oreodontist

Firstly they aren't 2/3rds of the population. That's just a convenient rounding off. They are not 66% of the population but 62% of the population. They have 51 of 83 seats. The remaining 32 seats are among the other 38%. Most of those are not 'rural' but cities. Have you been to Red Deer? Lethbridge, etc.? As stated, the provincial ridings are more evenly distributed by population than the federal ridings. There are only a few rural ridings in Alberta with significanly less population than urban ridings. In contrast there are federal ridings in Canada that are ony 20% the size of others. MLAs and MPs represent their constituants and it's recognized that representing a riding spanning hundreds of kilometers is much more difficult than one compact as in a city. The MLA for Wood Buffalo or Peace River can't be everywhere at once.

Some folks need to be taken by the hand and spoon fed. Gee whiz, busy on election day. Imagine that!

There's 83 seats. Metropolitan Calgary and metropolitan Edmonton have 51. That leaves 32....that 32 inludes Red Deer (100,000), Lethbridge, Ft.Mac, Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat. Provincial ridings in Alberta are more evenly distributed in population than Federal ridings across Canada.

Wrong. Not 'very posible' at all. Are you really so out of touch?

My prediction: (drum roll, please) Conservative 63 Liberal 18 NDP 2

There's always new voters. Calgary is made upon newcomers over the last couple decades. The majority of voters are not born Albertans. I work in a company that has 18 employees. Only 3 of who are from Alberta. Probably half will vote. One will vote Liberal. I will vote Green (if they are on the ballot). The rest will vote PC. The gal voting Liberal is not voting 'for' the Libs but against the PCs...I'm more or less the same but would vote PC if the race was close and a Liberal might squeak in. Most of these 'new voters' were around for the last Federal election and the province is solid Blue. New voters aren't a different species as the folks already here. (we'll have to post our predictions on Monday. Trust me on this one. Afterall, I was certain Giulliani would be the next President )

That's not a predition. I haven't heard a single prediciton of anything other than a sweeping majority. I'm surprised anyone living in Alberta could be so out of touch with realty that they would see the situation otherwise. As for people not voting, that can be analysed forever. Do people not vote because they are content with the current situation? Not vote because they don't like the choices? Not vote because of....? Alberta has the youngest population in Canada and younger people vote less than older folks. Who knows? I'm guessing that many don't vote because they know that the majority of Albertans are quite content with the PCs and their vote simply is irrelevent in riding such as mine in which the PC wallops the opposition. Why have the guy win by 10,001 votes instead of 10,000. I'm that type of voter. If the weather is nice next week, we'll walk over and chat with neighbors and mark an 'x' ...if it's crappy out then probably put our feet up.

Huh? Polls show a huge PC majority. Who is predicting otherwise? No one is predicting it won't be a majority. Every poll and pundit indicates the majority may even increase over the last election. Where did you hear any prediction about a minority?

Ridiculous. What news? MAD Magazine?

That's true. We have two centrist parties federally. I'm not wanting something a lot different provincially but rather an alternative. Not so much for ideology but rather as a way of housecleaning and keeping the guys in power on their toes. I really don't care what party wins as much as what they stand for and if they have fresh faces. The PCs in Alnerta are stale and smug...the Liberals are a mishmash of negativism and not tuned into the working guy. The PCs are a shoe-in in my riding. I'd vote PC if the Liberals were close but they aren't. I'll park my vote next week with the Greens (if they are even on the ballot?).

I lean to the right on most fiscal issues but am more liberal on social issues. I would like to have a change of government, Liberal or otherwise just to clean house. BUT. Not this Liberal party. They don't represent much else other than 'anti-this and anti-that'. Most Albertans are from somewhere else. What the Liberals should appeal to is social liberalism Call the bluff of the fundies on the right of the Conservatives. In contrast, going after the economy, when 25 year olds are driving 45 dollar thousand pick ups, just won't wash. Even if the economy was in the dumps, few would expect the Liberals to do a better job managing the province's finanaces. Also, after generations of getting nowhere under the 'Liberal label, it's time for a middle party to reinvent itelf. Something along the lines of the Saskatchewan Party but more centrist. I know lots of folks who who are 'liberal' in values but, as Albertans, will never put an 'X' beside any large 'L' Liberal on a ballot.

Specific names please. I've lived in south Calgary for almost 50 years.

When there is a blip somewhere in the world, the global warming cultists get into a state hysterical orgasm how it's 'proof' of doom to come. Greece had a heat wave and it's 'global warming'....an arae of Canada 92 times larger has some record cold and the cultists dismiss is as 'weather'. I kid you not, there was a bit on the news last week about early flowers in Britain this year and it was....drum roll...evidence of global warming. The next day, in contrast, record low temps for a week in some part of Ontario and it was ...drum roll...'weather'. The global warming cultists are akin to Creationists. Grasping at any straw 'to prove' their new found religion.

It's not the leader. The Libs have had a dozen leaders. The NDP have had a dozen leaders. The Libs don't listen to the population. They keep pandering to the same niche constituency. They speak about housing issues, food banks, the homeless, more money for this and more for that. In the meantime the vast majority of Albertans have good wages, good accomodation, etc. and want to know what the Libs are going to do for them....usually not much at all. The Libs are doomed as long as they keep focusing in on what's wrong. There just isn't a big enough pool of malcontents. Life is really good for most Albertans and most Albertans have earned that lifestyle though ingenuity and hard work. You can't appeal to the voters who move here from outside the provice by preaching gloom. What voters see is job opportunities everywhere, a good education system, health care etc. 'compared' to where they came from. That Lib approach won't work now and hasn't worked in the last dozen elections. Won't work in the next dozen.

A Liberal Minority and NDP balance? Ha! Ha! It will be a big Conservative sweep. Bigger than last time.

Bradco is another of the hysterical fear mongers. My city alderman and soon to be PC MLA are both Asian and I live in a 90% affluent White neighborhood. I don't see much racism in Calgary..then gain, I only live here. In fact, there's less here than in any other place I've lived. Folks in Calagary are the best educated in Canada and racism declines with education. There is definitely discrimination against natives. Most of that is experience related and one can debate forever the legitimacy of it or not. Would I, as a landlord, rent to a native family without knowing their full background? No. Would I rent to a family arriving from Newfoundland with just a short questionaire..yes, I would. Natives here have a lot of financial advantages and a lot of social disadvantages.

There were about 18 'hopefuls' in the two parties about 2 years ago. 15 men are gone so I don't think it's the 'female' variable. Never in my time has a candidate had more advantage from the beginning. There was no potential real competition, except for Gore, two years ago. So Hillary has lost it more than anyone else has taken it. I can't stand the lady but I think she'd make a decent president. She's a cold calculating machine but those same traits might be assets. She's aware of the pitfalls of the office, has seen it from the inside for 8 years....seen 8 more years of Bush incompetency. she's smart and would do an OK job....at least not make bonehead decisions (like Iraqinam). she is the master of her own destiny. No matter how well Obama, Edwars had done, it was up to her to win or lose. she blew it. There was a smug assumption that the troops would line up behind her that they 'owed' it to her. Unfortunately for her, in a democracy nobody owes anyone their support. Right now she's desperate and Clinton bag of tricks isn't working.

It's not up to Trudeauites. It's up to Cubans. Canadians can kiss Casto's ass or kick his ass. Irrelevent. No more than Cubans should decide the fate Mulcrookrooney.

What does the action of US politicians have to do with Castro's actions? I think Rumsfeld and Bush are assholes but it doesn't make Castro any less of a tyrant. I always find it amusing when folks on the ends of the political spectrum excuse away the actions of their darlings because someone else is 'bad'. It's like saying Paul Bernardo shouldn't be in jail because OJ simpson got off free. Castro is a tyrant. He has imprisoned and murdered Cubans. The fact he sticks his finger in the eye of Washington doesn't justify his actions. Put him on trial? Who? Castro isn't going on trial and Rumsfeld isn't going on trial and most folks have better perspective of the world than pandering to political ideologues who want to make some point at the expense of further violence. Castro will soon be dead and Cubans will move on. They will determine Castro's legacy. I've been to Cuba twice and some Cubans love him, others hate him and many are like most humans are split and don't see the world in black and white.

I'm not an Alberta separatist but also not a Canadian nationalist. Identification with 'the state' will seem as quaint in a couple generations as identification based on relgion was a few centuries past. The concept of 'Canada' and most nations will diminish and eventually be secondary level of identification. Already a lot of European have duel residency and even here in Calgary, neighbors on one side of us spend as much time in China than Canada.

Meant? By what? A god, aliens,some great spirit? Canada disn't exist as a nation a couple hundred years ago and won't resemble one a hunded years from now. There is no pre-ordained 'meant'.

Debate?

So true. It's a reflection of their buying into the cult. 'Believers' can get themselves worked up into hysterical denial of reality. Evidence that isn't in accordance with their fanaticism is explained away.

I'm a geologist and have never never witnessed worse science (call it voodoo prediction) than on global warming. Hysteria gone critical mass. Greece, smaller than an olive on a pizza has a hot snap and it's more 'proof'....western Canada an area 27 times te size of Greece has the coldest two weeks in 11 years and it'd dismissed by the warming cultists. Unfortunately the warming cultists may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. 'Science' the most important tool to help protect the environment, is being cheapened to a religious fanaticism by the cultists. The warming cultists are akin to anti-evolutionary fundies....grasping at evidence with evangelial fervour..hell bent 'to prove' their new found belief. Global warming? Man induced? Who the 'f...' knows? There's so much crap science held up by the cultists that credibility has been lost. Any science is buried in the hysteria. I've always been a stong environmnetalist but the movement, sadly, is hjiacked and morphed into more ideological poppycock.

Not our 'grandma'. She rules her kitchen. She loves preparing a big spread for the family. She revels in having the generations around her. Being able to feed the great gradchildren gives her a sense of worth. Most elderly people get great satisfaction still being able to do something for the family. It's not work for them. My sisters are the same. There's always too much food as everyone pitches in with home baking and salads. Four generations of girls squealing and laughing in the kitchen is Grandma's heaven on earth.