but does have the super-originally-named Saskatchewan Party, and so on.
This may be true, BUT—both Ryan Jean and Jim Prentice were cabinet ministers under Stephen Harper. If both of them lose, Harper also loses his puppet master control over Alberta politics. Since he doesn’t want to say anything directly, he had Rona Ambrose speak up about the “risky experiment” in Alberta if the NDP win.
See, here’s the thing though: the polls are supposed to be accurate within a few percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The 2012 election must have been the 20th time! Everything should be back to normal now.
We learned it from you , Dad! We learned it from you! [runs away sobbing]
Wow, that looks kind of brutal, I thought you people were supposed to be nice?
Those Notley Crue shirts are pretty hilarious
CBC says it’s an NDP majority.
Er, what?
Never thought I’d see the day. Makes me miss the place a little.
What will this probably mean for Alberta?
Well as a GOA employee work is going to be a bit different for me! Never thought I’d see that in my lifetime. I had hoped for an NDP minority at the very best, never thought I’d see a majority.
Albertans to Prentice: “bye Felicia!”.
I just happen to be hearing an orange shirt today. Wonder whether that had anything to do with it?
Prentice just resigned both as PC leader and as MLA for the riding he just won. No great surprise there.
So, this is what it looks like, with new numbers in bold, previous seats held in parentheses, and a +/- to show the magnitude of the change:
NDP: 54 (4) +50
Wildrose: 20 (5) +15
PC: 11 (70) -59
Liberals: 1 (5) -4
Alberta Party: 1 (0) +1
Vacant at Dissolution: 2
Dr.Drake:
Synesthesia flaring up?
Well, when they say a shirt is ‘loud’…
Shoot, I missed one Independent at disolution, so it should be:
NDP: 54 (4) +50
Wildrose: 20 (5) +15
PC: 11 (70) -59
Liberals: 1 (5) -4
Alberta Party: 1 (0) +1
Independent: 1 (0) -1
Vacant at Dissolution: 2 (0) -2
