Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Orange Crush

Alberta has had a long history of essentially one party rule, with sudden over night switch to new party:
1905–1921 Alberta Liberal Party
1921–1935 United Farmers of Alberta
1935–1971 Social Credit Party of Alberta
1971–2015 Alberta Progressive Conservatives
2015-present Alberta NDP

So, following the trend, NDP in power to about what, 2065?

Fascinating to see Prentice abandon his seat immediately upon realizing he couldn't be premier anymore. Shows he was never interested in representing that riding, never interested in advocating for deeply held beliefs, just interested in the top job. Completely irresponsible flight from his responsibilities. Foisting the cost of yet another byelection on his followers. Slap in face of PC volunteers in that district--would not want to be the PC guy who has to run there next.

Fascinating to that his exit speech was all about how none of it was his fault. "No one expected a drop in oil prices, no one expected 50,000 job lost as a result, no one expected..." Yeah, he expected to be parachuted into top job and to run a province effortlessly. It was mean of us to expect some actual leadership, for him to actually have to do something more helpful and constructive than to save a few million by cutting the charity tax deduction. Mindboggling hubris. Alberta may be way right wing, but the thing about right-wingers is, hubris does not sit well with them. Under another leader, the PCs might well have slipped a bit in the election, but it takes a real effort for a party so entrenched to collapse this far in one go.

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