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Alberta Politics

TravellingChris said:
The NDP won a bunch of seats in Calgary in 2015 but hung onto just three of them in 2019--and those only because they had high-profile MLAs like Joe Ceci and Kathleen Ganley.

And there were six or so ridings in Calgary in this election that the NDP absolutely had to win in order to form government, in addition to the ones they picked up. Nevertheless they lost them. Even several of the seats they did win were won only by the skin of their teeth (seven votes in Acadia???).
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The NDP performed pretty strongly in Calgary this election, winning almost as many seats this year as they did in 2015, but this time against a united right. What cost them the election was their complete inability to win the Edmonton Donut ridings (love that name btw, gonna call our suburbs The Donut from now on)
 
Notley should have better taught fundamental economics to the masses whose election research consisted of passively having campaign signs enter their periphery while their eyes were trained on the skies waiting for the trickle-down to start.
 
yeggator said:
The NDP performed pretty strongly in Calgary this election, winning almost as many seats this year as they did in 2015, but this time against a united right. What cost them the election was their complete inability to win the Edmonton Donut ridings (love that name btw, gonna call our suburbs The Donut from now on)
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Absolutely. The NDP should have picked up Morinville-St. Albert and Leduc-Beaumont for sure. And I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't even come close to winning Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, when they ran an extremely strong and high-profile candidate.
 
A couple of the Metro Edmonton ridings (Strathcona-Sherwood Park, Morinville-St. Albert) had differences of less than 10%. Lethbridge East was decided by less than 3%.
 
Given the very poor record this UCP government had over the past 4 years - Alberta trailed most of the country in a lot of economic categories not to mention their horrible record in dealing with education, health care, homelessness etc - this election was there for the taking. The NDP even had several higher profile conservatives endorsing them and Danielle Smith had a lot of blunders. And yet the UCP still pulled it out.
The NDP came super close to winning - but Alberta hates taxes and the UCP grasped on to the 38% increase in the corporate tax rate and the NDP didn't have a good enough counter other than to say we're still the lowest. NDP, under Notley, will always have to defend tax increases and carbon tax, rightly or wrongly (and it's wrongly to me) and Albertans hate taxes more than any other province.
 
TAS said:
Given the very poor record this UCP government had over the past 4 years - Alberta trailed most of the country in a lot of economic categories not to mention their horrible record in dealing with education, health care, homelessness etc - this election was there for the taking. The NDP even had several higher profile conservatives endorsing them and Danielle Smith had a lot of blunders. And yet the UCP still pulled it out.
The NDP came super close to winning - but Alberta hates taxes and the UCP grasped on to the 38% increase in the corporate tax rate and the NDP didn't have a good enough counter other than to say we're still the lowest. NDP, under Notley, will always have to defend tax increases and carbon tax, rightly or wrongly (and it's wrongly to me) and Albertans hate taxes more than any other province.
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There's probably never a good time to talk tax increases. But proposing them at a time when many people are struggling with rising utility costs, food costs, rent or mortgage increases, fuel costs and increases for other essentials is only going to ensure they land with a thud.

Yes, it was a corporate tax increase. But voters are sufficiently savvy to know that tax increases on business inevitably get passed on to the end consumer, which is you and me, in some form or other.
 
TravellingChris said:
There's probably never a good time to talk tax increases. But proposing them at a time when many people are struggling with rising utility costs, food costs, rent or mortgage increases, fuel costs and increases for other essentials is only going to ensure they land with a thud.

Yes, it was a corporate tax increase. But voters are sufficiently savvy to know that tax increases on business inevitably get passed on to the end consumer, which is you and me, in some form or other.
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"...voters are sufficiently savvy..."

Sure they are. So savvy that they think that corporations require an excuse to gouge consumers. Profit margins are soaring in this tax haven, and without corporate taxes, you have no mechanism to incentivize investment into this jurisdiction.

As for post #981, this election was never there for the taking by the NDP. The political cognitive dissonance in this province is still strong and the opposition did well to make gains and continue the slow process of progress.
 
Alberta corporate tax rate is absolutely miniscule, especially for most small businesses who have less than $500k net income. In all honesty, they could double the alberta rate, and it would barely have an economic impact (not trying to recommend raising or lowering rates, just stating their impact and level).
 
Whattagame said:
"...voters are sufficiently savvy..."

Sure they are. So savvy that they think that corporations require an excuse to gouge consumers. Profit margins are soaring in this tax haven, and without corporate taxes, you have no mechanism to incentivize investment into this jurisdiction.

As for post #981, this election was never there for the taking by the NDP. The political cognitive dissonance in this province is still strong and the opposition did well to make gains and continue the slow process of progress.
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"...without corporate taxes..."
No one said that we shouldn't have corporate taxes. The point was that it was unwise for the NDP to advocate an increase when voters knew it would hit them eventually. The fact that the NDP lost several winnable seats narrowly (particularly in a business centre like Calgary) shows how foolish their proposal was.

If you feel corporations are out to gouge consumers, you're free to stop dealing with any of them you find objectionable.
 
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yeggator said:
The NDP performed pretty strongly in Calgary this election, winning almost as many seats this year as they did in 2015, but this time against a united right. What cost them the election was their complete inability to win the Edmonton Donut ridings (love that name btw, gonna call our suburbs The Donut from now on)
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It seems a combination. The NDP did win the popular vote and the majority of seats in Calgary against a united conservative party, which is no small feat.

If they could have won around 3 more of the close ones there along with say 3 elsewhere in Alberta that would have won the election for them. Several of the Calgary ones they lost were very close. The donut ones, not as close.
 
TAS said:
Given the very poor record this UCP government had over the past 4 years - Alberta trailed most of the country in a lot of economic categories not to mention their horrible record in dealing with education, health care, homelessness etc - this election was there for the taking. The NDP even had several higher profile conservatives endorsing them and Danielle Smith had a lot of blunders. And yet the UCP still pulled it out.
The NDP came super close to winning - but Alberta hates taxes and the UCP grasped on to the 38% increase in the corporate tax rate and the NDP didn't have a good enough counter other than to say we're still the lowest. NDP, under Notley, will always have to defend tax increases and carbon tax, rightly or wrongly (and it's wrongly to me) and Albertans hate taxes more than any other province.
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So in six months when the UCP realizes languishing oil prices are not going to cover the cost of all their promises, health care and education what are they going to do?

Cut spending on heath care and education or raise corporate taxes? You get a prize if you guess correctly.
 
David A said:
So in six months when the UCP realizes languishing oil prices are not going to cover the cost of all their promises, health care and education what are they going to do?

Cut spending on heath care and education or raise corporate taxes? You get a prize if you guess correctly.
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Cut Taxes to Oil companies again. Cut funding to Health and Education, Cancel any new hospital construction. Reduce education facility construction further. Raise user fees. and bring in a sales tax and blame the feds.
 
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