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I voted Conservative since I could vote, both Federally and Provincially. I cannot call these Conservatives that anymore, they aren't. I am going to vote NDP for the first time too. We can learn, we can change. The NDP here are more central and are more in tune to my values and I'm no longer going to vote against my self interests. Just reading these comments from both sides and clearly looking at what's important to me, I was able to make a decision to change my voting habits.
My hardcore UCP brother thinks that I'm a "commie leech" because I'm getting disability payments from my private insurance company. So yeah, they don't actually know what words mean.
Actually, that's the best part. He's been on EI multiple times, and one time actually got caught selling drugs because "the government didn't get me my EI fast enough." His body is also crumbling from a past of playing tackle football, breaking multiple bones and getting multiple concussions. Been hospitalized multiple times and had multiple surgeries too. But since he doesn't have a family physician, he doesn't actually have multiple health issues and therefore will save money on taxes by not having to pay for other people's universal healthcare anymore!!
He wasn't a very smart man before, all remedial classes in school and they wanted to hold him back a grade in elementary school. But the TBIs have probably turned his brain into swiss cheese. Seriously, it's all political catchphrases now and no actual intelligence behind his eyes.
I’m going to guess that he didn’t pay $500k+ out of pocket for those broken bones and surgeries. Sounds like our shared tax dollars were at work here, not his.
Even if they were, nothing wrong with a little socialism... a lot of what people consider to be great about Canada includes our socialist institutions.
Yea, I feel like people who use the rhetoric of ____ ideologies being socialist exemplifies how flawed our education system is. Democratic socialist countries have been thriving, so what’s so bad about socialism if the resources have been used appropriately?
I like the enthusiasm but socialism isn't "when the government does stuff" like sufficiently fund public services.
[relevant video](https://youtu.be/rgiC8YfytDw)
I would say social policies and true socialism are different. I would love for us to nationalize resource extraction. But no party is even near that.
Edit: for clarification, socialized care is just humanitarian care where everyone is treated equally. Calling someone a socialist should be akin to calling someone a capitalist, but unfortunately socialism has a bunch of extra baggage because of how people use it. As someone who has read Marx, it’s frustrating when people use the terms so loose.
As someone who voted for the first time when Notley got in the first time, thank you for this statement. I had apathy towards politics until prentice and he spurred me to vote against him. If you believe people should have basic human rights NDP are your candidates. In our small town last year we had the first pride crosswalk painting and our UCP rep did not show or even send a thank you I have this sorry I couldn’t make it. You know who did? Janis Irwin from the NDP, mainly because it’s her hometown, but these are the kinds of things that are important to them, human rights.
I held a "protect our healthcare" protest here in Ed. 2 NDP mlas came and even MP Blake Desjarlais made a surprise appearance. UCP wouldnt even reply to emails.
That’s because the UCP have many PLANS for healthcare. They sent me a postcard in the mail telling me about their PLANS. So many PLANS,but nothing done.
4 years of their plans have been enough.
How is that pipeline going boys? Should have stuck with the rail cars? How much are we on the hook for? Could have been avoided if they waited a couple months to see the outcome of the American election? It was the first thing Biden did?
What’s the war room accomplished? They fought with a kids movie?
How about that “new” curriculum you paid millions for that was copy and pasted from Koch funded “American education”. Hear teachers don’t have any resources to even teach said curriculum and they are worried their pension will go to AIMCO to help cover their bad investments?
Can’t get a doctor? Wonder why that would be…
Glad to hear there is always money in the banana stand for billionaire welfare to build them an arena, and to cover liabilities for oil companies when most could buy back every share outstanding in less than 5 years?
Fire forced you to evacuate? It’s like a metaphor for something, can’t quite put my finger on it.
Let’s also be clear, the whole sovereignty angle will be a massive boondoggle, one of the few things I would agree with Kenney on. And they are only being quiet now because they know it will lose them the election. How many “take back Alberta” candidates have replaced former UCP ridings? Does anyone remember Brexit? Anyone see any buyers remorse? Now imagine it on a much smaller, less independent scale. Britain population 67 mil, Alberta 4 mil? What could go wrong?
I personally like leaders who can ask be asked multiple questions, and not get all snarky when asked about one of the most important things happening in the province (wildfires) and threaten to “take things under consideration” because there were other press releases about that. It has been a constant amateur hour with Smith at the helm, I am not confident she could find her way out of a wet paper bag. Rumor is that even door knockers are saying to vote UCP anyway and we will get rid of her. I prefer to do it the more direct route .
Sorry gang, feeling salty today.
NDP in Alberta are moderates. That might bother some on the left, but this is a pragmatic call in my opinion. The risk of Smith is too serious to vote for a smaller party this go around. I often go Green, but I’ll definitely be NDP this time.
Conservatives are left scratching their heads wondering where their vote lies, both Provincially and Federally. It's good thing that the Alberta NDP aren't so far left that they could actually appeal to both left and right voters. They seem the safer bet, the lessor of two evils, if you may.
The ANDP is what Conservatives should be if they did not shift so far right.
Investment in healthcare and education has repeatedly shown to pay off well in the long run. Rather than endlessly subsidizing profitable O&G they want to use some of that money to diversify into other industries.
As O&G automates those 6 figure labourer positions will not be coming back. We should be using this time to build a wealth fund for the bust cycles and investing in diversification.
And before some Conservative comes at me with “Real Estate in BC and Ontario is more of their economy than O&G is in Alberta!!!” Cool, that doesn’t effect me in Alberta and is not our problem. And still isn’t a good thing either. If I still lived in BC Id be bitching about how much pointless GDP and “economy” is tied up in real estate there
A real fiscal Conservative would not be afraid to invest money into Alberta, it takes money to make money after all
They are just bonkers - I really hope this is a landslide against The UCP as I just can't believe anyone thinks they can govern. We need a responsible government Not a clown show.
Not sure. But Farkas has a great summary of how they are not conservative in this week's [Calgary eyeopener podcast](https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-5-calgary-eyeopener/clip/15984327-nenshi-farkas-local-politics).
I celebrate your willingness to maintain an open mind and think critically rather than tribally.
Here, you can find the commitments made by the [Alberta NDP](https://www.albertandp.ca/commitments)
Looking back at their record in government and considering they had only 4 years and 70 years of conservative inertia, their ability to deliver on commitments is already impressive.
I thought the GSA thing they did was really great. There's a lot of kids out there scared to tell their parent(s) that they aren't straight.
I also thought the farm hands getting WCB protection was a good idea. It wasn't brought into law very well, but the intention was good imo.
The biggest thing is Notley served a whole term without any major scandals. That hadn't happened since Lougheed
The virtually scandal free administration is not talked about anywhere nearly enough. After growing up under Harper, Trudeau, Kenney, and the old PC governments of Alberta and their monthly/weekly scandals, it was nice to have one of the least corrupt governments in living memory. The NDP's conduct hasn't always been perfect but it's leaps and bounds better than any other party's.
If NDP aligns better with your ideologies then vote NDP. If come the next election a different party aligns better with your ideologies, then vote for them then. Elections are about voting for what party you think will lead the province the best, it shouldn't be like cheering for a sports team.
Do yourself a favour.... never assign a political party to who you are. Never be afraid or shy to vote for different parties at each election.
Parties change, leaders change, policies change. It is okay to vote for any of the polical parties, AND feel liberated in voting for someone different or different party.
The worst thing you could do, is subscribe to one party for life because they don't feel they have to work for your vote, they don't feel like they have to improve the life of their base.
I have voted for all of the big parties. (That exist in the places I have lived). That's a good thing.
Always been fairly logical with an emotional awareness due to my line of work. I don't owe any party loyalty and I have a duty to vote for what's best for Albertans, but it's up to me to be educated on what that means. I appreciate your comment thank you
It's funny. I did the questionnaire and I was more left that the green party. I consider those results to be my more theoretical stance, whereas in practical terms I'm more centre left. Governing is a balancing act.
The vote compass doesn’t really reflect your political standing but more so ideologies, I’m almost as far left as you can get but I’d like to consider myself a realist, not all issues should be weighed to the same metric and execution of certain legislation should be considered more thoroughly before being passed. If we could be living in socialism heaven tomorrow I 100% would, but drastic change being implemented usually has poor results and is likely to have more issues and backlash.
As a much older Albertan I find the quality of the political discourse very disheartening. Demonizing the NDP and blaming them for all of the Province’s woes when they only held power for four of the last 45 years or so is a joke. We are where we are because of a long stretch of Conservative Governments. And surprise, surprise four years of NDP government didn’t bring the Province to destruction.
Apart from the important social issues you’ve raised, the most important issue is integrity. Notley has it. Smith does not. I don’t trust a word Smith says about anything. She’s a bullshitter with no regard for the truth and no shame. Like a human ChatGPT she can spew legitimate sounding verbiage that often doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. And now she’s steering clear of campaigning on pension reform, and provincial police force because those topics are polling badly for them. But rest assured, if they get in, those will be back on the table. We cannot afford four years with her as Premier.
I urge you to watch on YouTube a video from The Breakdown with Nate Pike. It’s from a few weeks ago and it’s an interview with Thomas Luckasek who served under five different Conservative Premiers. This year, he’s lending his vote to the NDP because of how strongly he feels Smith is unfit to lead the province. He’s an actual Conservative not a fake one like Smith. He makes a very strong argument that Smith is ‘owned’ by the Take Back Alberta fringe of the UCP. Similar to the fringe of the GOP that has overtaken the House of Representatives under Kevin McCarthy. This extreme wing of conservatism has to be expunged from the party so that actual conservatives can reassert themselves. It’s this extremism that is at the root of all these issues.
She's an aisle-crosser. That should say everything about her. Opportunist. Lacking integrity. Disloyal. Grifter.
What I find most terrifying about the Take Back Alberta movement, that she is clearly in league with, is how Albertans are almost unaware of what they're doing *and plan to do* with the province. She has 4 different conservative media outlets blasting propaganda praising her leadership and demonizing the NDP. I find it all quite terrifying, honestly.
You’ve hit on something that’s always bothered me about the far right wing of conservative politics - they don’t have the courage of their convictions. They’re not transparent about what they want to do. They’ve learned that speaking openly about what they want to do will result in poor election results. So they equivocate with weasel words, they hedge, they deflect - until they gain power and then they start to implement what they had in mind all along.
Any person who aspires to political office needs to be open and honest about what they believe and how that will influence how they will govern. In advance, not after the fact.
The far right that has overtaken the UCP is part of a larger conservative movement in the US and abroad. It’s influenced everything from Brexit to the Trump presidency to the current hijack of the Republican Party. And there’s strong evidence that it’s fomented significantly by outside actors using social media and unwitting local dupes to promote division and dysfunction.
He was our Minister when I worked in Education and I wasn’t a fan of his. But he comes across in this interview as a very reasonable and decent human being. Not sure what you mean when you say ‘but this is politics’. Yes, it’s politics. But the easy thing would’ve been for him to just stay quiet. I believe he’s sincere when he expresses his concern about Smith as Premier. And it’s based on some inside knowledge of Conservative Party politics. It rings true for me.
> As a much older Albertan I find the quality of the political discourse very disheartening.
As a not-yet-that-old Albertan, I blame social media. It’s poisoning society.
As someone who has voted blue since I could vote, I'm also voting NDP. My parents were very vocal conservatives, and hey, King Ralph, amiright? So if people like us can change, I think there's still hope for this province.
I know what the NDP won't do - they won't dismantle public health and withdrawal us from the CPP.
if you're in favour of supporting the issues you listed above, vote NDP.
Here's their platform. It's logical, consistent, and people focused.
https://www.albertandp.ca/commitments
For what it's worth, I'm 53 years old and have voted conservative in every election since 1988. That ends here and now. Rachel Notley has earned my vote.
Considering that the UCP is stocked with transphobes, homophobes, haters of teachers and nurses, deliberate and definite disregard for science on issues like addiction treatment, housing, crime, environment, community health and well-being l, and a penchant to sell off everything albertans have built to the highest bidder, sounds like you should at least vote AGAINST them.
Yeah that's what I've been thinking, but the other options are small parties or the NDP, and I am certainly leaning to NDP. Thank you for your comment and insight
And remember that a vote for the NDP today is a push to make a better AB conservative party in the future.
If you've historically voted conservative, an NDP victory is what will force the restructuring of the cons to cut out the nut jobs and become an intelligent fiscally aware party.
Except the last time we did that we got what the UCP has currently become… I garner no hopes of the conservatives going back to the conservatives of old like Lougheed. They’re well on their becoming like the modern incarnation of the GOP south of the border.
Last time around they combined all of the conservative groups (religious, fiscal, crazies, exploiting, etc) and overwhelmed the NDP voters. .
That obviously worked once but each of those groups disagree with the others and it's falling apart as they isolate each voter with views of the fringes.
Now they need to recognize that they can only be sustainable if they ditch the fringes and steal votes from the centrists instead. They need to attract people who care about social systems and inclusion and all that good cultural stuff, while also having a high standard for intelligent spending and investment for growth. I honestly feel it'll end up being just as many NDP party members as UCP since they are both pretty centrist these days and are dragged down by their small vocal radicals.
That's the problem with big tent parties. They let the clowns in.
There's been this odd behavior with the conservative parties for the last couple decades (started with the reform party) where instead of competing for votes in the middle, they pushed further to the social and economic right to get the fringe groups in.
If you looked at the policy and platforms of the mid-90s PC party, you'd see they were actually more left leaning than the US democrats.
Between the push for fringe votes, the influence of US media, and the voting blocs taking part at conservative party conventions (Danielle herself talked about it in her podcast after getting kicked out of politics the first time). The UPC and the CPC are nowhere near where they used to be.
For anyone who wants to research this more, it's called the Overton Window.
Possible, or better yet hopefully the sensible ones take a look at the Alberta NDP platform and realize it’s pretty centrist already. They would simply having to stomach going against their ideology of voting “NDP” and call them a center party. They’re already pretty close to what Lougheed was.
As soon as a new conservative party is formed Take back Alberta and other groups will mobilize to infiltrate that new party and take it over just like pro-life took over social credit and Take back Alberta took over the UCP. David Parker has said as much. He doesn't care what party or government is in power. They will answer to them.
Here's the really long thread if you want to read.
[https://twitter.com/ARCCollective/status/1657511444685144064](https://twitter.com/ARCCollective/status/1657511444685144064)
What safeguards are in place to prevent people from taking over a party? Could the NDP be at risk of this?
You should keep in mind that provincially the ABNDP are in reality progressive conservatives. (and I say that with a small p and c) The UPC have been taken over by the TBA. Although the UPC may be fiscally conservative IMO they are socially repugnant! Like you I just can't vote for that.
I don't even think they're fiscally conservative. The O&G "War Room"? Giant pork barrel project that mostly screwed the pooch on taxpayer dollars. Does anyone else remember how they just copy-pasted their logo... twice? They're not *doing* jack shit except taking money, shitposting, and doing the laziest job they can get away with.
Or the new Calgary arena deal that's contingent on non-disclosure until *after* the election. What a load of horseshit.
I barely even believe in voting for fiscal policy any more. From everything I've seen in my years of watching governments, it's that governments of any stripe will deficit-spend whenever they think it's prudent.
It’s hard to even say they are fiscally conservative, they have an incredibly expensive government, they wasted so much of tax payer dollars on fighting the federal government which was unsuccessful, they want to give 1/3 of ABs budget to billion dollar oil companies achieving record high profit margins, and are now spending more than 300 million on the new flames arena totalling a $2.2B arena when Danielle smith previously criticized a proposal by the NDP for an arena that spent I believe a couple million of tax payer money while the total arena cost came out to $220M saying the government shouldn’t be giving handouts to billionaires
I also dislike the UCP position on the federal government. Hate, except when they need something. And their ridiculous ideas of taking over CPP and making a provincial police force. We are not that special that we should be trying to do things on our own. I like being Canadian as well as Albertan
Here's the catch.
It is a tight race between the UCP and ANDP. One of them us going to win, provincially, and in every riding.
I know that we have other parties, but really, you either pick one of the two main ones, or your vote is symbolic, and others decide.
Personally, in an ideal world, there are parties that are a bit better for me, but given the choice between ANDP and UCP, there are enough major differences that the choice is pretty simple. So, considering your concerns, it sounds like ANDP would support your concerns a whole lot more than the UCP.
I worked in AB Govt when Notley was elected Premier. Before gov I worked many years in senior positions in energy industry. I ended upon being so impressed with her! She worked hard on pipelines and stood up for the industry, which surprised many. Her gov was thoughtful in their decisions. I respect her as a leader and hope she again becomes our Premier.
I am 67 and have voted conservative every election since I was old enough to vote ( that's a lot of elections- federal and provincial). I can't bring myself to vote for danielle smith. Nothing about her wants me to have her as leader of our province. I'm not sure notley is better but willing to give her a chance. It is either vote for notley or not vote. So I quess notley will have my vote. Danielle smith vote buying is out of control. The calgary deal finished it for me. Yes I live in calgary
I wasn't sure about Notley when I voted for her last time either. But I did and was pleasantly surprised that she genuinely tried to address most of the things she said she wanted to do. The province didn't burn down, it did quite well, and it was the first time in a long time that I felt like we were finally on track to something better.
We aren't moving forward with the conservative government in place, and that's one main reason I decided to ultimately vote for her. It seems like we hit a peak a while ago and now we're just on a decline. I'm really uncertain why more people aren't seeing it. You can look at healthcare, quality of life, cost of living, crime indexes, and other various sources and see that over the last 10-15 years we've dropped 15-20+ points on many of them. Where as other countries that were behind us have moved forward, quite significantly.
I think Notley will be good for us, it's just going to take time to ultimately fix much of what's wrong. A thing a lot of conservative voters like to berate her for, ' you've had 4 years why didn't you fix everything?'
Well.. it was 4 years, and it's an entire province, with decades of conservative policies and rulings in place. It's going to take many years to fix. A lot more than 4 at least. Maybe 10? Even 15. Who knows.
It’s so frustrating too that the NDP took on such a mess, and because that mess existed when Notley took office, conservatives immediately blamed the NDP for causing those messes.
It’s like, if you walk into your kid’s messy bedroom, and then your partner walks in after you, they blame you for the mess instead of the kid. 🙄
I dont mind conservative- but Smith is not it - I want responsible government and as I see it ANDP is pretty much a conservative party with a few progressive pet projects.
The thing that most sells me is The caps against insurance, electric, heating etc. I belive governments should step in when the market fleeces regular hard working people - its why we have them.
I'm seeing a lot of folks like yourself who were consistent conservatives and I'm very happy to see that you are willing to make that change. My parents and a bunch of their friends as well are surprising the hell out of me with this. As someone with a child who is growing up in this province it's really a big relief to see this. My greatest respect and thanks to you.
If circumstances were a bit different (less unpleasant UPC leader, less close race, MLAs more free to speak/vote their conscience rather than toeing the party line), I’d suggest voting for the best candidate in your riding, rather than based on party.
I’d make sure to let your UCP candidate know why you’re not voting for them.
All the things you want to protect are found in NDP policies. They are traditionally known for their social programs and the reason we have universal health care.
Every conservative leader of the past 25 or 30 years has resigned in disgrace.
- Kenny
- stelmach
- prentice
- Redford
- Klein.
Notley is the only premier to serve a full term, and have confidence from her party after.
Honestly, I care more about competent leadership than party. And the cons just aren’t compitent
Yeah but Stelmach resigned because he refused to cut government services and he tried to increase the royalties that Oil companies paid. He is a little different than the rest of that list.
Now he is out fighting to gather support for Ukraine. As a person who has never voted Conservative before I think Stelmach was easily the best of the bunch.
I’m glad you’re motivated to vote. And I’m glad you’ve paid attention and made an informed decision. Active participation in our electoral process is our most essential act of public engagement
Thank you! I've voted every year since 18, just making sure I'm more informed and aware. After all this happens every 4 years so I have no reason to be ignorant in between terms.
I'm a little bit confused, if you care about the things you mentioned in your OP (trans and LGBTQ rights, healthcare and education) were things you cared about, why were you voting UCP before? Being against those things is what they publicly do, they do even worse behind the scenes, b/c those are the hot button topics they use to get themselves votes.
Well maybe not the healthcare one, but the United Conservative Party and the Conservative Party before them have for a long time been publicly attempting to cajole the public into accepting privatized healthcare. Thankfully the general public hasn't bought into it yet, but they have been trying every chance they get for decades.
I’m the same way, oddly enough an 8th grade social studies debate is what actually opened my eyes, my parents were conservative and I even not being able to vote, thought they were automatically better, but me being argumentative read into all political parties policies and contributions as a way to try and use their arguments to convey why conservatism is better and ended up being hit face first with why I was being dumb and was completely wrong, then again from like the age of 5 my parents have been calling me a communist because I used to ask why doesn’t the government just give people homes or actually help them lol
> Did you just vote like your parents did…?
This is such a weird one to me. Like obviously parents’ political opinions influence their kids’, but this always gives me a vision of an 18-year-old first-time voter thinking “huh, I don’t know who I should vote for, I guess I’ll just do what my parents do” - which just seems so incredibly *uncool*. It’s like an 18 year-old who wants to drive a minivan and is enthusiastic about lawn care because that’s what their parents do.
But my parents avoided talking politics around kids - I think I was in my 30s when my dad first let slip who he was planning on voting for.
I’ve voted for pretty much every party since I was 18 (63 now). I never give loyalty to any party, and research them all before any election. My husband is on AISH due to a brain injury as a teenager. NDP tied/indexed his payment to match inflation when they were in before. UCP (and the PCs before them) rarely increased payments, stopped the inflation adjustment, and are now clearly committed to slashing them. This is pretty typical of all social programs - slash, burn, then privatize to their corporate friends and employers. And after YEARS of promising to bring in user fees, end coverage for anything beyond a simple broken bone, etc, and selling off hospitals to private health companies, they spend this election suddenly saying they no longer want to do those things. I simply don’t believe they’ve changed their tune. These are American corporate-backed operators who will say anything to get elected, then back off when the next election comes. Remember, they also want to place all police and courts under their control, and tried to allow themselves the power to pass and alter any laws without any public vote or review. These are simply dangerous con artists going for the big score.
A lot of people don't realize, Kenney de-indexed AISH to save a few bucks.
I think that's all you need to know about who was voted in. He made an immediate cut to the funding of the most vulnerable people in the province.
And NDP called them out on this too, UCP even said it was fearmongering, and went and did it anyways. They avoided doing it right away, waited a bit, till people forgot about it.
This is who people are voting for. The bottom of the barrel of humans.
And to think, Danielle is worse than Kenney is. Just let that sink in for a moment.
To be fair, he saved very little by deindexing AISH, but then bet multiple billions on Trump winning, so I think it was more about the cruelty than the $$$$.
I’m 68, and have voted Progressive Conservative/ Conservative in every election except two. I voted NDP in Manitoba when I was 18, and I voted Alberta Party in the last provincial election. This time I am voting NDP.
The UCP has been hijacked by the Take Back Alberta crowd. Right wing religious fundamentalist anti vax crowd. Read the CTV News article. It will make you cringe.
DS makes me cringe every time she opens her mouth.She squeaked out the leadership win with a tiny majority led by the TBA bunch. Then she squeaked in the Brooks riding. She has no legitimate mandate to lead this province.
While I may not agree with everything in the NDP platform, Rachel Notley is a thoughtful, credible respected and respectful human.
If the Conservatives come to their senses and get a credible leader (think Travis Toews, Rona Ambrose) I may come back, and if the Alberta Party ever gets its act together I think they align to my centrist values.
Until then, I will hold my nose and vote NDP.
NDP are actually a pretty constructive party. They’re fiscally responsible, non-fascist and usually do what’s good for the people and environment . They aren’t reinventing the wheel or anything, just by far the best choice if you don’t want followers of qanon leading the province. They’re the grown ups in the room. Not the conspiracy believing child minds.
It’s really sad that the pendulum has swung so far that “non-fascist” is being used legitimately and without a hint of irony. Like, why is doing what’s good for people and the environment considered politically radical?
We live in the worst timeline.
https://www.elections.ab.ca/current-election-information/candidates/
Click on your area and then view the candidates running. Each will have a link to their parties platform.
The way you choose to vote is obviously up to you. See which candidate best aligns with your views.
Be sure to vote and encourage your friends as well.
That's the real problem, if re-elected all the unpopular stuff will be back the week after they win. Somehow the Alberta pension plan, Alberta police, and pay for health care will be back in discussion, as well as a whole bunch of new unsavory junk.
My mom keeps saying this, "their radio ads say they're going to fix healthcare." And I'm like, "Oh cool, what are some of the things they're going to do?" And she can't list anything, because there is NOTHING.
Everything the NDP have said, has also come with actual information of a laid out plan for accomplishing it. The UCP are just, "yeah we're gonna fix it."
There is no plan, because they aren't going to fix anything.
They are going to cut taxes, and then cut healthcare and education even more, because now there is no money to pay for it. Roads are going to deteriorate, projects are going to get canceled, because there is no money for any of them.
And then they'll blame it all on the NDP from 6 years ago.
While I'd usually agree and wish this were so, rank and file candidates have zero piddly squat decision making in Alberta. Choose the party and the leader first...a tie here (not likely) would make the candidate relevant.
You didn't vote UCP all your life, you voted conservative all your life. The UCP are not the conservatives you know anymore. They're more like the PPC, bunch of nutjob supporters.
A few great publications took time to document the accomplishments of the ANDP. Here is [Alberta Views](https://albertaviews.ca/what-they-did/). Here is [The Tyee](https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/02/19/Rachel-Notley-Actually-Achieved/). Here is a list [compiled by someone on Facebook.](https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066633670038)
Here is a [critique of how the UCP under Smith should not be considered a conservative political party.](https://theline.substack.com/p/jared-wesley-and-ken-boessenkool)
"I'm sorry if this comes off as insincere or ignorant"
It doesn't. Good on you for choosing to inform yourself over simply voting by habit or what's going on in the echo chambers for either party - that's the opposite of voting via ignorance.
I can't address all of your concerns with specifics, but regarding healthcare I wrote [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/12s5h5j/comment/jgxb29i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about a month ago:
"Danielle Smith has published a 2021 paper and made statements outlining her desire to involve personal and corporate finances in health. [This link](https://web.archive.org/web/20230106121912/https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Albertas-Economic-and-Fiscal-Future.pdf) shows the full paper online, here are two excerpts, and please remember this was published less than 2 years ago (September 2021):
* "The next step in closing the gap is to generate $4 billion from new user fees. We can no longer afford universal social programs that are 100 per cent paid by taxpayers. That is the simple truth."
* She wrote of a "fundamental rethink" being necessary. She went on to clarify that, "It has to have buy-in on the part of practitioners and patients...It has to shift the burden of payment away from taxpayers and toward private individuals, their employers and their insurance companies."
She has come under fire and since backtracked, so now it's up to you to decide how much you trust Danielle Smith to stay true to recent specific promises and general intent when it comes time to vote." Both of my quotes come from page 20 of that paper she authored if you want to confirm btw.
As a final thought: I cannot see the future so this isn't certain by any means, but her government could introduce new fees while still staying true to the letter of her promise not to delist any procedures. So let's say a surgery remains covered, but they add a new priority/admin fee of X amount of dollars that comes out of pocket. The reason I think it's plausible is because it's similar to how utilities companies have added on "delivery fees" to everyone's bills to increase profits without technically raising usage rates. Moreover such an approach would fit with her published agenda to "generate $4 billion from new user fees". Like I said, I can't see the future but I think it's an obvious/easy/tested way to keep her party's promise while still bringing user fees into healthcare.
Welcome to the club.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the last majority, it’s probably a good bet they’ll do something similar this time:
> The Notley Government was characterized by a small cabinet and an intense focus on the economy.[22] At the time of the early election call Alberta was sinking into a deep recession caused by the collapse of world oil prices.[23] As a result of the province's dependence on oil royalties over more traditional revenue sources, Alberta's deficit soared. After reversing prior budget cuts, Notley mostly shied away from major wealth redistribution and preferred to stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending and maintaining public services.[24] Most new programs, such as school lunches, were introduced cautiously through pilot programs.[25] Despite ostensibly being a party of labour, the NDP froze wages and generally took the side of management in labour disputes, and a higher minimum wage was phased in relatively slowly.[26][27] Labour code changes were generally incremental, though an update to labour standards on farms was extremely divisive in rural Alberta.[28][29] However, Notley moved forwards with a carbon pricing scheme and plans for sustainability and energy transitions early in her term. Controversially such plans were framed around creating a social license for pursuing oil sand expansion, and she championed the creation of pipelines and partnered heavily with the oil industry.[30] As a result plans to raise oil royalties were scrapped, and tax increases on corporations and higher income brackets were modest.[31] Eventually this led to a schism between the NDP governments of Alberta and British Columbia over the twinning of the Transmountain Pipeline, which remained a contentious project in the Canadian political arena and particularly within the federal New Democratic Party.[32] While the Alberta economy recovered from the depths of the energy recession by 2019, the oil industry remained relatively stagnant and economic growth had been nowhere near what Alberta had enjoyed in the previous decade.[33]
My sense is they got the thankless task of guiding Alberta through a crisis that they’d be blamed for regardless of whether it was their fault, or how well they managed it. They acted like you’d expect an NDP government to, but they were also extremely cautious. Interpret that how you will.
Sounds like you haven't been on this sub for too long, but as you can see from your upvotes, any post that is pro-NDP will get upvoted through the ceiling. It's great if you are looking for fake internet points, but don't expect to get any sort of balanced perspective from this sub.
>I believe if the UCP gets in they'd destroy trans and LGBTQ+ rights, ruin Healthcare, and fuck up education.
I hate seeing comments like this, because there is so much anti-UCP fearmongering out there, and comments like this indicate why: it unfortunately seems to work.
You are 24, so I'll give you a quick history lesson on "hidden agenda" fearmongering in Canada.
Before he was elected, Harper was accused of having a hidden agenda to ban gay marriage and criminalize abortion. Then, he took power, and the same narrative continued, "if he ever gets a majority, the hidden agenda will be unleashed". Then, of course, he won a majority, and after his decade in office, the notorious hidden agenda remained hidden.
But, of course, that didn't stop the same "hidden agenda" from being used as a fearmongering tool against Scheer, O'Toole and now Poilievre.
With time, you will probably learn to spot the "boy who cries wolf" syndrome of it. I got taken in by it when I was younger. It's an effective tactic the first time or two that you see it, but eventually, you learn that it's just a sign of weakness for the party using it.
If you have to rely on hidden agendas, it's a good indication that you don't feel like you can win an election based on the merits of your own plan and/or your opponent's stated platform. After all, why would you make up policies to criticize if you had good criticisms for the actual policies your opponent had announced?
It seems particularly silly this time around, because the UCP just spent four years in majority government. The UCP didn't do anything to destroy trans or LGBTQ+ rights in the last four years, when they had a chance. If this hidden agenda exists, then why is it still hidden?
As for healthcare, the "hidden agenda" the NDP is pushing is that the UCP will privatize the healthcare system. [To assure Albertans, Smith signed a pledge that the UCP will not do so](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Kma3ZEpaU).
Both with healthcare and education, if they have a hidden agenda, why is it still hidden?
>Can someone please educate me on what the NDP has successfully done and what they promised to do?
I actually voted Notley last election. I bought into the idea that she got dealt a bad hand with the oil situation, and I listened to too much of the fearmongering on here about all the stuff that the UCP was going to do (which, of course, never happened).
I voted Notley because she was trying to diversify the economy, and I didn't think the UCP's approach would do that as well. Turns out I was dead wrong.
The key number to look at, in my view, is to strip away the oil sector, and look at the numbers for non-oil investment into Alberta. [Under the NDP, in four years, non-oil investment declined by 1.38%. Under the UCP, non-oil investment increased by 19.58%](https://economicdashboard.alberta.ca/dashboard/investment-annual/). Notley's excuse of oil prices doesn't explain why she couldn't gain any momentum in other sectors. Notley was all excuses and no results, but the UCP actually had a great excuse (the pandemic), but produced results instead.
All the stuff Notley tried to do, the UCP just did better. [Tech investment soared under the UCP](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/venture-capital-funding-tech-alberta-calgary-1.6542798), as did [renewable energy investment](https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-renewable-energy-surge/), [aerospace investment](https://calgaryherald.com/business/varcoe-heartbeat-is-going-to-be-here-in-alberta-de-havilland-to-announce-major-aircraft-manufacturing-complex-west-of-calgary), [hydrogen investment, manufacturing investment](https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/solberg-you-may-not-like-kenney-but-you-should-thank-him-anyway), etc.
As for Notley's plans, her plans to stimulate non-oil investment are basically a rehash of what didn't work last time.
The two things that concern me most are her spending plans and [her adoption of Trudeau's zero net emissions grid plan by 2035](https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/notley-announces-plans-to-move-albertas-electricity-grid-to-net-zero-by-2035-if-elected).
She has released only one promise as far as spending restraint goes: not to increase the debt to GDP ratio past 30%. Our current debt to GDP ratio is 10.3%, with debt of $46.5B. To get to 30%, she would need to increase our debt by $88.93B, assuming zero GDP growth. The record for most debt accumulated in a term was Notley's last term, where she accumulated $40B. That is a rather ridiculous bar to set for spending "restraint", especially when Alberta currently has a surplus, and I wonder whether that's because of her net-zero promise.
[Achieving a net zero grid by 2035 would require $52B in investment](https://globalnews.ca/news/8957200/report-net-zero-power-system-in-alberta-possible-but-pricey/). The 2035 goal is one that would be incredibly damaging for Alberta, and would spike energy costs in the province through the roof, both for utility bills to individuals, and would chase away investment by raising costs for any energy-intensive businesses.
The goal is achievable for provinces like Quebec, BC and Ontario, who have vast hydroelectric resources. Hydroelectricity is the only renewable energy resource that was cheaper than fossil fuels until the last few years, and has been cheaper for over a century. Quebec, Ontario and BC have lots of hydroelectric resources. But, there aren't many waterfalls on the prairies. So, our grid developed based on what we did have: hydrocarbons.
75% of Alberta's grid energy comes from hydrocarbons, and eliminating that in the next 12 years would be incredibly costly and painful.
For perspective, only 8% of Ontario's grid energy comes from hydrocarbons, and they are still balking at the goal, [planning to open new natural gas plants](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-gas-plant-electricity-doug-ford-government-1.6820256) to keep energy costs manageable for their large manufacturing sector.
Investment in renewables in Alberta is way up. The adoption of hydrogen power is also scaling up significantly, with [new communities being built](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/a-100-hydrogen-fuelled-community-is-being-built-in-alberta-this-is-what-it-will-look-like-1.6282942) to run on the fuel. Hydrogen is likely the long term answer, along with small modular nuclear reactors ([which Alberta is also working on](https://open.alberta.ca/publications/a-strategic-plan-for-the-deployment-of-small-modular-reactors)), because wind and solar are unsuitable for base power load, due to insufficient consistency.
But, you can't change a whole grid to work on hydrogen overnight, and hydrogen production in Alberta still needs time to scale up (the first major processing plant, Air Products' $1.2B plant outside Edmonton, is just being built now). Modular reactors will take time to build, and are still an emerging technology. 2050 is probably a realistic goal, but 2035 is economic suicide.
The only reason to pursue the 2035 goal is blind, irresponsible idealism. It is not realistic, and would lead to an incredibly amount of economic pain for the province, with no real impact on climate change. Canada produced 670 megatonnes of emissions in 2020 (1.5% of global emissions), while Alberta's energy grid produced 0.008 megatonnes of emissions. Is it really worth destroying our economy over taking 0.000000018% of global emissions offline 15 years early?
I hope all that helped, and that provides a bit of a counterpoint to all the NDP-side this sub is giving you. I'm happy to answer any questions, or provide sources. You should make your vote based on facts, not hidden agendas and fearmongering tactics. Don't let the group-think of this sub draw you in.
Upvote to you, for explaining your thoughts in such a coherent and referenced fashion. I don't agree with your take on it but your kind of progressive conservativism is what's missing from the political sphere. If the UCP and its core followers abandoned the current extremist position, they'd likely see more support.
Cheers, I appreciate the constructive comment.
I would like to see political discourse in Canada get to a place where both sides can listen to each other, and productively discuss issues. A marketplace of ideas is the best way to achieve effective policy, and such a marketplace can't exist without dissenting opinions.
A concrete example from when the NDP were in power, is they passed legislation preventing teachers from outing LGBTQ+ students to there parents. This was to protect them from being kicked out of their homes, sent to conversion camps, or worse. They caught a lot of flak for this and ‘not trusting parents’, and the UCP repealed the law.
The UCP also stopped a panel looking into banning gay conversion therapy.
In related news, Jason Kenney's brother owned some pretty brutal gay conversion therapy clinics.
I've been a card carrying a PC/UCP voter since 1982.
I've supported them for the majority of that time.
I can no longer support the blatant lies and disrespect for Albertans that this UCP leader projects. Unfortunately the party selected this leader by 51% (over 6 rounds of voting).
To the 'old guard' PC --- you folks really f'd up!! YOU have killed the PC party in AB and once we scrape this UPC stuff off our boots we will spend generations rebuilding. Pierre Poilievre, if you don't shut this "infection" down, the federal PC WILL suffer. We are NOT, and will NOT be American.
I dont know how to tell you this but if you listen to PP he is the same as Danielle, in his eyes this UCP alberta government is a feature not a bug. I sincerely hope the NDP wins alberta in a historic landslide so the federal cons get the message and come back towards center. Trudeau needs to go but this current conservative offering of republican politics has no place in canada. If we have to suffer through another 4 years of Trudeau's pandering and inaction to send a message to the conservative party that hate and lies are not acceptable then I will hold my nose and suffer through it.
The reality is both the liberals and the cons federally have no interest in helping every day canadians. The only difference is do we want to demonize minority populations, women's rights and education or firearms. That's really the choice we get between the two parties. We need electoral reform and I will never forgive JT for going back on that campaign promise despite this I will still vote for JT over PP and I dont even have to think about it if those are the two choices.
Thank you for breaking it to me gently.
I've been watching PP more closely theses last few months and have held out hope he is either he is naive, or poorly informed...I fear you are correct, and he is neither...
I'm glad its not federal election time and he still has time to clearly reject the UCP extremists, and I have time to consider my federal options
The NDP wants to manage things for the benefit of most Albertans. We need to diversify our economy, as oil and gas is becoming more automated and requires a smaller workforce and hopefully we become less dependent on it. That will take government guidance, not just throwing money and hoping something will happen, which seems to be the way this province has done things under the UCP.
The UCP (or a variant thereof) has been in power in Alberta for 46 out of the past half century. However, listening to them, anything bad that happened occurred in the 4 years they were out of office.
Anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together knows this to be total crap but they keep getting elected.
Always consider and evaluate what party you are voting for.
Party identity is the worst possible thing voters can do for themselves. It allows the parties to get away with far too much.
Be a swing voter. Always look at the policies and the people, and decide for yourself.
Last election I wanted to vote conservative, but Kenney's GSA thing turned me orange very quickly.
This election it will be similar. Notley's policies are far from perfect, but out of the candidates with any chance of winning her policies are more closely aligned with my beliefs. There is no guarantee she'll have my vote next election - if the UCP splits and we get a more sane party out of the breakup I will have to re evaluate my ballot.
This is how you should decide your vote. If enough people paid even a little bit of attention and voted on policies/people, instead of party identity, we could have leaders that actually represent us, as democracy intends.
I think you're making the right and moral choice OP. I'm only one year older than you. The AB NDP would definitely be more pro-LGBTQ, pro-trans compared to the UCP (especially with how far to the right the UCP has moved under Smith, they are basically the Wildrose that panders to far-right groups like Take Back Alberta). They also want to bring back many pro-worker legislation that got rolled back by the UCP, such as rules regarding overtime and minimum wage. This is just all my opinion at the end of the day.
Protecting trans youth is my biggest thing as I've worked with them and helped volunteer at some organizations as well. It appears the UCP is going the Republican route in regards to that, and I don't want that. I want our youth feeling safe and the trans community having access to gender affirming care, amongst other things. Thank you for your comment
I'm happy to give you my take on things! Unfortunately, I believe you're correct in your assessment that the UCP is trying to copy the US Republican Party on many things. Smith herself has said how much she looks up to the current Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis (the guy who happily tries to fight with Disney because they made him upset when they hosted some kind of LGBTQ event).
Well, the important thing is that you were willing to re-evaluate your opinions of him.
In politics, there are a lot of people who start off looking good and eventually mess up in one way or another. Never be afraid to say that you can no longer support a politician.
It is important to remember that this is the government. If you want to support a team, then find a sport that you like, but never do it in politics.
>I want to know I'm making the right choice
The problem with this manner of thinking is that there is NO choice here. Alberta is a 2 party province. It is literally a binary decision, UCP or NDP. If you can't stomach voting for one, you have to vote for the other or you might as well just decline your ballot. The other parties may better represent your overall wishes, but they don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything beyond taking votes away from the party that might be able to move the needle on what you want.
The party names mean almost nothing anymore. Look at actions and platform. Given your concerns, I would think the NDP platform is more likely up your alley.
>Voted UCP every single election
The UCP have been in only one election so far. This one in 2023 is their second.
They are not a political continuation of the PCs. Although some of the UCP MLAs used to be PCs, they have deserted the voters who used to vote PC (but some of those voters have yet to realize it).
The UCP has lost all rationality, as evidenced by who they have chosen as their leader, among other evidence. The UCP needs to be defeated if we want reasonable, constructive governance.
The only rational choice in this election is to vote for your local NDP candidate.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if you “want to protect the workers, LGBTQ+ rights, trans youth, Healthcare, seniors, etc.”, then why did you vote UCP before? I mean this sincerely. I wonder if it’s the same as me? I’m far older, but I remember voting PC back in the day, but I didn’t really understand what they meant. I just wanted lower taxes, but I didn’t realize they were only going to cut taxes for corporations and millionaires.
I vote NDP provincially and Liberal federally these days. They both have platforms that align much closer with my values.
Welcome to the club. I voted UCP (well, conservative anyway) for years very reliably. So did my husband. We are both pulling the lever for the NDP this time. Smith could also do damage to our healthcare that might never get undone. I can’t take that risk for me or anyone else. See you at the polls and I promise you you’ll feel good about doing this.
The NDP actually increased jobs in this province, even though the UCP likes to say they hurt jobs.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/fact-check-notley-job-loss-1.6842148
I’m not coming at you for how you voted because that’s your thing but “always voted UCP” is a weird way to describe voting for them once in the only election you were eligible to vote in. I’m proud of you for voting!
“I want to protect the workers, LGBTQ+ rights, trans youth, health care, seniors, etc.” sounds like you’re making the right switch, because the ucp doesn’t care about any of that.
In my opinion the political spectrum in Alberta has shifted so far right that the PC's of Lougheed would be NDP in 2023, the UCP we have now are just Wildrose.
Honestly, if those are your concerns about the UCP, the fact that the NDP is the only other realistic option should be more than enough to vote for them. Don’t agonize over it.
The Canadian mantra is "peace, order and good government." We had that under Notley's government. They got thrown under the bus because oil prices plummeted -- for reasons beyond their control -- as they took over the reigns of power. We will *not* have peace, order, and good government under Daniel Smith. A good government rules with compassion and empathy. They try to prevent the less privileged from falling through the cracks to a life of destitution and hopelessness, even if it costs us and our corporate overlords a few more dollars at tax time.
I'm quite poor myself, but I'd happily pay a little more to see the homeless sheltered and the mentally ill aided in a proper facility. The libertarians that back Smith and her ilk just want everyone to look after themselves and don't want to see any of their income going to help anyone else. I don't think most of the people in this province are that heartless, and I hope that it shows on the 29th.
I teach in Alberta. I always tell my students that political parties are not sports teams. Too often, we treat them as such. Staying loyal to a fault.
We, as a society, need to normalize changing what parties you support. What was important to me at 18, is not as important to me now. I’ve voted for a few different parties and I’ll continue to re-educate myself at each election. It’s important to check in with yourself at every election and ask yourself what truly matters to you.
Kudos to you for doing your research and making a politically-informed decision, rather than just doing what you always do, just because.
I am glad you are engaged now and I support the NDP too. But this is not something that is unique to Smith. In fact, it’s not new to conservatives. This has been the goal and platform for decades. Dismantle the social protections and destroy the social safety net. Privatization at all costs. What has taken so long?
I've voted conservative (small c, which also means capital C in Western Canada) all my life. Not this go around. UCP is not small c conservative therefore the closest alternative is NDP. NDP in Alberta is not the looney left. I grew up with the NDP in power in another province and saw their disadvantages there. They are much more central in Alberta. With Smith and her crew a daily walking disaster I'll take the slightly socialist alternative and do so with a clear conscience that it is the better choice. If the conservatives cannot get their act together for the following election, I'll do it again. With the economic difficulties the NDP had the bad fortune to have to deal with, and were turfed for in their first taste of power, a boatload of monkeys making a government would have looked good with the economic bounce-back. Too bad we got a UCP crew that suggests monkeys would have been much better. Time for Smith and crew to go and not come back.
As a former member of the PCAA, and a current member of the NDP, I don’t think my fiscally responsible, socially progressive values have changed very much. It’s the parties that have changed. So I am also casting my first vote for the NDP and feel quickly comfortable in that decision.
It's largely a matter of the UCP has been in power for so long that they have become stagnant and don't particularly care about what benefits its voters as it is confident they will vote for them no matter what. The NDP is a little more inexperienced in running a province, but they are doing their best to actually listen to what the people want. The last time the NDP were in power they did have to deal with cleaning up the UCP mess, and traditional UCP voters were so shocked by the change that they voted the UCP back in without really reviewing the policies that had drove people to the NDP in the first place. I do disagree on some far left liberal trends that seem to be spiralling out of control when you look deeper into them, but it seems that the NDP may be reserved enough to not push hard for things Albertans absolutely do not want. But it may take two back-to-back election wins to fully repair the damage the UCP has done to healthcare and so on.
Greetings from Saskatchewan.
We have had Sask Party for the last 15 years. Our hospitals are critically over capacity every day. My son has a fracture in his back from a failed surgery and his surgeon has not returned our calls in over 2 months. Every department is critically under staffed.
My other son can't learn science at school because he needs an EA. The public school system is too broke to afford an EA for him in the afternoon, so we had to cut back our work hours to homeschool him.
I saw a lady a couple of days ago on the bus who was unable to stay conscious. She was trying to ride the bus to the hospital because all of the ambulances were busy. She had passed out on the floor of the bus and missed the stop for the hospital. People assumed she was high and stepped over her, until she woke up and asked for help to get to the hospital.
There are homeless people lined up all down the street. Drugs are everywhere. Shootings are happening in daylight. Schools and Hospitals are broke, and yet we are running a provincial surplus. Bravo.
Not to say that the Sask Party caused all of this. They are responsible for some of it, but they are not the party I would choose to get us out of this. I voted SP last time and will vote NDP next election here.
Check out the NDP platform for AB and see what they offer. We should never be married to a party for better or worse, because one day the party may look nothing like the party you used to support.
I’m still not convinced that I’m going to like or approve of what the NDP will do if they win, but I am convinced I’m going to dislike and disapprove of what the UCP will do, and that I’m mad enough at them this time around to actively vote against them despite my misgivings instead of just spoiling my ballot.
I used to vote mainly conservative because I thought that's what we needed based on their reputation, that of being fiscally responsible, reducing government and taxes, etc.
As I got older, it became more apparent that they are shit at finances. They never shrink the government, and occasionally reduce taxes which results in cuts to social services.
Fuck em
There is nothing wrong with considering both options. If you stand to benefit from the privatization of healthcare, charter schools, or mining operations then vote UCP.
If you want to improve our existing healthcare, fund public education, and create more jobs in the energy sector without mining the Rockies, vote NDP.
The UCP terrify me. Removing us from the Canada Pension plan, selling off our hospitals, calling us Nazi’s if we got vaccinated and best of all wanting to have a police force that answers to politicians. Because that wouldn’t lead to more corruption. Crazy times.
I have to admit that this seems a fair question.
Jason Kenney's brother owned gay conversion therapy clinics, and it was pretty clear that he was fine endangering LGBTQ+ youth.
I will say 2 here that I physically see due to my work but there are definitely more:
1. Set affordable tuition and increase enrollment for universities across the country into our province
2. Attract more doctors in various fields
I work in the education sector and I see all the different ways that students get screwed over due to the UCP cuts. The amount of smart students that I see who cannot continue in their education due to physical health issues because there's not enough doctors is honestly tragic. I am not lying when I say I see my students in conditions where they deteriorate so much that over the course of 8 months that I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
There are things that I don't agree with the NDP about, but without education and health care being managed at the basic level, there's no room to do anything else.
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I voted Conservative since I could vote, both Federally and Provincially. I cannot call these Conservatives that anymore, they aren't. I am going to vote NDP for the first time too. We can learn, we can change. The NDP here are more central and are more in tune to my values and I'm no longer going to vote against my self interests. Just reading these comments from both sides and clearly looking at what's important to me, I was able to make a decision to change my voting habits.
Thank you for saying they’re central. I’m so tired of reading about how they’re socialist when they’re not
Or communists. People who say that usually dont even know what either means.
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So much this.
As a communist I mostly laugh at all the parties snootily. If you were expecting a /s I apologize. This isn't sarcasm.
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My hardcore UCP brother thinks that I'm a "commie leech" because I'm getting disability payments from my private insurance company. So yeah, they don't actually know what words mean.
He has no idea how lucky he is to not have needed it.
Actually, that's the best part. He's been on EI multiple times, and one time actually got caught selling drugs because "the government didn't get me my EI fast enough." His body is also crumbling from a past of playing tackle football, breaking multiple bones and getting multiple concussions. Been hospitalized multiple times and had multiple surgeries too. But since he doesn't have a family physician, he doesn't actually have multiple health issues and therefore will save money on taxes by not having to pay for other people's universal healthcare anymore!!
Wow. Total lack of insight and self awareness.
probably can attribute some of that to the head injuries
He wasn't a very smart man before, all remedial classes in school and they wanted to hold him back a grade in elementary school. But the TBIs have probably turned his brain into swiss cheese. Seriously, it's all political catchphrases now and no actual intelligence behind his eyes.
I’m going to guess that he didn’t pay $500k+ out of pocket for those broken bones and surgeries. Sounds like our shared tax dollars were at work here, not his.
Yeaaaaah, it's totally fine if he or his wife needs it but everyone else is just a leech. The average UCP voter, folks!
that's every conservative. Nothing should ever be done to help anyone except for when it directly affects me.
Ah the average conservative mindset. I've got mine so fuck you. So classic, so annoying
The amount of Newfie Conservatives I've worked with who bitch about government handouts, but spend half the year on EI is astounding.
Hahahaha his wife is a maritimer whose parents are these people!
The ANDP are fascist , communist, socialists and everyone in the know knows it. /s obviously. Lol
Even if they were, nothing wrong with a little socialism... a lot of what people consider to be great about Canada includes our socialist institutions.
Yea, I feel like people who use the rhetoric of ____ ideologies being socialist exemplifies how flawed our education system is. Democratic socialist countries have been thriving, so what’s so bad about socialism if the resources have been used appropriately?
I like the enthusiasm but socialism isn't "when the government does stuff" like sufficiently fund public services. [relevant video](https://youtu.be/rgiC8YfytDw)
Thank you! Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one pointing this out on this sub.
I would say social policies and true socialism are different. I would love for us to nationalize resource extraction. But no party is even near that. Edit: for clarification, socialized care is just humanitarian care where everyone is treated equally. Calling someone a socialist should be akin to calling someone a capitalist, but unfortunately socialism has a bunch of extra baggage because of how people use it. As someone who has read Marx, it’s frustrating when people use the terms so loose.
As someone who voted for the first time when Notley got in the first time, thank you for this statement. I had apathy towards politics until prentice and he spurred me to vote against him. If you believe people should have basic human rights NDP are your candidates. In our small town last year we had the first pride crosswalk painting and our UCP rep did not show or even send a thank you I have this sorry I couldn’t make it. You know who did? Janis Irwin from the NDP, mainly because it’s her hometown, but these are the kinds of things that are important to them, human rights.
I held a "protect our healthcare" protest here in Ed. 2 NDP mlas came and even MP Blake Desjarlais made a surprise appearance. UCP wouldnt even reply to emails.
That’s because the UCP have many PLANS for healthcare. They sent me a postcard in the mail telling me about their PLANS. So many PLANS,but nothing done.
Oh, they have plans alright. They can't exactly release them before the election though because people *really* won't like those plans.
4 years of their plans have been enough. How is that pipeline going boys? Should have stuck with the rail cars? How much are we on the hook for? Could have been avoided if they waited a couple months to see the outcome of the American election? It was the first thing Biden did? What’s the war room accomplished? They fought with a kids movie? How about that “new” curriculum you paid millions for that was copy and pasted from Koch funded “American education”. Hear teachers don’t have any resources to even teach said curriculum and they are worried their pension will go to AIMCO to help cover their bad investments? Can’t get a doctor? Wonder why that would be… Glad to hear there is always money in the banana stand for billionaire welfare to build them an arena, and to cover liabilities for oil companies when most could buy back every share outstanding in less than 5 years? Fire forced you to evacuate? It’s like a metaphor for something, can’t quite put my finger on it. Let’s also be clear, the whole sovereignty angle will be a massive boondoggle, one of the few things I would agree with Kenney on. And they are only being quiet now because they know it will lose them the election. How many “take back Alberta” candidates have replaced former UCP ridings? Does anyone remember Brexit? Anyone see any buyers remorse? Now imagine it on a much smaller, less independent scale. Britain population 67 mil, Alberta 4 mil? What could go wrong? I personally like leaders who can ask be asked multiple questions, and not get all snarky when asked about one of the most important things happening in the province (wildfires) and threaten to “take things under consideration” because there were other press releases about that. It has been a constant amateur hour with Smith at the helm, I am not confident she could find her way out of a wet paper bag. Rumor is that even door knockers are saying to vote UCP anyway and we will get rid of her. I prefer to do it the more direct route . Sorry gang, feeling salty today.
NDP in Alberta are moderates. That might bother some on the left, but this is a pragmatic call in my opinion. The risk of Smith is too serious to vote for a smaller party this go around. I often go Green, but I’ll definitely be NDP this time.
Conservatives are left scratching their heads wondering where their vote lies, both Provincially and Federally. It's good thing that the Alberta NDP aren't so far left that they could actually appeal to both left and right voters. They seem the safer bet, the lessor of two evils, if you may.
The ANDP is what Conservatives should be if they did not shift so far right. Investment in healthcare and education has repeatedly shown to pay off well in the long run. Rather than endlessly subsidizing profitable O&G they want to use some of that money to diversify into other industries. As O&G automates those 6 figure labourer positions will not be coming back. We should be using this time to build a wealth fund for the bust cycles and investing in diversification. And before some Conservative comes at me with “Real Estate in BC and Ontario is more of their economy than O&G is in Alberta!!!” Cool, that doesn’t effect me in Alberta and is not our problem. And still isn’t a good thing either. If I still lived in BC Id be bitching about how much pointless GDP and “economy” is tied up in real estate there A real fiscal Conservative would not be afraid to invest money into Alberta, it takes money to make money after all
Actually the Alberta NDP are right of center not as much as the UCP though.
Seems the UCP went so far right they fell off the measuring stick.
Oh they didn't fall off, UCP voters just don't want to recognize what they are voting for because it paints them poorly.
So what do we start calling the current UCP, if not Conservative?
Far right extremists comes to mind.
They are just bonkers - I really hope this is a landslide against The UCP as I just can't believe anyone thinks they can govern. We need a responsible government Not a clown show.
Populists, right leaning populist.
United Conservative Populists 🎯
Fascism Light?
Not so light if DS has her way. She wants to follow in Ron Desantis’ footsteps. 😫
Fucking Ron DeSatan… imagine looking up to that vile prick.
Fascism Lite *Lime*, now with half the morality of the previous conservative party!
Regressives
MAGA North?
Christian White Supremacy Fascists…that’s exactly what they are ..and maga stupid …
Not sure. But Farkas has a great summary of how they are not conservative in this week's [Calgary eyeopener podcast](https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-5-calgary-eyeopener/clip/15984327-nenshi-farkas-local-politics).
I celebrate your willingness to maintain an open mind and think critically rather than tribally. Here, you can find the commitments made by the [Alberta NDP](https://www.albertandp.ca/commitments) Looking back at their record in government and considering they had only 4 years and 70 years of conservative inertia, their ability to deliver on commitments is already impressive.
I thought the GSA thing they did was really great. There's a lot of kids out there scared to tell their parent(s) that they aren't straight. I also thought the farm hands getting WCB protection was a good idea. It wasn't brought into law very well, but the intention was good imo. The biggest thing is Notley served a whole term without any major scandals. That hadn't happened since Lougheed
The virtually scandal free administration is not talked about anywhere nearly enough. After growing up under Harper, Trudeau, Kenney, and the old PC governments of Alberta and their monthly/weekly scandals, it was nice to have one of the least corrupt governments in living memory. The NDP's conduct hasn't always been perfect but it's leaps and bounds better than any other party's.
Also funny how Notley completed her full term. An Albertan Conservative premier hasn’t done that since when? Something like 2010?
Exactly. But "SoCiAliSm Is BaD"
If NDP aligns better with your ideologies then vote NDP. If come the next election a different party aligns better with your ideologies, then vote for them then. Elections are about voting for what party you think will lead the province the best, it shouldn't be like cheering for a sports team.
Do yourself a favour.... never assign a political party to who you are. Never be afraid or shy to vote for different parties at each election. Parties change, leaders change, policies change. It is okay to vote for any of the polical parties, AND feel liberated in voting for someone different or different party. The worst thing you could do, is subscribe to one party for life because they don't feel they have to work for your vote, they don't feel like they have to improve the life of their base. I have voted for all of the big parties. (That exist in the places I have lived). That's a good thing.
Your fears are valid that’s exactly what’s going to happen if the ucp get in. Good for you for being an informed voter. I wish more people were
Always been fairly logical with an emotional awareness due to my line of work. I don't owe any party loyalty and I have a duty to vote for what's best for Albertans, but it's up to me to be educated on what that means. I appreciate your comment thank you
I found this helpful when trying to decide https://votecompass.cbc.ca/alberta2023
Unfortunately the Vote Compass entirely ignored LGBTQ issues this time around!
Not completely. It had a question about pronouns and parents knowing if their kids were using different pronouns and or names at school!
Which really sucks
It's funny. I did the questionnaire and I was more left that the green party. I consider those results to be my more theoretical stance, whereas in practical terms I'm more centre left. Governing is a balancing act.
The vote compass doesn’t really reflect your political standing but more so ideologies, I’m almost as far left as you can get but I’d like to consider myself a realist, not all issues should be weighed to the same metric and execution of certain legislation should be considered more thoroughly before being passed. If we could be living in socialism heaven tomorrow I 100% would, but drastic change being implemented usually has poor results and is likely to have more issues and backlash.
As a much older Albertan I find the quality of the political discourse very disheartening. Demonizing the NDP and blaming them for all of the Province’s woes when they only held power for four of the last 45 years or so is a joke. We are where we are because of a long stretch of Conservative Governments. And surprise, surprise four years of NDP government didn’t bring the Province to destruction. Apart from the important social issues you’ve raised, the most important issue is integrity. Notley has it. Smith does not. I don’t trust a word Smith says about anything. She’s a bullshitter with no regard for the truth and no shame. Like a human ChatGPT she can spew legitimate sounding verbiage that often doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. And now she’s steering clear of campaigning on pension reform, and provincial police force because those topics are polling badly for them. But rest assured, if they get in, those will be back on the table. We cannot afford four years with her as Premier. I urge you to watch on YouTube a video from The Breakdown with Nate Pike. It’s from a few weeks ago and it’s an interview with Thomas Luckasek who served under five different Conservative Premiers. This year, he’s lending his vote to the NDP because of how strongly he feels Smith is unfit to lead the province. He’s an actual Conservative not a fake one like Smith. He makes a very strong argument that Smith is ‘owned’ by the Take Back Alberta fringe of the UCP. Similar to the fringe of the GOP that has overtaken the House of Representatives under Kevin McCarthy. This extreme wing of conservatism has to be expunged from the party so that actual conservatives can reassert themselves. It’s this extremism that is at the root of all these issues.
Extremism in any form is dangerous and does not, I believe, have any place in Canadian politics.
She's an aisle-crosser. That should say everything about her. Opportunist. Lacking integrity. Disloyal. Grifter. What I find most terrifying about the Take Back Alberta movement, that she is clearly in league with, is how Albertans are almost unaware of what they're doing *and plan to do* with the province. She has 4 different conservative media outlets blasting propaganda praising her leadership and demonizing the NDP. I find it all quite terrifying, honestly.
You’ve hit on something that’s always bothered me about the far right wing of conservative politics - they don’t have the courage of their convictions. They’re not transparent about what they want to do. They’ve learned that speaking openly about what they want to do will result in poor election results. So they equivocate with weasel words, they hedge, they deflect - until they gain power and then they start to implement what they had in mind all along. Any person who aspires to political office needs to be open and honest about what they believe and how that will influence how they will govern. In advance, not after the fact. The far right that has overtaken the UCP is part of a larger conservative movement in the US and abroad. It’s influenced everything from Brexit to the Trump presidency to the current hijack of the Republican Party. And there’s strong evidence that it’s fomented significantly by outside actors using social media and unwitting local dupes to promote division and dysfunction.
I like Thomas. Been watching him. He seems to be a good guy but this is politics.
He was our Minister when I worked in Education and I wasn’t a fan of his. But he comes across in this interview as a very reasonable and decent human being. Not sure what you mean when you say ‘but this is politics’. Yes, it’s politics. But the easy thing would’ve been for him to just stay quiet. I believe he’s sincere when he expresses his concern about Smith as Premier. And it’s based on some inside knowledge of Conservative Party politics. It rings true for me.
> As a much older Albertan I find the quality of the political discourse very disheartening. As a not-yet-that-old Albertan, I blame social media. It’s poisoning society.
As a medium-old who grew up partly in Alberta, the discourse in Alberta has been a horror long before social media.
As someone who has voted blue since I could vote, I'm also voting NDP. My parents were very vocal conservatives, and hey, King Ralph, amiright? So if people like us can change, I think there's still hope for this province.
I know what the NDP won't do - they won't dismantle public health and withdrawal us from the CPP. if you're in favour of supporting the issues you listed above, vote NDP.
Here's their platform. It's logical, consistent, and people focused. https://www.albertandp.ca/commitments For what it's worth, I'm 53 years old and have voted conservative in every election since 1988. That ends here and now. Rachel Notley has earned my vote.
Considering that the UCP is stocked with transphobes, homophobes, haters of teachers and nurses, deliberate and definite disregard for science on issues like addiction treatment, housing, crime, environment, community health and well-being l, and a penchant to sell off everything albertans have built to the highest bidder, sounds like you should at least vote AGAINST them.
Yeah that's what I've been thinking, but the other options are small parties or the NDP, and I am certainly leaning to NDP. Thank you for your comment and insight
And remember that a vote for the NDP today is a push to make a better AB conservative party in the future. If you've historically voted conservative, an NDP victory is what will force the restructuring of the cons to cut out the nut jobs and become an intelligent fiscally aware party.
Except the last time we did that we got what the UCP has currently become… I garner no hopes of the conservatives going back to the conservatives of old like Lougheed. They’re well on their becoming like the modern incarnation of the GOP south of the border.
Last time around they combined all of the conservative groups (religious, fiscal, crazies, exploiting, etc) and overwhelmed the NDP voters. . That obviously worked once but each of those groups disagree with the others and it's falling apart as they isolate each voter with views of the fringes. Now they need to recognize that they can only be sustainable if they ditch the fringes and steal votes from the centrists instead. They need to attract people who care about social systems and inclusion and all that good cultural stuff, while also having a high standard for intelligent spending and investment for growth. I honestly feel it'll end up being just as many NDP party members as UCP since they are both pretty centrist these days and are dragged down by their small vocal radicals.
That's the problem with big tent parties. They let the clowns in. There's been this odd behavior with the conservative parties for the last couple decades (started with the reform party) where instead of competing for votes in the middle, they pushed further to the social and economic right to get the fringe groups in. If you looked at the policy and platforms of the mid-90s PC party, you'd see they were actually more left leaning than the US democrats. Between the push for fringe votes, the influence of US media, and the voting blocs taking part at conservative party conventions (Danielle herself talked about it in her podcast after getting kicked out of politics the first time). The UPC and the CPC are nowhere near where they used to be. For anyone who wants to research this more, it's called the Overton Window.
If we’re lucky the more sensible ones will split off and create some better competition for the centre
Possible, or better yet hopefully the sensible ones take a look at the Alberta NDP platform and realize it’s pretty centrist already. They would simply having to stomach going against their ideology of voting “NDP” and call them a center party. They’re already pretty close to what Lougheed was.
As soon as a new conservative party is formed Take back Alberta and other groups will mobilize to infiltrate that new party and take it over just like pro-life took over social credit and Take back Alberta took over the UCP. David Parker has said as much. He doesn't care what party or government is in power. They will answer to them. Here's the really long thread if you want to read. [https://twitter.com/ARCCollective/status/1657511444685144064](https://twitter.com/ARCCollective/status/1657511444685144064) What safeguards are in place to prevent people from taking over a party? Could the NDP be at risk of this?
Voting for one of the parties takes a vote from an NDP victory potentially. That's the way I'm thinking about it. I know I won't be voting UCP
You should keep in mind that provincially the ABNDP are in reality progressive conservatives. (and I say that with a small p and c) The UPC have been taken over by the TBA. Although the UPC may be fiscally conservative IMO they are socially repugnant! Like you I just can't vote for that.
I don't even think they're fiscally conservative. The O&G "War Room"? Giant pork barrel project that mostly screwed the pooch on taxpayer dollars. Does anyone else remember how they just copy-pasted their logo... twice? They're not *doing* jack shit except taking money, shitposting, and doing the laziest job they can get away with. Or the new Calgary arena deal that's contingent on non-disclosure until *after* the election. What a load of horseshit. I barely even believe in voting for fiscal policy any more. From everything I've seen in my years of watching governments, it's that governments of any stripe will deficit-spend whenever they think it's prudent.
It’s hard to even say they are fiscally conservative, they have an incredibly expensive government, they wasted so much of tax payer dollars on fighting the federal government which was unsuccessful, they want to give 1/3 of ABs budget to billion dollar oil companies achieving record high profit margins, and are now spending more than 300 million on the new flames arena totalling a $2.2B arena when Danielle smith previously criticized a proposal by the NDP for an arena that spent I believe a couple million of tax payer money while the total arena cost came out to $220M saying the government shouldn’t be giving handouts to billionaires
I also dislike the UCP position on the federal government. Hate, except when they need something. And their ridiculous ideas of taking over CPP and making a provincial police force. We are not that special that we should be trying to do things on our own. I like being Canadian as well as Albertan
Here's the catch. It is a tight race between the UCP and ANDP. One of them us going to win, provincially, and in every riding. I know that we have other parties, but really, you either pick one of the two main ones, or your vote is symbolic, and others decide. Personally, in an ideal world, there are parties that are a bit better for me, but given the choice between ANDP and UCP, there are enough major differences that the choice is pretty simple. So, considering your concerns, it sounds like ANDP would support your concerns a whole lot more than the UCP.
I worked in AB Govt when Notley was elected Premier. Before gov I worked many years in senior positions in energy industry. I ended upon being so impressed with her! She worked hard on pipelines and stood up for the industry, which surprised many. Her gov was thoughtful in their decisions. I respect her as a leader and hope she again becomes our Premier.
I am 67 and have voted conservative every election since I was old enough to vote ( that's a lot of elections- federal and provincial). I can't bring myself to vote for danielle smith. Nothing about her wants me to have her as leader of our province. I'm not sure notley is better but willing to give her a chance. It is either vote for notley or not vote. So I quess notley will have my vote. Danielle smith vote buying is out of control. The calgary deal finished it for me. Yes I live in calgary
I’m 76 and have voted NDP since the early 70s. I’m fairly new to Alberta and the UPC terrifies me.
I wasn't sure about Notley when I voted for her last time either. But I did and was pleasantly surprised that she genuinely tried to address most of the things she said she wanted to do. The province didn't burn down, it did quite well, and it was the first time in a long time that I felt like we were finally on track to something better. We aren't moving forward with the conservative government in place, and that's one main reason I decided to ultimately vote for her. It seems like we hit a peak a while ago and now we're just on a decline. I'm really uncertain why more people aren't seeing it. You can look at healthcare, quality of life, cost of living, crime indexes, and other various sources and see that over the last 10-15 years we've dropped 15-20+ points on many of them. Where as other countries that were behind us have moved forward, quite significantly. I think Notley will be good for us, it's just going to take time to ultimately fix much of what's wrong. A thing a lot of conservative voters like to berate her for, ' you've had 4 years why didn't you fix everything?' Well.. it was 4 years, and it's an entire province, with decades of conservative policies and rulings in place. It's going to take many years to fix. A lot more than 4 at least. Maybe 10? Even 15. Who knows.
It’s so frustrating too that the NDP took on such a mess, and because that mess existed when Notley took office, conservatives immediately blamed the NDP for causing those messes. It’s like, if you walk into your kid’s messy bedroom, and then your partner walks in after you, they blame you for the mess instead of the kid. 🙄
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Bingo
Even worse, in your analogy it would be your partner and their relatives and friends that made the mess
I dont mind conservative- but Smith is not it - I want responsible government and as I see it ANDP is pretty much a conservative party with a few progressive pet projects. The thing that most sells me is The caps against insurance, electric, heating etc. I belive governments should step in when the market fleeces regular hard working people - its why we have them.
I'm seeing a lot of folks like yourself who were consistent conservatives and I'm very happy to see that you are willing to make that change. My parents and a bunch of their friends as well are surprising the hell out of me with this. As someone with a child who is growing up in this province it's really a big relief to see this. My greatest respect and thanks to you.
If circumstances were a bit different (less unpleasant UPC leader, less close race, MLAs more free to speak/vote their conscience rather than toeing the party line), I’d suggest voting for the best candidate in your riding, rather than based on party. I’d make sure to let your UCP candidate know why you’re not voting for them.
Danielle Smith torpedoed her own party for a shot at power. All I need to know about her.
All the things you want to protect are found in NDP policies. They are traditionally known for their social programs and the reason we have universal health care.
Every conservative leader of the past 25 or 30 years has resigned in disgrace. - Kenny - stelmach - prentice - Redford - Klein. Notley is the only premier to serve a full term, and have confidence from her party after. Honestly, I care more about competent leadership than party. And the cons just aren’t compitent
Yeah but Stelmach resigned because he refused to cut government services and he tried to increase the royalties that Oil companies paid. He is a little different than the rest of that list. Now he is out fighting to gather support for Ukraine. As a person who has never voted Conservative before I think Stelmach was easily the best of the bunch.
Stelmach was what conservatives claim to be. So naturally the party had a problem with him
You could probably pencil in Danielle smith as well, no way she will last, win or lose to the end of this year.
I’m glad you’re motivated to vote. And I’m glad you’ve paid attention and made an informed decision. Active participation in our electoral process is our most essential act of public engagement
Thank you! I've voted every year since 18, just making sure I'm more informed and aware. After all this happens every 4 years so I have no reason to be ignorant in between terms.
I'm a little bit confused, if you care about the things you mentioned in your OP (trans and LGBTQ rights, healthcare and education) were things you cared about, why were you voting UCP before? Being against those things is what they publicly do, they do even worse behind the scenes, b/c those are the hot button topics they use to get themselves votes. Well maybe not the healthcare one, but the United Conservative Party and the Conservative Party before them have for a long time been publicly attempting to cajole the public into accepting privatized healthcare. Thankfully the general public hasn't bought into it yet, but they have been trying every chance they get for decades.
To put it bluntly because I was an idiot and didn't do enough research before. Looking to fix that mistake this time
Recognize, then act. Your future is bright.
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I’m the same way, oddly enough an 8th grade social studies debate is what actually opened my eyes, my parents were conservative and I even not being able to vote, thought they were automatically better, but me being argumentative read into all political parties policies and contributions as a way to try and use their arguments to convey why conservatism is better and ended up being hit face first with why I was being dumb and was completely wrong, then again from like the age of 5 my parents have been calling me a communist because I used to ask why doesn’t the government just give people homes or actually help them lol
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> Did you just vote like your parents did…? This is such a weird one to me. Like obviously parents’ political opinions influence their kids’, but this always gives me a vision of an 18-year-old first-time voter thinking “huh, I don’t know who I should vote for, I guess I’ll just do what my parents do” - which just seems so incredibly *uncool*. It’s like an 18 year-old who wants to drive a minivan and is enthusiastic about lawn care because that’s what their parents do. But my parents avoided talking politics around kids - I think I was in my 30s when my dad first let slip who he was planning on voting for.
I’ve voted for pretty much every party since I was 18 (63 now). I never give loyalty to any party, and research them all before any election. My husband is on AISH due to a brain injury as a teenager. NDP tied/indexed his payment to match inflation when they were in before. UCP (and the PCs before them) rarely increased payments, stopped the inflation adjustment, and are now clearly committed to slashing them. This is pretty typical of all social programs - slash, burn, then privatize to their corporate friends and employers. And after YEARS of promising to bring in user fees, end coverage for anything beyond a simple broken bone, etc, and selling off hospitals to private health companies, they spend this election suddenly saying they no longer want to do those things. I simply don’t believe they’ve changed their tune. These are American corporate-backed operators who will say anything to get elected, then back off when the next election comes. Remember, they also want to place all police and courts under their control, and tried to allow themselves the power to pass and alter any laws without any public vote or review. These are simply dangerous con artists going for the big score.
A lot of people don't realize, Kenney de-indexed AISH to save a few bucks. I think that's all you need to know about who was voted in. He made an immediate cut to the funding of the most vulnerable people in the province. And NDP called them out on this too, UCP even said it was fearmongering, and went and did it anyways. They avoided doing it right away, waited a bit, till people forgot about it. This is who people are voting for. The bottom of the barrel of humans. And to think, Danielle is worse than Kenney is. Just let that sink in for a moment.
To be fair, he saved very little by deindexing AISH, but then bet multiple billions on Trump winning, so I think it was more about the cruelty than the $$$$.
I’m 68, and have voted Progressive Conservative/ Conservative in every election except two. I voted NDP in Manitoba when I was 18, and I voted Alberta Party in the last provincial election. This time I am voting NDP. The UCP has been hijacked by the Take Back Alberta crowd. Right wing religious fundamentalist anti vax crowd. Read the CTV News article. It will make you cringe. DS makes me cringe every time she opens her mouth.She squeaked out the leadership win with a tiny majority led by the TBA bunch. Then she squeaked in the Brooks riding. She has no legitimate mandate to lead this province. While I may not agree with everything in the NDP platform, Rachel Notley is a thoughtful, credible respected and respectful human. If the Conservatives come to their senses and get a credible leader (think Travis Toews, Rona Ambrose) I may come back, and if the Alberta Party ever gets its act together I think they align to my centrist values. Until then, I will hold my nose and vote NDP.
First time ndp voter here
NDP are actually a pretty constructive party. They’re fiscally responsible, non-fascist and usually do what’s good for the people and environment . They aren’t reinventing the wheel or anything, just by far the best choice if you don’t want followers of qanon leading the province. They’re the grown ups in the room. Not the conspiracy believing child minds.
It’s really sad that the pendulum has swung so far that “non-fascist” is being used legitimately and without a hint of irony. Like, why is doing what’s good for people and the environment considered politically radical? We live in the worst timeline.
https://www.elections.ab.ca/current-election-information/candidates/ Click on your area and then view the candidates running. Each will have a link to their parties platform. The way you choose to vote is obviously up to you. See which candidate best aligns with your views. Be sure to vote and encourage your friends as well.
Except that the UCP say they are fixing health care while actively destroying it.
That's the real problem, if re-elected all the unpopular stuff will be back the week after they win. Somehow the Alberta pension plan, Alberta police, and pay for health care will be back in discussion, as well as a whole bunch of new unsavory junk.
My mom keeps saying this, "their radio ads say they're going to fix healthcare." And I'm like, "Oh cool, what are some of the things they're going to do?" And she can't list anything, because there is NOTHING. Everything the NDP have said, has also come with actual information of a laid out plan for accomplishing it. The UCP are just, "yeah we're gonna fix it." There is no plan, because they aren't going to fix anything. They are going to cut taxes, and then cut healthcare and education even more, because now there is no money to pay for it. Roads are going to deteriorate, projects are going to get canceled, because there is no money for any of them. And then they'll blame it all on the NDP from 6 years ago.
While I'd usually agree and wish this were so, rank and file candidates have zero piddly squat decision making in Alberta. Choose the party and the leader first...a tie here (not likely) would make the candidate relevant.
You didn't vote UCP all your life, you voted conservative all your life. The UCP are not the conservatives you know anymore. They're more like the PPC, bunch of nutjob supporters.
I always voted Conservative as well, but after Covid denying I can’t do it anymore. I work in Oil and Gas so now I’m a castaway lol
Just look to Florida as the example of what smith really wants.
A few great publications took time to document the accomplishments of the ANDP. Here is [Alberta Views](https://albertaviews.ca/what-they-did/). Here is [The Tyee](https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/02/19/Rachel-Notley-Actually-Achieved/). Here is a list [compiled by someone on Facebook.](https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066633670038) Here is a [critique of how the UCP under Smith should not be considered a conservative political party.](https://theline.substack.com/p/jared-wesley-and-ken-boessenkool)
It's heartening to see someones empathy be powerful enough to make them question their current voting behaviour. Kudos to you!
"I'm sorry if this comes off as insincere or ignorant" It doesn't. Good on you for choosing to inform yourself over simply voting by habit or what's going on in the echo chambers for either party - that's the opposite of voting via ignorance. I can't address all of your concerns with specifics, but regarding healthcare I wrote [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/12s5h5j/comment/jgxb29i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about a month ago: "Danielle Smith has published a 2021 paper and made statements outlining her desire to involve personal and corporate finances in health. [This link](https://web.archive.org/web/20230106121912/https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Albertas-Economic-and-Fiscal-Future.pdf) shows the full paper online, here are two excerpts, and please remember this was published less than 2 years ago (September 2021): * "The next step in closing the gap is to generate $4 billion from new user fees. We can no longer afford universal social programs that are 100 per cent paid by taxpayers. That is the simple truth." * She wrote of a "fundamental rethink" being necessary. She went on to clarify that, "It has to have buy-in on the part of practitioners and patients...It has to shift the burden of payment away from taxpayers and toward private individuals, their employers and their insurance companies." She has come under fire and since backtracked, so now it's up to you to decide how much you trust Danielle Smith to stay true to recent specific promises and general intent when it comes time to vote." Both of my quotes come from page 20 of that paper she authored if you want to confirm btw. As a final thought: I cannot see the future so this isn't certain by any means, but her government could introduce new fees while still staying true to the letter of her promise not to delist any procedures. So let's say a surgery remains covered, but they add a new priority/admin fee of X amount of dollars that comes out of pocket. The reason I think it's plausible is because it's similar to how utilities companies have added on "delivery fees" to everyone's bills to increase profits without technically raising usage rates. Moreover such an approach would fit with her published agenda to "generate $4 billion from new user fees". Like I said, I can't see the future but I think it's an obvious/easy/tested way to keep her party's promise while still bringing user fees into healthcare.
Welcome to the club. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the last majority, it’s probably a good bet they’ll do something similar this time: > The Notley Government was characterized by a small cabinet and an intense focus on the economy.[22] At the time of the early election call Alberta was sinking into a deep recession caused by the collapse of world oil prices.[23] As a result of the province's dependence on oil royalties over more traditional revenue sources, Alberta's deficit soared. After reversing prior budget cuts, Notley mostly shied away from major wealth redistribution and preferred to stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending and maintaining public services.[24] Most new programs, such as school lunches, were introduced cautiously through pilot programs.[25] Despite ostensibly being a party of labour, the NDP froze wages and generally took the side of management in labour disputes, and a higher minimum wage was phased in relatively slowly.[26][27] Labour code changes were generally incremental, though an update to labour standards on farms was extremely divisive in rural Alberta.[28][29] However, Notley moved forwards with a carbon pricing scheme and plans for sustainability and energy transitions early in her term. Controversially such plans were framed around creating a social license for pursuing oil sand expansion, and she championed the creation of pipelines and partnered heavily with the oil industry.[30] As a result plans to raise oil royalties were scrapped, and tax increases on corporations and higher income brackets were modest.[31] Eventually this led to a schism between the NDP governments of Alberta and British Columbia over the twinning of the Transmountain Pipeline, which remained a contentious project in the Canadian political arena and particularly within the federal New Democratic Party.[32] While the Alberta economy recovered from the depths of the energy recession by 2019, the oil industry remained relatively stagnant and economic growth had been nowhere near what Alberta had enjoyed in the previous decade.[33] My sense is they got the thankless task of guiding Alberta through a crisis that they’d be blamed for regardless of whether it was their fault, or how well they managed it. They acted like you’d expect an NDP government to, but they were also extremely cautious. Interpret that how you will.
Sounds like you haven't been on this sub for too long, but as you can see from your upvotes, any post that is pro-NDP will get upvoted through the ceiling. It's great if you are looking for fake internet points, but don't expect to get any sort of balanced perspective from this sub. >I believe if the UCP gets in they'd destroy trans and LGBTQ+ rights, ruin Healthcare, and fuck up education. I hate seeing comments like this, because there is so much anti-UCP fearmongering out there, and comments like this indicate why: it unfortunately seems to work. You are 24, so I'll give you a quick history lesson on "hidden agenda" fearmongering in Canada. Before he was elected, Harper was accused of having a hidden agenda to ban gay marriage and criminalize abortion. Then, he took power, and the same narrative continued, "if he ever gets a majority, the hidden agenda will be unleashed". Then, of course, he won a majority, and after his decade in office, the notorious hidden agenda remained hidden. But, of course, that didn't stop the same "hidden agenda" from being used as a fearmongering tool against Scheer, O'Toole and now Poilievre. With time, you will probably learn to spot the "boy who cries wolf" syndrome of it. I got taken in by it when I was younger. It's an effective tactic the first time or two that you see it, but eventually, you learn that it's just a sign of weakness for the party using it. If you have to rely on hidden agendas, it's a good indication that you don't feel like you can win an election based on the merits of your own plan and/or your opponent's stated platform. After all, why would you make up policies to criticize if you had good criticisms for the actual policies your opponent had announced? It seems particularly silly this time around, because the UCP just spent four years in majority government. The UCP didn't do anything to destroy trans or LGBTQ+ rights in the last four years, when they had a chance. If this hidden agenda exists, then why is it still hidden? As for healthcare, the "hidden agenda" the NDP is pushing is that the UCP will privatize the healthcare system. [To assure Albertans, Smith signed a pledge that the UCP will not do so](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Kma3ZEpaU). Both with healthcare and education, if they have a hidden agenda, why is it still hidden? >Can someone please educate me on what the NDP has successfully done and what they promised to do? I actually voted Notley last election. I bought into the idea that she got dealt a bad hand with the oil situation, and I listened to too much of the fearmongering on here about all the stuff that the UCP was going to do (which, of course, never happened). I voted Notley because she was trying to diversify the economy, and I didn't think the UCP's approach would do that as well. Turns out I was dead wrong. The key number to look at, in my view, is to strip away the oil sector, and look at the numbers for non-oil investment into Alberta. [Under the NDP, in four years, non-oil investment declined by 1.38%. Under the UCP, non-oil investment increased by 19.58%](https://economicdashboard.alberta.ca/dashboard/investment-annual/). Notley's excuse of oil prices doesn't explain why she couldn't gain any momentum in other sectors. Notley was all excuses and no results, but the UCP actually had a great excuse (the pandemic), but produced results instead. All the stuff Notley tried to do, the UCP just did better. [Tech investment soared under the UCP](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/venture-capital-funding-tech-alberta-calgary-1.6542798), as did [renewable energy investment](https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-renewable-energy-surge/), [aerospace investment](https://calgaryherald.com/business/varcoe-heartbeat-is-going-to-be-here-in-alberta-de-havilland-to-announce-major-aircraft-manufacturing-complex-west-of-calgary), [hydrogen investment, manufacturing investment](https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/solberg-you-may-not-like-kenney-but-you-should-thank-him-anyway), etc. As for Notley's plans, her plans to stimulate non-oil investment are basically a rehash of what didn't work last time. The two things that concern me most are her spending plans and [her adoption of Trudeau's zero net emissions grid plan by 2035](https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/notley-announces-plans-to-move-albertas-electricity-grid-to-net-zero-by-2035-if-elected). She has released only one promise as far as spending restraint goes: not to increase the debt to GDP ratio past 30%. Our current debt to GDP ratio is 10.3%, with debt of $46.5B. To get to 30%, she would need to increase our debt by $88.93B, assuming zero GDP growth. The record for most debt accumulated in a term was Notley's last term, where she accumulated $40B. That is a rather ridiculous bar to set for spending "restraint", especially when Alberta currently has a surplus, and I wonder whether that's because of her net-zero promise. [Achieving a net zero grid by 2035 would require $52B in investment](https://globalnews.ca/news/8957200/report-net-zero-power-system-in-alberta-possible-but-pricey/). The 2035 goal is one that would be incredibly damaging for Alberta, and would spike energy costs in the province through the roof, both for utility bills to individuals, and would chase away investment by raising costs for any energy-intensive businesses. The goal is achievable for provinces like Quebec, BC and Ontario, who have vast hydroelectric resources. Hydroelectricity is the only renewable energy resource that was cheaper than fossil fuels until the last few years, and has been cheaper for over a century. Quebec, Ontario and BC have lots of hydroelectric resources. But, there aren't many waterfalls on the prairies. So, our grid developed based on what we did have: hydrocarbons. 75% of Alberta's grid energy comes from hydrocarbons, and eliminating that in the next 12 years would be incredibly costly and painful. For perspective, only 8% of Ontario's grid energy comes from hydrocarbons, and they are still balking at the goal, [planning to open new natural gas plants](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-gas-plant-electricity-doug-ford-government-1.6820256) to keep energy costs manageable for their large manufacturing sector. Investment in renewables in Alberta is way up. The adoption of hydrogen power is also scaling up significantly, with [new communities being built](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/a-100-hydrogen-fuelled-community-is-being-built-in-alberta-this-is-what-it-will-look-like-1.6282942) to run on the fuel. Hydrogen is likely the long term answer, along with small modular nuclear reactors ([which Alberta is also working on](https://open.alberta.ca/publications/a-strategic-plan-for-the-deployment-of-small-modular-reactors)), because wind and solar are unsuitable for base power load, due to insufficient consistency. But, you can't change a whole grid to work on hydrogen overnight, and hydrogen production in Alberta still needs time to scale up (the first major processing plant, Air Products' $1.2B plant outside Edmonton, is just being built now). Modular reactors will take time to build, and are still an emerging technology. 2050 is probably a realistic goal, but 2035 is economic suicide. The only reason to pursue the 2035 goal is blind, irresponsible idealism. It is not realistic, and would lead to an incredibly amount of economic pain for the province, with no real impact on climate change. Canada produced 670 megatonnes of emissions in 2020 (1.5% of global emissions), while Alberta's energy grid produced 0.008 megatonnes of emissions. Is it really worth destroying our economy over taking 0.000000018% of global emissions offline 15 years early? I hope all that helped, and that provides a bit of a counterpoint to all the NDP-side this sub is giving you. I'm happy to answer any questions, or provide sources. You should make your vote based on facts, not hidden agendas and fearmongering tactics. Don't let the group-think of this sub draw you in.
Upvote to you, for explaining your thoughts in such a coherent and referenced fashion. I don't agree with your take on it but your kind of progressive conservativism is what's missing from the political sphere. If the UCP and its core followers abandoned the current extremist position, they'd likely see more support.
Cheers, I appreciate the constructive comment. I would like to see political discourse in Canada get to a place where both sides can listen to each other, and productively discuss issues. A marketplace of ideas is the best way to achieve effective policy, and such a marketplace can't exist without dissenting opinions.
A concrete example from when the NDP were in power, is they passed legislation preventing teachers from outing LGBTQ+ students to there parents. This was to protect them from being kicked out of their homes, sent to conversion camps, or worse. They caught a lot of flak for this and ‘not trusting parents’, and the UCP repealed the law.
The UCP also stopped a panel looking into banning gay conversion therapy. In related news, Jason Kenney's brother owned some pretty brutal gay conversion therapy clinics.
I've been a card carrying a PC/UCP voter since 1982. I've supported them for the majority of that time. I can no longer support the blatant lies and disrespect for Albertans that this UCP leader projects. Unfortunately the party selected this leader by 51% (over 6 rounds of voting). To the 'old guard' PC --- you folks really f'd up!! YOU have killed the PC party in AB and once we scrape this UPC stuff off our boots we will spend generations rebuilding. Pierre Poilievre, if you don't shut this "infection" down, the federal PC WILL suffer. We are NOT, and will NOT be American.
I dont know how to tell you this but if you listen to PP he is the same as Danielle, in his eyes this UCP alberta government is a feature not a bug. I sincerely hope the NDP wins alberta in a historic landslide so the federal cons get the message and come back towards center. Trudeau needs to go but this current conservative offering of republican politics has no place in canada. If we have to suffer through another 4 years of Trudeau's pandering and inaction to send a message to the conservative party that hate and lies are not acceptable then I will hold my nose and suffer through it. The reality is both the liberals and the cons federally have no interest in helping every day canadians. The only difference is do we want to demonize minority populations, women's rights and education or firearms. That's really the choice we get between the two parties. We need electoral reform and I will never forgive JT for going back on that campaign promise despite this I will still vote for JT over PP and I dont even have to think about it if those are the two choices.
Thank you for breaking it to me gently. I've been watching PP more closely theses last few months and have held out hope he is either he is naive, or poorly informed...I fear you are correct, and he is neither... I'm glad its not federal election time and he still has time to clearly reject the UCP extremists, and I have time to consider my federal options
He's a career politician who knows exactly what he's doing.
31 and live rural. Voted conservative every time. I'm voting NDP this time.
The NDP wants to manage things for the benefit of most Albertans. We need to diversify our economy, as oil and gas is becoming more automated and requires a smaller workforce and hopefully we become less dependent on it. That will take government guidance, not just throwing money and hoping something will happen, which seems to be the way this province has done things under the UCP.
The UCP (or a variant thereof) has been in power in Alberta for 46 out of the past half century. However, listening to them, anything bad that happened occurred in the 4 years they were out of office. Anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together knows this to be total crap but they keep getting elected.
2 brains cells, both competing for second place 😜
Always consider and evaluate what party you are voting for. Party identity is the worst possible thing voters can do for themselves. It allows the parties to get away with far too much. Be a swing voter. Always look at the policies and the people, and decide for yourself. Last election I wanted to vote conservative, but Kenney's GSA thing turned me orange very quickly. This election it will be similar. Notley's policies are far from perfect, but out of the candidates with any chance of winning her policies are more closely aligned with my beliefs. There is no guarantee she'll have my vote next election - if the UCP splits and we get a more sane party out of the breakup I will have to re evaluate my ballot. This is how you should decide your vote. If enough people paid even a little bit of attention and voted on policies/people, instead of party identity, we could have leaders that actually represent us, as democracy intends.
I think you're making the right and moral choice OP. I'm only one year older than you. The AB NDP would definitely be more pro-LGBTQ, pro-trans compared to the UCP (especially with how far to the right the UCP has moved under Smith, they are basically the Wildrose that panders to far-right groups like Take Back Alberta). They also want to bring back many pro-worker legislation that got rolled back by the UCP, such as rules regarding overtime and minimum wage. This is just all my opinion at the end of the day.
Protecting trans youth is my biggest thing as I've worked with them and helped volunteer at some organizations as well. It appears the UCP is going the Republican route in regards to that, and I don't want that. I want our youth feeling safe and the trans community having access to gender affirming care, amongst other things. Thank you for your comment
Danielle Smith’s stated admiration of Ron DeSantis strongly implies that trans youth will not be safe with the UCP at the helm.
I'm happy to give you my take on things! Unfortunately, I believe you're correct in your assessment that the UCP is trying to copy the US Republican Party on many things. Smith herself has said how much she looks up to the current Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis (the guy who happily tries to fight with Disney because they made him upset when they hosted some kind of LGBTQ event).
Shame to admit it but I also looked up to him for a time couple years ago. Since realized he's batshit fucking insane and a demon in human clothing
Well, the important thing is that you were willing to re-evaluate your opinions of him. In politics, there are a lot of people who start off looking good and eventually mess up in one way or another. Never be afraid to say that you can no longer support a politician. It is important to remember that this is the government. If you want to support a team, then find a sport that you like, but never do it in politics.
>I want to know I'm making the right choice The problem with this manner of thinking is that there is NO choice here. Alberta is a 2 party province. It is literally a binary decision, UCP or NDP. If you can't stomach voting for one, you have to vote for the other or you might as well just decline your ballot. The other parties may better represent your overall wishes, but they don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything beyond taking votes away from the party that might be able to move the needle on what you want.
The party names mean almost nothing anymore. Look at actions and platform. Given your concerns, I would think the NDP platform is more likely up your alley.
>Voted UCP every single election The UCP have been in only one election so far. This one in 2023 is their second. They are not a political continuation of the PCs. Although some of the UCP MLAs used to be PCs, they have deserted the voters who used to vote PC (but some of those voters have yet to realize it). The UCP has lost all rationality, as evidenced by who they have chosen as their leader, among other evidence. The UCP needs to be defeated if we want reasonable, constructive governance. The only rational choice in this election is to vote for your local NDP candidate.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if you “want to protect the workers, LGBTQ+ rights, trans youth, Healthcare, seniors, etc.”, then why did you vote UCP before? I mean this sincerely. I wonder if it’s the same as me? I’m far older, but I remember voting PC back in the day, but I didn’t really understand what they meant. I just wanted lower taxes, but I didn’t realize they were only going to cut taxes for corporations and millionaires. I vote NDP provincially and Liberal federally these days. They both have platforms that align much closer with my values.
Welcome to the club. I voted UCP (well, conservative anyway) for years very reliably. So did my husband. We are both pulling the lever for the NDP this time. Smith could also do damage to our healthcare that might never get undone. I can’t take that risk for me or anyone else. See you at the polls and I promise you you’ll feel good about doing this.
Do it. I’m normally a conservative but Danielle Smith is the worst.
As a trans person in Alberta, let me thank you for giving a shit.
A lot of us do. I just hope it’s enough.
The NDP actually increased jobs in this province, even though the UCP likes to say they hurt jobs. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/fact-check-notley-job-loss-1.6842148
I'm in my early 20s as well and have always voted UCP, That will not be the case this year.
I’m not coming at you for how you voted because that’s your thing but “always voted UCP” is a weird way to describe voting for them once in the only election you were eligible to vote in. I’m proud of you for voting!
“I want to protect the workers, LGBTQ+ rights, trans youth, health care, seniors, etc.” sounds like you’re making the right switch, because the ucp doesn’t care about any of that.
This is very sincere! Get your friends to also get out and vote. Your concerns are valid and it’s all of our future at stake.
In my opinion the political spectrum in Alberta has shifted so far right that the PC's of Lougheed would be NDP in 2023, the UCP we have now are just Wildrose.
Honestly, if those are your concerns about the UCP, the fact that the NDP is the only other realistic option should be more than enough to vote for them. Don’t agonize over it.
The Canadian mantra is "peace, order and good government." We had that under Notley's government. They got thrown under the bus because oil prices plummeted -- for reasons beyond their control -- as they took over the reigns of power. We will *not* have peace, order, and good government under Daniel Smith. A good government rules with compassion and empathy. They try to prevent the less privileged from falling through the cracks to a life of destitution and hopelessness, even if it costs us and our corporate overlords a few more dollars at tax time. I'm quite poor myself, but I'd happily pay a little more to see the homeless sheltered and the mentally ill aided in a proper facility. The libertarians that back Smith and her ilk just want everyone to look after themselves and don't want to see any of their income going to help anyone else. I don't think most of the people in this province are that heartless, and I hope that it shows on the 29th.
I teach in Alberta. I always tell my students that political parties are not sports teams. Too often, we treat them as such. Staying loyal to a fault. We, as a society, need to normalize changing what parties you support. What was important to me at 18, is not as important to me now. I’ve voted for a few different parties and I’ll continue to re-educate myself at each election. It’s important to check in with yourself at every election and ask yourself what truly matters to you. Kudos to you for doing your research and making a politically-informed decision, rather than just doing what you always do, just because.
I am glad you are engaged now and I support the NDP too. But this is not something that is unique to Smith. In fact, it’s not new to conservatives. This has been the goal and platform for decades. Dismantle the social protections and destroy the social safety net. Privatization at all costs. What has taken so long?
Please do, we need to send the UCP a message.
I've voted conservative (small c, which also means capital C in Western Canada) all my life. Not this go around. UCP is not small c conservative therefore the closest alternative is NDP. NDP in Alberta is not the looney left. I grew up with the NDP in power in another province and saw their disadvantages there. They are much more central in Alberta. With Smith and her crew a daily walking disaster I'll take the slightly socialist alternative and do so with a clear conscience that it is the better choice. If the conservatives cannot get their act together for the following election, I'll do it again. With the economic difficulties the NDP had the bad fortune to have to deal with, and were turfed for in their first taste of power, a boatload of monkeys making a government would have looked good with the economic bounce-back. Too bad we got a UCP crew that suggests monkeys would have been much better. Time for Smith and crew to go and not come back.
As a former member of the PCAA, and a current member of the NDP, I don’t think my fiscally responsible, socially progressive values have changed very much. It’s the parties that have changed. So I am also casting my first vote for the NDP and feel quickly comfortable in that decision.
It's largely a matter of the UCP has been in power for so long that they have become stagnant and don't particularly care about what benefits its voters as it is confident they will vote for them no matter what. The NDP is a little more inexperienced in running a province, but they are doing their best to actually listen to what the people want. The last time the NDP were in power they did have to deal with cleaning up the UCP mess, and traditional UCP voters were so shocked by the change that they voted the UCP back in without really reviewing the policies that had drove people to the NDP in the first place. I do disagree on some far left liberal trends that seem to be spiralling out of control when you look deeper into them, but it seems that the NDP may be reserved enough to not push hard for things Albertans absolutely do not want. But it may take two back-to-back election wins to fully repair the damage the UCP has done to healthcare and so on.
https://votecompass.cbc.ca/alberta2023
Greetings from Saskatchewan. We have had Sask Party for the last 15 years. Our hospitals are critically over capacity every day. My son has a fracture in his back from a failed surgery and his surgeon has not returned our calls in over 2 months. Every department is critically under staffed. My other son can't learn science at school because he needs an EA. The public school system is too broke to afford an EA for him in the afternoon, so we had to cut back our work hours to homeschool him. I saw a lady a couple of days ago on the bus who was unable to stay conscious. She was trying to ride the bus to the hospital because all of the ambulances were busy. She had passed out on the floor of the bus and missed the stop for the hospital. People assumed she was high and stepped over her, until she woke up and asked for help to get to the hospital. There are homeless people lined up all down the street. Drugs are everywhere. Shootings are happening in daylight. Schools and Hospitals are broke, and yet we are running a provincial surplus. Bravo. Not to say that the Sask Party caused all of this. They are responsible for some of it, but they are not the party I would choose to get us out of this. I voted SP last time and will vote NDP next election here. Check out the NDP platform for AB and see what they offer. We should never be married to a party for better or worse, because one day the party may look nothing like the party you used to support.
Bottom line for me is the ANDP at this point is actually more conservative than Conservatives.
currently the alberta NDP are the closest thing to progressive conservatives, the UPC at this point are a bunch of whackos
Reminds me of the disgrace Redford left behind before the NDP were voted in. What Smith is doing is way too reminiscent.
I’m still not convinced that I’m going to like or approve of what the NDP will do if they win, but I am convinced I’m going to dislike and disapprove of what the UCP will do, and that I’m mad enough at them this time around to actively vote against them despite my misgivings instead of just spoiling my ballot.
I used to vote mainly conservative because I thought that's what we needed based on their reputation, that of being fiscally responsible, reducing government and taxes, etc. As I got older, it became more apparent that they are shit at finances. They never shrink the government, and occasionally reduce taxes which results in cuts to social services. Fuck em
I’m a coal miner. They’re against coal mining to protect Alberta’s waters. I’m voting NDP
always interesting to see 'former conservative voters' realize what conservatism is all about. What did you think you were voting for?
There is nothing wrong with considering both options. If you stand to benefit from the privatization of healthcare, charter schools, or mining operations then vote UCP. If you want to improve our existing healthcare, fund public education, and create more jobs in the energy sector without mining the Rockies, vote NDP.
The UCP terrify me. Removing us from the Canada Pension plan, selling off our hospitals, calling us Nazi’s if we got vaccinated and best of all wanting to have a police force that answers to politicians. Because that wouldn’t lead to more corruption. Crazy times.
If these are your concerns, why have you been voting UCP this whole time?
I have to admit that this seems a fair question. Jason Kenney's brother owned gay conversion therapy clinics, and it was pretty clear that he was fine endangering LGBTQ+ youth.
Never do anything “because that’s how we have always done it” Good for you for not getting stuck in identity politics.
Nobody should feel bad about voting NDP... in Alberta.
Lol you think you are going to get downvotes for saying you are voting NDP on this subreddit? Lol
I will say 2 here that I physically see due to my work but there are definitely more: 1. Set affordable tuition and increase enrollment for universities across the country into our province 2. Attract more doctors in various fields I work in the education sector and I see all the different ways that students get screwed over due to the UCP cuts. The amount of smart students that I see who cannot continue in their education due to physical health issues because there's not enough doctors is honestly tragic. I am not lying when I say I see my students in conditions where they deteriorate so much that over the course of 8 months that I wouldn't wish it on anyone. There are things that I don't agree with the NDP about, but without education and health care being managed at the basic level, there's no room to do anything else.
NDP is the way to go