The other one being the United States?
While we Canadians can, at times, irrationally fear perceived cultural threats posed by Americans, we don’t have irrational fears based on any political threat… We actually tend to smugly to look down on the US with all it’s daily problems (race relations, crime. gun ownership/entitlement, health care struggles, crazy/wacky partisan politics, international ramblings/misadventures, etc).
We don’t fear Americans at all, you’re like our wacky next door neighbour (Kramer to our Jerry). You’re quite lovable in your political system that seems to defy propriety/reason/logic, your madrasa-like adherence to the application of some crazy nth amendment, or when you’re drugged out on your irrational fear of the idea of commonwealth government action.
“Business is people!” Oh you Yanks! :rolleyes: What will you come up with next. 
Well this must be a record: Deborah Drever has been kicked out of caucus before the government was even sworn in, for social media silliness:
I’m sure glad that Alberta taxpayers are paying her $134,000 per year, plus 13% more that goes into a pension. That’s gotta beat her other alternatives, which probably involved working in a shoe store or perhaps a Tim Hortons.
On the bright side, she’s now an independent without a caucus, which means she can go back to smoking weed and, if the lighting is good in the back bench, studying for her sociology finals.
Best. Job. Ever.
Who are the province’s new MLAs?
Man, it’s hilarious watching the CBC trying to spin these people as serious credible people. For example:
Her first-hand knowledge of economic problems consists of living at home with her grandparents while taking an easy degree at Mount Royal and hanging out with her activist buddies, giving the finger to the flag (and intelligently posting it on social media), smoking weed, and posing for horrible album covers for terrible bands.
Translation: She’s a yoga instructor with a blog, she was a shit-disturber in college before dropping out, and she’s done some kind of low-skill work in Calgary for some company affiliated with the oil and gas industry. She ‘pursued’ a degree in Journalism, but doesn’t actually have a degree. Went to two different colleges where she took part in ‘student activism’, but never graduated from either one.
Wow, a diploma in physical education from a junior college, and with that extensive knowledge (but no actual experience in health care) he’s going to tackle the problems of our health care system!
My wife, who has an RN, a B.Sc in health care management and a Masters in Healthcare administration (along with 30 years’ experience in health care from nursing to hospital management to being a director in Alberta Health) will be answering to this guy. She can’t wait.
Cream of the crop!
Still, she isn’t a wet brain like King Ralph, who took the Tory vote no matter who he insulted in his half-witted drunken tirades and no matter which police forces he bought. . . .
. . . as he tore down the Calgary General, turning the remaining two in a city of at least 750,000 people at the time into hallway-medicine sardine cans. He probably had options on the land.
After that sad parade of Tory premiers since Lougheed walked away, Alberta’s used to it. Suck it up.
At which point the min wage will have finally increased to the $15/hr amount. It’s remarkable how everyone critical of this plan has characterized it as a sudden jump of 50%, when it has been stated at every step of the way that it’s a phased jump to $15 by 2018.
Wouldn’t the time to have pointed out how unserious and incredible the NDP is have been before the election? That way, the voters of Alberta could have looked at the NDP candidates and said, “Woah! The NDP candidates are unserious and incredible! I should not vote for them!” This way, it’s too late.
Yes, it’s a tragic thing that Wildrose and the Tories didn’t let the voters know beforehand that they were the serious and credible people.
A correction at the bottom (and a new headline) now says she’s only suspended.
The thing is, before the election no one expected the NDP to win a majority government. But the frustration with the PC’s and the Wildrose and their shenanigans just reached a boiling point exactly as election day hit.
I don’t think it would have mattered how much information was put out about the NDP candidates before the election, because clearly no one was paying attention to them. As I said, there were a couple of candidates who won and didn’t even bother campaigning. They were just ‘placeholder’ candidates to give the NDP a name on a ballot. Not even the NDP expected some of those candidates to win - which is probably why they weren’t vetted very well.
But win they did, and now we’re stuck with them for at least 4 years. At least it will be entertaining. I expect them to be a real gaffe factory.
That’s what all majority governments in Canada do. None of this unrealistic “bipartisanship” nonsense that we hear from the US politicians (no offence, USian dopers 
)
The job of the majority government is to govern according to its election platform, and the job of the Opposition parties is just that - to oppose. The different parties are not expected to try to work together, precisely because they have strongly divergent views of the correct policies to be followed.
To be sworn in tomorrow, Sunday. This article has a lot of speculation about who will get cabinet posts, and discussion of the difficulties Notley faces in putting together a Cabinet:
It mostly isn’t the politicians who tell us that anymore anyway, just a few commentators, and not so often since David Broder passed away.
We get a lot of *that *here lately, though. And down here it has a real effect.
And yet a majority thought they’d do a better job than the Tories, with all their, um, experience. How could that possibly have happened?
A very informative article. Thanks for sharing this.
And the first gaffe: the NDP was trying to use the swearing-in as an opportunity to find-raise for the party. Rookie mistake; not appreciating the difference between the party and the government. They’ve taken down all the fund-raising stuff from their web-pages and apologised:
I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Obama, in commentary and from some posters on this board. over the ACA that it went through on a straight party vote, the Dems didn’t accept any republican amendments, etc.
Obama’s also been criticised for not being able to build coalitions with Republicans.
Is that an unusual critique, then? It also sounds odd to my Canadian ears: why would bitter political enemies, with wildly different views on public policy issues, be expected to compromise all the time?
Don’t take those complaints at face value. They are partisan/opposition-for-the-sake-of-opposition in themselves. There were no “Republican amendments” that were not considered; their position on ACA was, and remains, “Go fuck yourselves”.
Apparently that happens more in Canada, perhaps because it just doesn’t matter what a party with no power thinks (the people voted against them anyway). Our divided-powers system grants the losers the power to obstruct, not simply oppose. And yes, it’s a recent development here, dating only to the 1990’s.
Well, it’s pretty much as bad as I feared:
Our Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure is an ex-bus driver.
Our Minister of Finance is a social worker.
Our Minister of Energy is a rural teacher.
Our Minister of Justice is a former union legal rep.
Our Minister of Health is another teacher and former school board official.
Our Minister of Innovation and advanced education is a social worker.
Our Minister of Jobs, skills, training and labour is the same social worker.
Our Minister of Agriculture and Forestry is a former technician who is now a self-described “Social Justice Fighter” and union representative.
Our Minister of the Environment is a person with a degree in political science and as far as I can tell no real work experience other than as a ‘policy analyst’ for the NDP.
Our Minister of Municipal Affairs is a teacher
Our Minister of Education is a teacher. Hey, at least he worked in the field he’ll be ministering.
And that’s the best they could come up with out of their caucus. In fact, because the rest of the bench is so weak Notley has had to double and even triple up some of these cabinet positions. Alberta has only 12 cabinet members now.
Maybe that’s a good thing. If they’re all overworked and swamped perhaps they won’t have time to get into serious mischief with new legislation.
Linky no worky.
Shouldn’t be. Highly educated young adults who still can’t earn enough for their own apartments are a constituency that needs a voice, in the U.S. certainly, and probably in Canada.