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Agreed. Kenney knows he has rural Alberta wrapped around his finger, and since Edmonton does not support him, he's going to try and build Calgary as much as possible within the next two years since it is his only hope (hence probably partly why he wanted to get the Stampede going so badly). He is ensuring that Calgary gets their green line and will invest heavily there, in hopes people will forget the "Covid" years of his term where him and his cabinet were involved in scandals (the whole debacle with his caucus members travelling during one of the worst peaks in the pandemic) and made these awful cuts to health care workers, screwing our education curriculum, being mostly silent on ethical issues such as the increased Islamophobia, Asian hate crimes, confederate flags flying on farms, and the residential schools. He is wasting tax money on pointless "war rooms" which make him look like he is "standing up" to Ottawa, but in reality he has zero leverage and can't convince the Feds to do anything. Not to mention banking everything on a Trump victory and losing money on the cancelled Keystone. Kenney tries to cater to both sides of the conservative spectrum (those who are further right, socially conservative, and anti-mask/pro-freedom, sometimes even racist, and those who are more centrist and fiscally conservative but socially progressive) and is not only screwing himself, but the Federal Conservative Party has this same issue within their own party. He is acting as a populist to gain votes when in reality, he himself is ironically just another corrupt elite who is only concerned with garnering votes and his own self-interests. I'm afraid that if Kenney invests in Calgary for the next two years, people there will start to forget about his first two years because I feel like people generally tend to think about a politician's recent actions during an election rather than the whole term or the earlier years. It's like a "what have they done for me lately" mindset. I could be wrong, and I sure hope I am because if Kenney somehow gets in again, Edmonton could be finished. If we elect Sohi, he can potentially help us gather support and funding from the Feds (assuming they are still here for two more years). But who knows which government we will have after 2023.
A candidate with better relationships in Ottawa can very well push for more federal funding to offset at least part of Kenney's butchering.
Speaking of convenience, the Canada Line you're referring to is meant to be more of a destination in itself, rather than a means of getting to a destination. Since Via doesn't own the right-of-way, their trains face a lot of delays while waiting for freight trains to pass by. I wouldn't directly compare what Calgary and Banff might get to what we have here, since the former will presumably have its own right-of-way and thus be much more of a commuter route compared to the Canada Line.
It would genuinely be an interesting scenario where Edmonton gets a mayor (maybe Sohi) that is essentially a direct link to the Feds. It could definitely be easier for us to get a larger share of the Federal Government Public Service jobs, etc and federal funding to essentially make Edmonton a wholly Liberal/NDP voting city (which it already does, vote splitting just means CPC just gets pluralities in Edmonton, rather than majorities) in the next decade or so, breaking apart the "Conservative Alberta" perception.
I would LOVE to see this happen. Get Edmonton away from the CPC and, hopefully, Alberta from the UCP.
It's not a matter of looking for a savior. Politics play, and will always play, a major role in the destiny of any society and its respective levels or government and organization.
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