I am currently asking Albertans to sign Corb Lund's Water Not Coal petition. You need ID to sign.
My sheltered, privileged little self is a bit shocked by the number of people who don't have an ID, a phone number or an official address. Yes, they are the most vulnerable. Doesn't mean they don't want a say. And then of course quite a few people I speak with are not citizens. They live here, work here, drink the water, but have no voice in Smith's world where only voters (conservative voters that is, with ID) count.
Oh, and 'parental' groups from BC, and Australian CEOs and American right-wing influencers and murderous Saudi princes. There's that.
There HAS to be ID, and they HAVE to be citizens. and yes, Danielle Smith is doing absolutely NOTHING to support the people of Alberta. Let’s vote HER out.
The UCP and Danielle Smith are playing very dangerous games with our democracy, and the well being of Albertans, Alberta, Canadians, and Canada. For the older people who remember infomercials, that is what Danielle Smith is like. Trying to sell people something that isn't as advertised. Her experience in broadcasting shows she can talk smoothly, but people have seen beneath the flattering talk. She is very devious.
I’m noticing a definite uptick in the use, by UCP-connected trolls and others, of the epithet “communist” to describe anything associated with the very very centrist ABNDP opposition.
And yet, as you note, it’s increasingly clear that all decisions in UCP circles are being made on the basis of membership in, and connection to, The Party. And such decisions are always and only made in ways which benefit The Party.
Premier Measles and her god-awful party are an disgrace to this province. Their idiocy, arrogance and incompetence is a daily infuriation.
I cannot stand the thought that in scant months I am going to be wasting my time voting on a series of referendum questions that hurt my mind due to their vapidity and complete stupidity.
Here's what I think is happening with the October referendum questions re: immigrants.
Danielle Smith is gearing up for the next election. If she gets the votes she wants on the immigrant questions, I think we'll see a purge of the list of electors, like this:
She has time. She can change laws at will to make it happen. Legal challenges? Sure, but those take time. The voters' list was purloined by her friend David Parker for reasons other than signing a petition, IMO.
Non-eligible voting is very rare. Non-citizen voting is even rarer. What if people were purged from the list because their names "sound foreign"? What if non-voters who actually exist are purged? What if the information about 2.9M electors is used to send them to the wrong polling stations on electíon day, or worse, to vote on their behalf? As we see in the links above, people could find out about this for the first time when they try to vote.
Nothing is being done to protect voter ID or reassign polling stations or protect voters in any way at all. This is intentional. The anti-immigrant questions will be taken as a mandate for Smith to proceed with actions we're not paying attention to yet. We need to consider all possible ramifications starting with voting. The American model is in play and Smith is counting on us being uninformed.
Referendums cost a lot. Best idea is to use the true « direct democracy » tool. Call a damn election. A leader with integrity would, hence why she won’t.
So I move to Alberta from somewhere else and work, pay provincial tax on my earnings at the same rate as my coworkers who are "Albertans", pay rent/property taxes (which include education taxes) and me and my family have to pay above and beyond for healthcare and education?
WTF should I have to pay twice for these services compared to my coworkers.
The concepts of equity and fairness don't even show up in the racist and xenophobic world Dictator Dani is trying to create!
Hopefully she pays a shit pile of extra fees at her fancy house in BC Panama!
Are these extra fees going to further support her corrupt payments to her friends?
Or, if you have to pay for it anyway, maybe you just don’t bother with public and skip straight to private insurance and education… captive consumers and all.
These referendums are a tickle box of sorts brought out after UCP AGMs. The average "citizen" thought the UCP agenda might roughly be based on their campaign promises. However, the UCP aren't exactly a "Who Dares, Wins" group are they?
I appreciate your work, Deirdre, but I must ask where I fit in.
When there is so much sentiment that Danielle Smith and her party are this wrongheaded anti-democratic party out to trample on minority groups, who talk loud and say nothing, what does that make myself and the others who support them?
How am I to separate what you say about the AB government from myself and not take it at least partially personal?
Imo, this is the major problem as to why the NDP doesn’t perform as well outside the urban areas.
It feels like contempt for merely having a different worldview. It makes myself and others feel like “bad people”, not because we are, but simply because we don’t conform to the thinking.
How do we get out of this cycle where the lowest common denominator is the poster child for the whole group on each side?
Before anyone can answer your question, I have to ask you, "Why do you support the UCP"? Do you still believe that the UCP is actually a Conservative government? Do you believe that the UCP is following "Christian values" as they claim to be? Do you also support the "Trump regime" and what they are doing?
It doesn’t take me explaining more positions for you to give a reply, and this feels like a probe to dismiss rather than engage, Arlene, but I’ll bite…
The main reason I support them is due to what I’ve described above. Is there any onus on the NDP to try and gain my vote and if so where are they making attempt to do so? So where do I go? Vote independent so my riding is back benched? Abstain from voting?
The UCP is a conservative govt in the same context that the NDP is a progressive govt, no? Subjective definitions are counterproductive. I mean this one gets played a lot. “These aren’t your grandparents Conservatives! as if I’m not supposed to notice that these are not my grandparents Liberals or New Democrats either.
I don’t like how either operate today. High ground moralism and bombast for votes instead of outcomes. Again, where do I go?
You’ll have to be more specific as to where the UCP complicity states they “follow Christian values”.
Thanks for answering my questions. From what I see, the UCP call themselves Conservatives, but I do not see them governing anywhere as a Conservative government would. I see the UCP as a far-right government. So far right that they are using fascist tactics, much like the 1930's Germany did. They are destroying our democracy as they become more and more autocratic.
They are also following (as witnessed by what they have legislated) the USA Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025". Project 2025 is an over 900-page document that the Trump Regime is following. It is a Christian Nationalist document. Christian Nationalists claim to, but do not follow the teaching of Jesus - IMO, the exact opposite of Christianity. Note: I do not believe that religion should be part of any government. I believe in the separation of church and state.
IMO, the Alberta NDP is a progressive centrist party (not left - more like the centrist Progressive Conservative Peter Lougheed). The NDP still believes in democracy, that all citizens matter, and that we need government programs to assist citizens in having a quality of life (public health care, public education, and social services assistance for the disabled and poor). I will vote for them because of what they stand for, what they oppose, and that they are the best option at this time. I do not always vote NDP. I vote for who will support what I call Canadian values and beliefs - that all citizens matter, and democracy. I do not vote for the liars, the fascists or the criminals who want to dismantle our valued institutions and sell off the parts. I will never vote for the confabulator Danielle Smith or the UCP because they are a danger to me, my family and my fellow citizens.
Takes From The Tributary: When you blindly endorse, support and vote for the UCP, it's a major mistake. You are supporting money wasted on the most priciest boondoogles, the degradation of public education, and public healthcare, so it can be privatized, making poverty worse, be badly underfunding, and abolishing social services, deregulation of standards, which causes more problems, not treating all Albertans equally, letting seniors go through more hardship, putting money over the environment, corruption of the worst kinds, the erosion of democracy, and libertarianism, which is fascism.
Why would I respect people who have racist views, such as the leaders of the separatists in Alberta? Their views are garbage and they should be ashamed of themselves.
You are simply being too lazy to adhere to any values worth having, much like Danielle Smith who sucks up to the worst people in Alberta.
The UCP made it difficult for me to get covid vaccines and that damned well did affect my healthcare. The UCP forced teachers back to school by trampling on the rights of Albertans and they all deserve to lose their jobs for their anti-democratic actions. I could go on about how bad Smith and the UCP are at governing, how corrupt they are, accepting bribes and wasting Albertans' money on corrupt healthcare contracts, but you apparently don't have a problem with bad behaviour.
Your distaste for the separatists does not give you vindication to cast it upon all who support the UCP, and you sure as shit wouldn’t accept this thinking in any other facet. No one is demanding you respect them, Valerie.
You then accuse me of “being too lazy to adhere to values with having” as if you’re the arbiter of values. It’s all well and fine to disagree but you don’t get to make me into some sub human complicit to “bad things” for asking for some context.
The only personal trouble you have is that it was “difficult” for you to get a covid vaccine (Care to detail the difficulty?) — the rest is all on behalf of someone else.
Instead of operating form the idea that I wholly support Smith and the UCP and see no wrong in what they do, why don’t you take my comment to Deidre at face value and try to see the view of a moderate in this highly partisan political milieu?
Maybe it is time for us to all yell at Smith to cancel all the stupid referendums and stop wasting our money on her bullshit ideas.
One would think that time has definitely come...
I’ve been emailing her DAILY. If we don’t stand up and make a stand, Alberta will sleep walk into the US.
I am currently asking Albertans to sign Corb Lund's Water Not Coal petition. You need ID to sign.
My sheltered, privileged little self is a bit shocked by the number of people who don't have an ID, a phone number or an official address. Yes, they are the most vulnerable. Doesn't mean they don't want a say. And then of course quite a few people I speak with are not citizens. They live here, work here, drink the water, but have no voice in Smith's world where only voters (conservative voters that is, with ID) count.
Oh, and 'parental' groups from BC, and Australian CEOs and American right-wing influencers and murderous Saudi princes. There's that.
💯
There HAS to be ID, and they HAVE to be citizens. and yes, Danielle Smith is doing absolutely NOTHING to support the people of Alberta. Let’s vote HER out.
The UCP and Danielle Smith are playing very dangerous games with our democracy, and the well being of Albertans, Alberta, Canadians, and Canada. For the older people who remember infomercials, that is what Danielle Smith is like. Trying to sell people something that isn't as advertised. Her experience in broadcasting shows she can talk smoothly, but people have seen beneath the flattering talk. She is very devious.
I’m noticing a definite uptick in the use, by UCP-connected trolls and others, of the epithet “communist” to describe anything associated with the very very centrist ABNDP opposition.
And yet, as you note, it’s increasingly clear that all decisions in UCP circles are being made on the basis of membership in, and connection to, The Party. And such decisions are always and only made in ways which benefit The Party.
Accusation is confession?
That is a common refrain. They’re really quite dependable on that.
Premier Measles and her god-awful party are an disgrace to this province. Their idiocy, arrogance and incompetence is a daily infuriation.
I cannot stand the thought that in scant months I am going to be wasting my time voting on a series of referendum questions that hurt my mind due to their vapidity and complete stupidity.
I am embarrassed to be an Albertan.
Here's what I think is happening with the October referendum questions re: immigrants.
Danielle Smith is gearing up for the next election. If she gets the votes she wants on the immigrant questions, I think we'll see a purge of the list of electors, like this:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/critics-fear-a-midterm-purge-as-the-trump-administration-promotes-program-to-check-voter-eligibility
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/attacks-voter-rolls-and-how-protect-them
She has time. She can change laws at will to make it happen. Legal challenges? Sure, but those take time. The voters' list was purloined by her friend David Parker for reasons other than signing a petition, IMO.
Non-eligible voting is very rare. Non-citizen voting is even rarer. What if people were purged from the list because their names "sound foreign"? What if non-voters who actually exist are purged? What if the information about 2.9M electors is used to send them to the wrong polling stations on electíon day, or worse, to vote on their behalf? As we see in the links above, people could find out about this for the first time when they try to vote.
Nothing is being done to protect voter ID or reassign polling stations or protect voters in any way at all. This is intentional. The anti-immigrant questions will be taken as a mandate for Smith to proceed with actions we're not paying attention to yet. We need to consider all possible ramifications starting with voting. The American model is in play and Smith is counting on us being uninformed.
Trial run with a referendum? Possibly.
Referendums cost a lot. Best idea is to use the true « direct democracy » tool. Call a damn election. A leader with integrity would, hence why she won’t.
Count on the double speak to put these bogus referendum questions in doubt
“Do you not not want separation?”
Why the referendum except for the show? She’s already using her other bogus public consultation “Alberta Next Panel”
Dani be honest. You just ask albertarob what he wants anyway.
Serve Albertans, what unadulterated bullshit.
Your job title should read “Chief of Division/Destruction/Debt/Doubt”
Do you not not want ….
Well make sure to get yiur dang asses to the voting booth!
So I move to Alberta from somewhere else and work, pay provincial tax on my earnings at the same rate as my coworkers who are "Albertans", pay rent/property taxes (which include education taxes) and me and my family have to pay above and beyond for healthcare and education?
WTF should I have to pay twice for these services compared to my coworkers.
The concepts of equity and fairness don't even show up in the racist and xenophobic world Dictator Dani is trying to create!
Hopefully she pays a shit pile of extra fees at her fancy house in BC Panama!
Are these extra fees going to further support her corrupt payments to her friends?
Fascism's reign in Alberta returns
Or, if you have to pay for it anyway, maybe you just don’t bother with public and skip straight to private insurance and education… captive consumers and all.
These referendums are a tickle box of sorts brought out after UCP AGMs. The average "citizen" thought the UCP agenda might roughly be based on their campaign promises. However, the UCP aren't exactly a "Who Dares, Wins" group are they?
It’s SEDITION!
I appreciate your work, Deirdre, but I must ask where I fit in.
When there is so much sentiment that Danielle Smith and her party are this wrongheaded anti-democratic party out to trample on minority groups, who talk loud and say nothing, what does that make myself and the others who support them?
How am I to separate what you say about the AB government from myself and not take it at least partially personal?
Imo, this is the major problem as to why the NDP doesn’t perform as well outside the urban areas.
It feels like contempt for merely having a different worldview. It makes myself and others feel like “bad people”, not because we are, but simply because we don’t conform to the thinking.
How do we get out of this cycle where the lowest common denominator is the poster child for the whole group on each side?
I’d love to hear your insights.
Before anyone can answer your question, I have to ask you, "Why do you support the UCP"? Do you still believe that the UCP is actually a Conservative government? Do you believe that the UCP is following "Christian values" as they claim to be? Do you also support the "Trump regime" and what they are doing?
It doesn’t take me explaining more positions for you to give a reply, and this feels like a probe to dismiss rather than engage, Arlene, but I’ll bite…
The main reason I support them is due to what I’ve described above. Is there any onus on the NDP to try and gain my vote and if so where are they making attempt to do so? So where do I go? Vote independent so my riding is back benched? Abstain from voting?
The UCP is a conservative govt in the same context that the NDP is a progressive govt, no? Subjective definitions are counterproductive. I mean this one gets played a lot. “These aren’t your grandparents Conservatives! as if I’m not supposed to notice that these are not my grandparents Liberals or New Democrats either.
I don’t like how either operate today. High ground moralism and bombast for votes instead of outcomes. Again, where do I go?
You’ll have to be more specific as to where the UCP complicity states they “follow Christian values”.
No, I do not support the “Trump regime”.
Thanks for answering my questions. From what I see, the UCP call themselves Conservatives, but I do not see them governing anywhere as a Conservative government would. I see the UCP as a far-right government. So far right that they are using fascist tactics, much like the 1930's Germany did. They are destroying our democracy as they become more and more autocratic.
They are also following (as witnessed by what they have legislated) the USA Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025". Project 2025 is an over 900-page document that the Trump Regime is following. It is a Christian Nationalist document. Christian Nationalists claim to, but do not follow the teaching of Jesus - IMO, the exact opposite of Christianity. Note: I do not believe that religion should be part of any government. I believe in the separation of church and state.
IMO, the Alberta NDP is a progressive centrist party (not left - more like the centrist Progressive Conservative Peter Lougheed). The NDP still believes in democracy, that all citizens matter, and that we need government programs to assist citizens in having a quality of life (public health care, public education, and social services assistance for the disabled and poor). I will vote for them because of what they stand for, what they oppose, and that they are the best option at this time. I do not always vote NDP. I vote for who will support what I call Canadian values and beliefs - that all citizens matter, and democracy. I do not vote for the liars, the fascists or the criminals who want to dismantle our valued institutions and sell off the parts. I will never vote for the confabulator Danielle Smith or the UCP because they are a danger to me, my family and my fellow citizens.
Quite the exercise in futility. 😂
Ask me for answers to answer my questions to the author, and get an opinion based reply with no answers.
Thanks for your time, Arlene.
I see that I wasted my time.
😂
Yes, you did.
If you support people who are doing bad things, then you are supporting bad things. Why would you do that?
That’s the trouble, no?
“Bad things” — by your judgment.
Who died and left you the arbiter of truth and morality?
If I’m to respect your view of the world, how can I not give those on the other side the same luxury?
We’re all equal, but some of us more than others??
This plays directly into what I am saying in the original reply.
Tell me, Valerie, how does UCP governance impact you personally?
Are you not getting the healthcare you need? Are your children not being well educated? I ask in sincerity.
Takes From The Tributary: When you blindly endorse, support and vote for the UCP, it's a major mistake. You are supporting money wasted on the most priciest boondoogles, the degradation of public education, and public healthcare, so it can be privatized, making poverty worse, be badly underfunding, and abolishing social services, deregulation of standards, which causes more problems, not treating all Albertans equally, letting seniors go through more hardship, putting money over the environment, corruption of the worst kinds, the erosion of democracy, and libertarianism, which is fascism.
Why would I respect people who have racist views, such as the leaders of the separatists in Alberta? Their views are garbage and they should be ashamed of themselves.
You are simply being too lazy to adhere to any values worth having, much like Danielle Smith who sucks up to the worst people in Alberta.
The UCP made it difficult for me to get covid vaccines and that damned well did affect my healthcare. The UCP forced teachers back to school by trampling on the rights of Albertans and they all deserve to lose their jobs for their anti-democratic actions. I could go on about how bad Smith and the UCP are at governing, how corrupt they are, accepting bribes and wasting Albertans' money on corrupt healthcare contracts, but you apparently don't have a problem with bad behaviour.
And there’s the disconnect.
Your distaste for the separatists does not give you vindication to cast it upon all who support the UCP, and you sure as shit wouldn’t accept this thinking in any other facet. No one is demanding you respect them, Valerie.
You then accuse me of “being too lazy to adhere to values with having” as if you’re the arbiter of values. It’s all well and fine to disagree but you don’t get to make me into some sub human complicit to “bad things” for asking for some context.
The only personal trouble you have is that it was “difficult” for you to get a covid vaccine (Care to detail the difficulty?) — the rest is all on behalf of someone else.
Instead of operating form the idea that I wholly support Smith and the UCP and see no wrong in what they do, why don’t you take my comment to Deidre at face value and try to see the view of a moderate in this highly partisan political milieu?
When you sit down to eat with 10 Nazis, there are 11 Nazis at the table.
You are not a moderate, you are just spineless.
You see, Deidre??😂
Is it any wonder so many fall down the far right rabbit hole when this is the attitude toward reasonable questions??