Alberta provincial election - The Trawler.org
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BURCHIA: “Obama pro gay marriage: now ready gadgets for sale on line”, (Il Corriere della Sera, IT)
377 days ago by Antonella MasiE. Burchia writes for Il Corriere della Sera about the debate that was triggered in the United States by President Obama’s recent statements in favor of gay marriage.
Burchia stresses in particular how this mix of idealism and political strategy could have very important consequences for Obama’s campaign and the battle with the conservative Mitt Romney, from a particular point of view: a lot of pro-Obama gadgets (especially designed for supporters of the LGBT community) have appeared in the official digital store on the site of Obama for the next presidential election.
Actually, many political observers underline that all this is not just about fundraising, but also about data that might be more reliable than exit polls. These last implications have perhaps frightened Romney who, during these days, after the release of papers describing a young Romeny as a bully with anti-gay views, has decided to become more open to the acceptance of the LGBT community, but not to gay marriage.
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STAPLES: “Redford’s bridge building in tune with the new Alberta” (Edmonton Journal, CA)
395 days ago by Allen AnderlDavid Staples at the Edmonton Journal interprets the Progressive Conservative victory in the recent provincial election to be a product of Alberta’s growing cosmopolitanism.
This growing sophistication is evident in Edmonton and Calgary’s ambitious agendas to create outstanding cities. It also is unmistakable in the efforts of Albertans to develop as green an oil industry as possible to combat its critics, both nationally and internationally. This is essential to ensure that the industry remains profitable and to build the pipelines necessary to deliver oil and gas to market. He states that the new Alberta thus is concerned primarily with bridge building. Alison Redford and her PC party are more aligned with this expansive vision of Alberta’s future. Danielle Smith and the Wildrose party, in contrast, promote an insular Alberta. Staples cites the GreenTrip program, which has established long-term and stable funding for rapid transit, and the Royal Alberta Museum project as two examples of the PC’s vision for Alberta. Redford’s victory ensures that this kind of spending will continue. (link to article)
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NENSHI: “Find out what the parties will do for cities” (Calgary Herald, CA)
398 days ago by Allen AnderlNaheed Nenshi at the Calgary Herald highlights the importance of municipal issues in the provincial election and asks Albertans to examine carefully party positions on cities prior to voting.
Nenshi thus encourages voters to visit citiesmatter.ca, which has published a recent survey of each party on its ideas on municipal issues. He states that all five parties recognize that the current system of governance, especially for Edmonton and Calgary, is broken. The Liberals, NDP, Alberta Party, and PCs each suggest city charters; the Wildrose party is more vague. Further, the governing Tories are willing to commit to a timeline to implement change, whereas the other parties are less specific with regard to the implementation of reforms. For Nenshi, the key thing to address is funding—municipalities must have predictable and stable revenues to build infrastructure such as roads and transit and to provide services such as police, firefighting, and parks maintainance. Currently, only eight cents of each tax dollar is available to cities. Each party presents ideas to address the funding issue. Nenshi considers these ideas and policy proposals very important, since the future of Alberta’s cities are the future of Alberta. (link to article)
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BAGNALL: “Alberta’s potshots at Quebec are off target” (Times Colonist, CA)
398 days ago by Allen AnderlJanet Bagnall at the Times Colonist examines recently expressed criticisms of Quebec by a number of Alberta voices.
She notes, for example, that an unnamed newspaper columnist last week demanded to know if Albertans will stand up to Quebec. In Alberta, politicians, columnists, and others perpetuate and encourage the public perception that money is flowing from the hard-working, prairie province to a spendthrift Quebec through the federal equalization program. As a result, many in Alberta feel resentful. This is articulated most clearly by the Wildrose party, whose leader, Danielle Smith, has vowed to end this supposed transfer of wealth. In fact, Bagnall asserts that a complaint about the unfairness of having to pay for Quebec’s luxury social programs—$7-a-day daycare, more medical coverage, and low-cost tuition—is featured in the Wildrose platform. The common criticism that Quebec uses equalization payments to pay for its heavily subsidized daycare system and other social programs is incorrect, however. Instead, Quebecers tax themselves at a rate several percentage points higher than other provinces to fund the social programs they support. Recent figures indicate that the average tax burden in Quebec is 38.7 percent, whereas it is only 31.1 percent for the rest of Canada. Further, the subsidized daycare program is self-sufficient, as it has allowed more mothers to join the job market and thus expand the province’s tax base. Since 1997, over 70,000 mothers have taken up paid work, adding 1.8 percent to total provincial employment and $5.1 billion to Quebec’s gross provincial income. The number of single mothers on welfare also has dropped from 99,000 to 45,000. Bagnall argues that the resentment expressed in Alberta over Quebec’s social programs thus is misplaced. Quebecers pays for their social programs; if Albertans want better social programs, they too should be willing to pay for them. (link to article)
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THOMSON: “Smith mishandles ‘bozo eruptions’” (Edmonton Journal, CA)
400 days ago by Allen AnderlGraham Thomson at the Edmonton Journal argues that Albertans need to pay careful attention to how Wildrose leader Danielle Smith has handled two recent and controversial issues.
The first concerns Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger’s blog posting that averred that government, in the form of the Edmonton school board, should not protect gay and lesbian students from discrimination. Smith has stated that Hunsperger is entitled to his opinion; yet she also has insisted that she will be guided in government by the views of her caucus, which may include Hunsperger and others who hold similarly discriminatory and socially conservative views. In addition, the Wildrose party has declared the science of climate change unsettled and thus is uninterested in finding ways to reduce significantly Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions. As Thomson notes, this plays well in Alberta. However, the failure to address the climate change issue in a serious manner will adversely affect Alberta’s national and international reputation and make it more difficult to market the province’s oilsands development. For Thomson, these two issues indicate what a Danielle Smith premiership would be like. Considering that the Wildrose party otherwise is an untried and unproven entity, Albertans should carefully consider these glimpses into the future. (link to article)
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THOMSON: “Tories find unlikely allies” (Edmonton Journal, CA)
403 days ago by Allen AnderlGraham Thomson at the Edmonton Journal examines two interesting and odd predicaments for voters in the Alberta provincial election.
First, he notes that many Liberal and NDP supporters, who have long railed against and desired the defeat of the governing PC’s, are considering a vote for the Tories. This is due to their fear of the more right-wing Wildrose party. Second, he considers Wildrose’s vow to cancel the $2-billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects to be a step backward in the efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. The CCS process, if successful, is intended to sequester deep underground 140 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2050. Thomson is very skeptical about CCS; he considers the process a boondoggle that allows government politicians to claim they have found a way to stop human-induced climate change without affecting the status quo. However, support for CCS at least is an admission by the Alberta government that human-induced climate change is real and poses a serious threat to the environment as we know it. The Wildrose party, in contrast, refuses to accept the science that indicates that climate change is happening. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith offers soothing words about reducing pollution and protecting the environment, but at heart her party considers global warming a hoax. Wildrose policies thus would take Alberta out of the fight against climate change. For many in Alberta, support for the Tories and CCS therefore is the lesser of evils. (link to article)
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REMINGTON: “Here comes the attack of the firewall Philistines” (Calgary Herald, CA)
404 days ago by Allen AnderlRobert Remington at the Calgary Herald examines Wildrose’s policy “green book” and takes exception to the party’s stated commitment to take Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan.
The green book, adopted by the party in 2010, is unequivocal: “A Wildrose government will withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and create an Alberta Pension Plan.” Remington notes, however, that Wildrose leader Danielle Smith is soft-selling the idea rather than clearly stating her party’s intent on this issue. Further, Remington connects this policy to the “firewall” concept articulated in 2001 by six conservative Alberta thinkers, including Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan. The “firewall manifesto” was rejected by three subsequent Alberta premiers, yet it has been embraced by the Wildrose party. Analysts who have examined the issue consider an Alberta Pension Plan a poor and outdated idea—it would be expensive to set up and administer; it would require an expanded Alberta bureaucracy; it would weaken the Canada Pension Plan, and it would antagonize relations with Ottawa and the other provinces. Remington notes that, with Alberta trying to get its resources to markets with pipelines to the East and West coasts, these types of xenophobic and parochial policies will do more harm than good for the province. (link to article)
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