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RandySF

(57,588 posts)
Tue May 5, 2015, 10:56 PM May 2015

NDP wins Alberta Provincial election.

This is like Democrats winning Texas.


Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley has won a majority government, ending the 44-year reign of the Progressive Conservatives, CTV projects.

Notley’s NDP will form the next government and Jim Prentice’s PCs will find themselves in opposition alongside the Wildrose Party.

Although not all votes are counted, Notley appears to have won enough seats to form a majority government in the 87-seat legislature.

Notley’s victory is a major upset, considering her party held only four seats when the election was called on April 7. The New Democrats had never before won more than 16 ridings.



http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/alberta-ndp-wins-majority-government-ctv-projects-1.2359035

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laundry_queen

(8,646 posts)
3. This is more than just like Democrats winning Texas
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:09 PM
May 2015

This is like Bernie walking away with it in Texas in 2016.

delrem

(9,688 posts)
4. Wow. That's the oilpatch, the heart of extreme conservative "Reform" movement,
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:14 PM
May 2015

Harper's stomping ground. ("Reform" = "tea-party", for those who don't know Canadian politics)

This is a major win.

A major, major win.

Also: Canada has a federal election in Oct. '15.

Oh happy happy me!

delrem

(9,688 posts)
6. Yup. The NDP is a union/labor based party.
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:26 PM
May 2015

The USA has nothing like it.
The US Dem Party is more like the Canadian Liberal party when under the short term leadership of Michael Ignatieff, whose right-wing leadership brought the Liberals down in flames.

Think: Bernie Sanders winning the Dem Party Primaries. The right wing in the US, whether right wing Dems or other, can't get their minds around even the possibility of it.

(I'm too happy about this right now - can't bring myself to think about the kind of wrecking that the corporate/oil interests will immediately engage in. But *that* at any rate is expected, so won't take the NDP by surprise)

delrem

(9,688 posts)
15. It's a deeply satisfying feeling, laundry_queen.
Wed May 6, 2015, 05:11 AM
May 2015

Now the whole country has to get rid of Harper in Oct.
We've got to stand together across the whole country, because the corporate board doesn't sleep and the new Alberta gov't (wow!) needs a buffer.
We need other provinces to join, we need a new way of talking.

u4ic

(17,101 posts)
8. I used to live in Rachel's riding
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:31 PM
May 2015

I am thrilled for her, and for the province. It needed a huge change, and FINALLY they woke up.

The Democrats are centre-right in terms of Canadian politics.

Terra Alta

(5,158 posts)
9. what in the blue hell is a "Progressive Conservative"?
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:32 PM
May 2015

that's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.

In any case, I'm glad the conservatives lost. Now if only we can get Texas to turn blue in 2016.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
12. Historically both the Liberal and Conservatives were center-right parties
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:47 PM
May 2015

The moderates within the Conservative Party were referred to as Red Tories, but that label fell out of favor.

delrem

(9,688 posts)
16. I would say that the Liberals under Pearson and Trudeau, esp., were center-left.
Wed May 6, 2015, 05:36 AM
May 2015

If such a scale makes any sense at all.

A debate about that would have to start by giving at least *some* definition of what is meant by "center". Then the debate would examine who these power brokers were, who their associates were, and what they did in Canadian politics - how it played out in the context of their times.

Here's a problem that I have in defining "center":

One difference between Liberals and Conservatives that I can "feel in my bones" and that is unquantifiable, is that Pearson, Trudeau and Chretien, are much better representatives of what I *want it to be*, to be a Canadian patriot, than any Conservative that I can think of - going back in my reminiscing. I still consider them (these liberal leaders) to be role models. How can that kind of unquantifiable and totally personal *feeling* be measured on a scale of left/right?

Names like "Progressive Conservative" are no more than names.
In BC, the discredited and essentially disbanded "Social Credit" movement bought out the "Liberal" name, so in large part except moved on by time and expedience it's the same thing, the same political party, and it gets pretty fucking confusing if a person imagines the name has some special meaning, beyond the fact that it denotes a political party controlled by a certain power group.

"Blackwater" "Academi" "Xe Sevices LLC" "Constellis Holdings" all denote the same general thing, but if we want to know what the thing is we don't find an answer by examining the various names.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
17. Diefenbaker, Pearson and Trudeau were highly transformative Prime Ministers
Wed May 6, 2015, 03:33 PM
May 2015

That redefined the Canadian center, the Liberals of the 1950's were practically fascists.

Grey

(1,581 posts)
13. Yes, an oxymoron named Steve Harper,
Wed May 6, 2015, 12:47 AM
May 2015

a conservative with a "fundie bent".
We call him "bush lite".

HEyHEY

(45,977 posts)
19. Back in the day
Wed May 6, 2015, 09:12 PM
May 2015

It made sense because the idea was the party was Conservative, but open to new ideas.

Now they're just all a bunch of idiots married to an ideology.

cabot

(724 posts)
11. So happy for Alberta!
Tue May 5, 2015, 11:35 PM
May 2015

I'm sitting in my apartment in Toronto, watching the results and hoping we can carry this momentum into the federal election.

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