[Alta_redneck]

Their going to have to have a special budget just to pay out all the retired Torys, gawd thats going to cost us.

[Public_Domain]

[Yogi]

PC

Elected: 6

Lead: 5

11

28.2%


LIB

Elected: 1

Lead: 0

1

4.2%


NDP

Elected: 42

Lead: 13

55

39.5%


WRP

Elected: 17

Lead: 2

19

25.1%


Others

Elected: 1

Lead: 0

[Public_Domain]

[Yogi]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

the cbc are masturbating furiously over this

As are you!

[Public_Domain]

[JaredMilne]

We can discuss the impact of the NDP's victory, but there's something else I'm personally wondering...

...Why, exactly, did Jim Prentice feel the need to leave his lucrative bank job and come back to politics in the first place?

Was he trying to come in as the PCs' white knight to save the dynasty, and then use that success as a springboard to the federal Conservative party and possibly becoming Prime Minister?

In the United States, governing a state is a common step to becoming President. In Canada, however, no provincial premier has ever succeeded in making the jump to becoming Prime Minister. Ontario's George Drew and Bob Rae, Saskatchewan's Tommy Douglas and Nova Scotia's Robert Stanfield all gave it a shot, but none of them succeeded. Quebec's Jean Charest went the other way, from federal to provincial politics. Ontario's Mike Harris, Newfoundland & Labrador's Clyde Wells, and Alberta's Ralph Klein were all suggested as potential leaders, but none of them went through with it.

So what, exactly, was Prentice's motivation? Did he think he could buck the trend of provincial premiers not being able to win it all at the federal level?

[Thanos]

I don't know if it was motivation over future national career possibilities. I'm assuming more that he (and the PC's in general) wildly underestimated the anger that had developed under Redfraud's nonsensical term. It was quelled slightly with the four PC byelection wins but it was still there and just needed a spark to be set off again. Prentice himself ended up providing the spark, twice, first with the idiotic 'look in the mirror' comment and then again with that idiotic budget. Assuming that the gutting of the Wildrose also meant continued provincial domination was also a major mistake.

Like they said about David Peterson back when Bob Rae beat him in Ontario, Peterson assumed that his perceived popularity was good enough. In the end his support turned out to be, as has been said before, about a mile wide but only an inch deep. Arrogance, hubris, complacency. It probably doesn't get much more complicated than that.

[Public_Domain]

[martin14]

Thanos Thanos:

In the end his support turned out to be, as has been said before, about a mile wide but only an inch deep.

I wonder if the Dippers in Alberta will understand that idea.

[Jabberwalker]

Good morning, Comrades!

[DrCaleb]

JaredMilne JaredMilne:

...Why, exactly, did Jim Prentice feel the need to leave his lucrative bank job and come back to politics in the first place?

Was he trying to come in as the PCs' white knight to save the dynasty, and then use that success as a springboard to the federal Conservative party and possibly becoming Prime Minister?

I suspected this is why. His 'internal monologue' kept slipping out with the completely asinine comments he made. He said he lived here all his life, and came back to make a difference, but I suspect he was only here because he thought it would pay more than a banking job and was a stepping stone to 'the big leagues'.

King Ralph was the only Premier who had a chance of becoming Prime Minister, and to his credit, didn't want the job.

[bootlegga]

andyt andyt:

But, both governments are dealing with factors that are beyond their control. What people should expect from their governments is the honest truth about that - but they'd rather keep voting for governments that promise them sweet nothings. In that, doesn't matter left or right, voters are all the same.

The problem with that statement is that Peter Lougheed foresaw this very problem and created the Heritage Trust Fund to deal with it.

Had his successors had a little more backbone and raised taxes a little bit here and there instead of funneling 100% of resource revenues AND all the interest the HTF earned into general revenue, it would be sitting at about $200 BILLION and the province could dip into it to weather the current storm.

Instead, it sits at $18 Billion - a few billion larger than when Lougheed left office in the mid-80s and we are forced to either cut services or increase taxes to cover the difference.

Unfortuantely, that dovetails with your second comment about everyone going "Me! Me! Me!".

[bootlegga]

martin14 martin14:

Thanos Thanos:

In the end his support turned out to be, as has been said before, about a mile wide but only an inch deep.

I wonder if the Dippers in Alberta will understand that idea.

If they don't, we'll have a Wildrose government in four years.