Uniting the Left - Alberta

[Canadian Blue]

I myself am no Liberal, nor am I on the left as I'm sure many of you know. Eecently the Alberta Liberal Party [which tends to see success as getting more than 10 seats in a 83 seat legislature] elected left leaning David Swann as it's leader over the moderate Dave Taylor and fiscal conservative Mo Elhalsy. This came as a complete shock since I thought the contest was Taylor's to lose, especially since he seemed to be the only one who had a chance in hell of appealing to a larger share of Albertan's in the centrist mould. David Swann on the other hand is a committed leftist, one need only look at his blog to recognize that.

http://www.davidswann.ca/blog/

Below is an excellent and thoughful letter on the place of taxes in a functioning and sustainable society written by my good friend Dr. Bob Dickson.

Needless to say most Albertan's tend to feel immediate revulsion to politicians who praise taxation.

That being said, we now have a situation where their are three parties which are firmly situated on the left. The parties include the Alberta Liberals, New Democrats, and the Greens. Each election cycle the end result is often a Tory juggernaught with the other parties picking up parcel support in a few urban ridings. My hope now that the ALP is sitting firmly on the left is that David Swann will talk about a possible merger of one or both of the other left wing parties. The only reason I support such a move is to help create a stronger opposition party in Alberta.

Will it get into government, not bloody likely. Will the opposition be more effective, chances are it will. Simply because we would see more seats going to this party from the urban areas and maybe a couple of rural areas. However the party will still not be a viable alternative for government simply because it won't be in the mould of the prevailing political culture which is conservative. If the PC's ever go down in defeat it will come from a threat on the right flank. With the way the current government is running I wouldn't be surprised if we see a resurgence in support for perhaps the Wildrose Alliance or a separate upstart right wing party. In the meantime my suggestion to those on the left would be to put all of their collective abilities into one party on the left so they can at the very least have some kind of unified voice in a predominantly conservative province.

http://www.davidswann.ca/news_issues_archi...enewal_FFWD.pdf

Edited December 16, 2008 by Canadian Blue

[jdobbin]

Will it get into government, not bloody likely.

The PC party will win the next election and the next election after that and continue to win forever and ever. It is just the way of things.

I doubt they will ever face a challenge from right or left.

Even with an Alberta deficit, I don't see that changing. Ever

[madmax]

I myself am no Liberal, nor am I on the left as I'm sure many of you know. That being said, we now have a situation where their are three parties which are firmly situated on the left. The parties include the Alberta Liberals, New Democrats, and the Greens.

I don't believe in mixing political parties anymore then I believe in mixing Molson Canadian with Labbatts Blue.

[Canadian Blue]

The PC party will win the next election and the next election after that and continue to win forever and ever. It is just the way of things.

You should first learn about the history of Alberta, look at the Socreds in 67, and then compare that to the Socred election results in 71.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_general_election,_1967

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_general_election,_1971

If Albertan's are given a strong pro-free market alternative they'll go to it. Unfortunately both of the opposition parties are too far to the left to make any real dent in our political culture.

[Jerry J. Fortin]

If Swann wants to get elected, he can propose that citizens are able to deduct their mortgages from their provincial taxes. He can propose that families can deduct children from their provincial taxes. He can propose that you can deduct utilities from your provincial taxes. He can do these things and the citizens can save thousands of dollars a year. The Alberta citizens would support anyone who would reduce their tax load.

The entire key in the next election is public apathy and how to combat it with public policy proposals. Give the citizen a break and the citizen will give the politicians a break. The Liberals could dominate the next election if they simply went pro-citizen. It will never be about anything else for the vast majority of citizens, its all about them. The first party to start supporting the citizens will have the opportunity to remove the PC's from power and form their own government. The PC's are all about business, and the citizens want a break.

[applejack]

I will vote for anyone hoping to give these conservative dictators some meaningfull opposition.

[Yorkness]

I was quite saddened to see Taft leave. Certainly it was'nt much of his fault the liberals lost so many seats in the last election. Taft conistently held his own against his conservative opposition on their own turf.

If there is one place he will be missed is in parliament. He was my favorite speaker in the legislature consistently offering clear, concise, and critical questions and comebacks.

[Democratic Caped Crusader]

I will vote for anyone hoping to give these conservative dictators some meaningfull opposition.

what about this party:

www.directdemocracyparty.ca

[madmax]

what about this party:

www.directdemocracyparty.ca

And just how many members are in this party? And how many seats do they hold? How many elections have they campaigned in? It does appear as a populist and protest party, which tends to define Western Movements. However, DDP, cool shortfort eh, isn't a left party, which is what the original author, who mixes his beer, was inquiring about.

Personally, I find very little "RIGHT WING" in the Progressive Conservatives in Alberata. They are as mainstream and moderate and certainly much to the left of the Mike Harris Conservatives that ran Ontario for 2 terms. They can split hairs with the McGuinty Government, with their middle of the road, spend money, make no hard decisions approach.

In many fiscal circumstances the BC liberals are to the right of the Alberta Conservatives, and in many ways the Manitoba NDP are more to the right of the Ontario Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta.

I tend to find that in much of the time we have RIGHT, LEFT, and GOVERNMENT, which when either the right or left get in, much of their basis for existing as a party, gets washed away the moment they take the reigns of power.

So, to see the DDP platform, I will quote it in its ENTIRETY>>>>

Party Platform

The party's platform is and will be in a constant state of flux, relying on voters to decide the agenda and party policy. The current conception of the party is tailor-made to occupy a position in the provincial legislature as a protest party, not a majority party. In the unlikely circumstance that the DDP wins a majority government, party members would be given the choice to unite all the elected DDP representatives into a bloc and pool all votes to decide the direction that the party will take, or whether representatives will continue to operate independently of one another.

In the somewhat more likely circumstance that a threshold of for example 10% of voters expressing their wishes to their representative is not reached on a given issue, the party membership will implement a bare-bones platform to which representatives would revert in such situations. This emergency platform enacted only once voter turnout reaches unacceptable levels would effectively stop fringe elements of the electorate from passing extremist or illegal legislation.

You have alot of work to do...... to challenge any government or provide any kind of opposition. But remember, it took the Green Party almost 30 years to create a 15 page platform.

What is the DDP platform after "ELECTORAL REFORM"

1) SSM?

2) Immigration

3) Environment

4) Economy

5) Labour

6) Minimum Wage

7) Public vs Private institutions

8) Medical Care

9) Health and Safety

10) Law, Criminal Acts, Penalties

11) Corporate Thefts, Takeovers,

12) Aboriginal Affairs, Rights, Enforcement, Obligations

That should keep you busy.

If you don't wish to tackle these issues, spend some more time, and spice up the webpage. It is ok, but needs a professional look.

BTW,, the STV information was pretty cool. I didn't know that it was used until outlawed in 1955.

WHO outlawed the practice?