With the old guard tossed out and a new one taking over I thought I would start a thread for civil discussion here as was suggested by Noeller.

So have at it:

- with Trudeau and the Liberals in a majority, will we see most of all the "hopey, changy" materialize?

-what happens to the Conservatives? Will they become like the PC of old or lean more towards their Reformer roots?

-will Candians be better off?

-what happens to the NDP? Will they wilt back to stay in 3rd party status until the next Layton?

-will we see more of "Angry Tom" or more of "Smeying Thomas" (I so hope for the former, the latter scared the gravy outta me)

So once again have at it and try keeping away from the personal attacks, that includes making dumb assed comments which elicit (sometimes justifies) the personal attacks.

12 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

You should have done a survey, good chance 75% of them moved to BC as retirees.  I can believe exporting old people to BC was part of Alberta's solution to providing long term patient care services.

that is a major problem here for sure - people pay taxes all of their lives in Alberta, Sask and Manitoba and then move to BC when they are in their government pension years.  Yet they cause the biggest drain on resources in that stage of their lives.  So it's lose-lose for BC.  They should do what Quebec does and charge a moving to BC fee.  It wouldn't compensate fully but it would help.

On 4/18/2016 at 10:44 PM, The Unknown Poster said:

Me too. In St norbert. A campaign designed to scare the stupidest voters. Something to be proud of. 

Got it in Brandon as well, me and the wife.  Didn't answer and it filled my voicemail.  Making an easy choice even easier.

On 4/18/2016 at 6:26 PM, Jacquie said:

Seems to me Alberta was screwed by the previous government.

This was in response to Iso complaining about the carbon tax, and the Leap Manifesto.  So how was Alberta screwed by the previous government such that they now have a horrible carbon tax jammed down their throat?

I agree that the previous government made terrible mistakes and had to go.  The NDP every once in awhile gets in just because they aren't the other two parties.  That happened in Ontario back in the 1990's too, and Nova Scotia recently.  But I've yet to see an NDP government elected "by accident" to last more than one term.  We will see if Notley can break the trend.  Right now it's not looking good.

19 hours ago, Brandon said:

Back to local elections...

I have yet to receive any material , visits, calls from the local Liberal candidate.

NDP robocalled me once, sent one pamphlet in the mail.

PC -  I have received 3 mail pamphlets,  2 phone calls,  2 at home visits  (one with the Candidate!) ......

It doesn't even seem like the other groups are even trying?

It must vary depending on where you are... in my area:

Liberal: if it wasn't for one bus bench, I wouldn't even know there was a Lib candidate in my area...

PC: one visit a few months ago and a few pamphlets...

NDP: I've spoken to the MLA Rep personally, his wife a few times and probably received about 4 or 5 robo calls (which I've never answered), and countless pamphlets...

I assume they target different ridings depending on how they think they will do.

47 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I assume they target different ridings depending on how they think they will do.

having been involved in a few campaigns myself I can verify that this is true.  Allocation of resources. 

18 hours ago, iso_55 said:

Agree 100%. It is criminal what is happening but for whatever reason our seniors just don't have the facilities needed.

ISO - you mentioned several times that you were in hospital and no one said "Hope you are ok now".  Hope you are ok now.

3 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

having been involved in a few campaigns myself I can verify that this is true.  Allocation of resources. 

So do we assume where the PC's focused they felt they could take the seat and where the NDP fought back hard it was where they thought they were at risk of losing?

Just now, The Unknown Poster said:

So do we assume where the PC's focused they felt they could take the seat and where the NDP fought back hard it was where they thought they were at risk of losing?

yes.  I don't think the NDP is blowing their brains out spending money in ridings like Arthur-Virden.

is Wolseley going to go Green?

1 minute ago, kelownabomberfan said:

yes.  I don't think the NDP is blowing their brains out spending money in ridings like Arthur-Virden.

Have a buddy who is running in this election and they actually get info by polling station within their ridings from Elections Manitoba.   He knows which area voted which way in the last election.  He spends most of his time on the areas that support him and the swing votes.  

Minimal effort on the areas where he doesn't have much chance.

Erin Selby was our previous mla. I can 100% guarantee the NDP is losing it with her gone, and I'm sure the NDP knows it.

We're one of the "swing ridings". That's good for us b/c we always get promised more to get our vote. The NDP showered us with goodies to get Selby in for her first term.

Edited April 19, 20169 yr by sweep the leg

A media friend told me my MLA Dave Gaudreau thinks he's going to win but might very well lose.  The PC's seemed to come out of nowhere and there are a ton of PC signs all over.

11 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

A media friend told me my MLA Dave Gaudreau thinks he's going to win but might very well lose.  The PC's seemed to come out of nowhere and there are a ton of PC signs all over.

Poll projections as of yesterday had St Norbert as 96% PC

@Rich- thats great news.  Dave has been a model candidate but he has a history of rude and unprofessional behavior towards people.  Ill be glad to see him go.  The stories you hear, he seems emotionally unstable or stunted.

I've been bombarded in River Heights.  Home visits and phone calls by the PCs and Liberals.  I'm in an apartment building and they keep getting in and slipping stuff under my door, hanging placards on my doorknob, etc.  They come knocking at my door, surely expecting a retiree like the majority of the people in my building, instead they get a fired up burly 28 year old ready to challenge them on their platforms.  Very satisfying.

I even got a flyer from the Green candidate, it said 100% recycled material but I still thought it was ironic that they would be handing out paper.  

PC Tracey Maconachie is working really hard to win it but the support for Jon Gerrard is just too strong I think.

2 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I've been bombarded in River Heights.  Home visits and phone calls by the PCs and Liberals.  I'm in an apartment building and they keep getting in and slipping stuff under my door, hanging placards on my doorknob, etc.  They come knocking at my door, surely expecting a retiree like the majority of the people in my building, instead they get a fired up burly 28 year old ready to challenge them on their platforms.  Very satisfying.

I even got a flyer from the Green candidate, it said 100% recycled material but I still thought it was ironic that they would be handing out paper.  

PC Tracey Maconachie is working really hard to win it but the support for Jon Gerrard is just too strong I think.

Green candidates should print their ads on rolling paper.  Then you could at least smoke it once you've done reading it.  Include a bit of weed with it too.  Probably get a lot of votes that way.

Just now, The Unknown Poster said:

Green candidates should print their ads on rolling paper.  Then you could at least smoke it once you've done reading it.  Include a bit of weed with it too.  Probably get a lot of votes that way.

If it included the weed I would vote for them for sure.

16 minutes ago, Atomic said:

If it included the weed I would vote for them for sure.

Is there a way to make paper out of weed?  So you could just roll the paper empty, smoke it and get high?  Someone should invent that.  BTW, I have never smoked pot.   Just sayin...

4 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

This was in response to Iso complaining about the carbon tax, and the Leap Manifesto.  So how was Alberta screwed by the previous government such that they now have a horrible carbon tax jammed down their throat?

I agree that the previous government made terrible mistakes and had to go.  The NDP every once in awhile gets in just because they aren't the other two parties.  That happened in Ontario back in the 1990's too, and Nova Scotia recently.  But I've yet to see an NDP government elected "by accident" to last more than one term.  We will see if Notley can break the trend.  Right now it's not looking good.

My point was, and you seem to agree, that things weren't peachy keen when the PCs left office.

2 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

ISO - you mentioned several times that you were in hospital and no one said "Hope you are ok now".  Hope you are ok now.

There was danger & still is that I'll lose my left leg below the knee as I have been dealing with a foot infection that is resistant to antibiotics. I had surgery for the third time since last July to try to get the thing stopped. My doctors think they have found the appropriate antibiotics to get rid of it but I'll still have 2-3 months to go before I'm fine with no amputation. Thanks for asking kbf. Appreciate it. #fingerscrossed

17 minutes ago, Jacquie said:

My point was, and you seem to agree, that things weren't peachy keen when the PCs left office.

I agree with that.  I think what cost the PC's was that their leader was so arrogant.  As for platforms, I think that the PC's had the right one for the economic situation going on in Alberta right now.  The NDP jacking up taxes and spending just isn't what is needed right now in Alberta.  As someone else said, time for a sales tax, and also for a government with the balls to cut spending, not ramp it through the roof.

Incidentally, I have family working in the Manitoba government right now.  Since the Alberta election, many NDP apparatchiks have been fleeing Manitoba to the greener pastures of Alberta, as they've seen the writing on the wall in Manitoba (they will be canned immediately) and so have joined the ranks of the over-paid bureaucrats in Alberta.  Notley's been hiring all of them.  According to my family member, the unofficial NDP mantra is "why hire 3 people to do the job when you can hire 5?"  That's one of the reasons Alberta's spending is out of control, their civil service is ballooning, much like Manitoba's did and BC's did in the 1990's.  When the Liberals were elected here in 2001, they canned thousands of useless employees that were literally doing NOTHING.  I expect that Manitoba will go through the same cleansing soon.

Gaudreau won by 31 votes last time, think he's gonzo.

KBF, Selinger gaves the MGEU a 4 year no layoff clause. Change is not coming soon on that front.

1 minute ago, rebusrankin said:

Gaudreau won by 31 votes last time, think he's gonzo.

KBF, Selinger gaves the MGEU a 4 year no layoff clause. Change is not coming soon on that front.

Not 100% true.  The MGEU is made up of different locals so there are multiple contracts that got negotiated.  Some contracts did include a 4 year no layoff clause but not all of them.

I stand corrected Bigg Jay. My understanding is that it was all but that's only off some articles, not a member of the MGEU or anything. Thanks.