Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Alberta: What It All Means

1) Its not great news for the LPC.  Though federal NDP leader Angry Tom is entirely without The Notley Charm, some residual glow from her victory will surely fall upon him.  Trudeau's Liberals now face a reinvigorated party on their left.  Although see below.

2)  Its not great news for the CPC.  In parts of the West federal voters swing from NDP to CPC without ever stopping at Liberal.  There its the Harper Tories who are most likely to see their vote siphoned off by a newly relevant federal NDP. The good news is that one can even see the possibility of a Liberal coming up the middle in a riding or two...  

3) Its great news for the NDP.

6 comments:

Omar said...

4) It's all a political anomaly and four years from now they'll be unceremoniously turfed after just one term like we stupidly did here in NS two years ago.

bigcitylib said...

I never really got what the complaint was against NS NDP. From here, it didn't seem they didn't do anything so horrible. Not like people were paying attention, though...

Omar said...

Other than killing the Maine to NS ferry by not continuing with a $6 million a year subsidy they didn't do anything horrible. I think the main plank the NS Libs rode to victory was the phony specter of "skyrocketing power rates". A red herring if there ever was one. But people bought into it and out the NDP went. Power rates went up January 1, 2015.

rumleyfips said...

The big problem with Dexter's NDP campaign was his unwillingness to lie. He lost. McNeil lied about power rates and won.

We , the Nova Scotia electorate, should be so proud.

Fred from BC said...

It means exactly the same as Mulcair's Quebec 'victory' in the last federal election: absolutely nothing.

The Alberta voters didn't actually vote FOR the NDP, they voted AGAINST the PCs...same as the Quebec electorate voted AGAINST the Bloc; in both cases, the NDP just happened to be in the right place at the right time (electing Quebec MPs who don't speak French? really?).

It won't happen again.

Jaundiced Eye said...

Fred: it's difficult to square attaining Official Opposition with "absolutely nothing"---I mean, unless one's a chauvinistic partisan (of which, I admit, BC has more than its fair share).

The NDP "just happened to be in the right place at the right time"---oh really? It was anything but: the org and outlay for elections really just doesn't happen by itself. I think another way of looking at it would be the NDP won in the right places at the right time---and another would be the right was in the wrong place at the right time (or I guess, for you, the wrong place at the wrong time). Could go on like this forever, but that would risk meaning relatively nothing.

In both Quebec's and Alberta's cases voters had the opportunity to vote for candidates other than the NDP---who I guess, according to you, "just happen" to be on the ballot---oh, I don't know...just fishing for votes.

Won't happen again? I bet You thought it would never happen once---that is, if it "means exactly the same" thing.

A bold statement! those grapes were sour anyway!