Ralph succeeded because as he put it he figured out where the people were going and got out in front of them. The long list of narcissistic kooks who now seek to take over that party are trying to take people where they want them to go. And they all seem to live in an echo chamber. They had their chance; they made their call; you really what you sow.
Great piece, Ken! Brings to mind the treatise you wrote w/ Sean Speer on Ordered Liberty all those years back. Dispositionally (versus ideologically) conservative is a great way to describe Albertans. I've always found Alberta to be an anomalous mixture of Old (Central/Eastern) Europe and the Wild West but could never find the right words to characterize its political culture. You're bang on here, as usual.
Ken I often agree with you on many issues. I have said for several months that the electorate is starving for an adult who can manage the government properly. I don’t care about your ideology as much as how you handle education or health.
Governments have focused a lot of their time on special interest groups to the detriment of the constituents who elect them. The fact that we have made enemies who support us by indifference is a bigger issue that whether we are politically pure or not.
frankly, I don't hold out much hope for this province. Rural Alberta has a stranglehold on their social conservative garbage ideology and they love their "conservative" MLAs. Never mind that they aren't good for the province; never mind that they are actively working to dismantle health care and education to satisfy social conservative ideological wet dreams (education) and wanna be American fantasies (health) - all that matters is that they say they are conservative. It is incredibly short sighted to continue to vote for a party in bed with big corporate donors. The average citizen is not rich (barely making ends meet in this ridiculous inflation) & conservatives with their corporate obedience just don't care about us. I don't think any other party is so amazing or fantastic for the record, I just think the UCP is an obscenity and a blight on this province being propped up by rural alberta
Ken is correct, looking at temperament alone, Notley is closer to the average Albertan than Kenney. Many Albertans enjoyed being entertained by him...for a while.
Albertans are entitled and they are cheap. All Canadians are. Just ask anyone who works in tourism outside of Canada. That is why items such as universal no-fee health care are so popular, because you don't have to open your wallet. Canadians will accept a lot of mediocrity just to not have to pay out of pocket. I would even venture that to some Canadians, Albertans can be perceived as selfish which is part of the individualistic ethos of the place.
Conservatism and cheapness overlap on the Venn diagram. The want to be taken care of by an embracing state has heavy overlap with social conservatism as well.
But one point Ken is wrong is on ATB. ATB was created to provide small business banking when the Bay Street banks, famously stingy as they still are, refused to do business in the province. It a tool for provincial autonomy more than socialism. After all, this is a province where even the utilities are mostly privately owned.
I take exception to only the conservatives being able to run the province. The Social Credit party didn't run the province into the ground. And it was successive conservative governments that squandered the Heritage fund started by Lougheed.
I don't know where the author got the idea that conservatives are against high levels of public goods; they are not. They are against high upper-income tax rates to pay for them.
As long as power could be purchased with oil money, and Alberta's richest taxed lightly, good services were fine; Klein savagely cut them not out of conservative dislike of high services, but on fiscal grounds. Taxes stayed down.
The conservatism of Alberta may be proven mathematically:
...where Alberta, Moe's Saskatchewan, and Ford's Ontario have the lowest upper-income tax rates. (The super-low ones in the North were interesting; I think that reflects the difficulty of getting upper-incomes to stay there at all.)
Alberta's conservatism may be further proven by the tax rates under Rachel Notley. The UCP in the article screams "billion-dollar tax grab" because she raised corporate taxes, and some upper-income taxes: but to rates that were still quite low compared to the rest of Canada.
I see this essay as one on temperament, and I agree that Rachel Notley models a conservative temperament. Steady, thoughtful and constant: certainly what I look for in a leader.
Very, very good piece - and not just about Alberta, but about what the meaning of conservatism is and how as an ideology, it's not always in alignment with its ethos and its "disposition".
A quick point about its bank, though, ATB Financial, or the Alberta Treasury Branches as they are called in their enabling Act. It came about in the SoCred days, hummed along placidly for decades providing banking services to the far-flung rural province of old, got swept up in the lending crazes of the 70s and 80s, almost blew up three times - Pocklington's follies, bad loans in the 90s, bad investment in the Financial Crisis - but the province continued to re-up - because eventually, even an innovation like a government-owned bank becomes part of the landscape and, thus, dear to the hearts of the conservatively disposed. Ideological conservatives can't stand the notion, but those who see Alberta as a sum of its history, whose innovations often work when least expected, for whom survival is its own mark of distinction and reason for being, ATB makes perfect sense.
Ken, great piece. My only nit is, "And we won’t recognize Alberta when they’re done." I think that's a bit sloppy and unsubstantiated. Based on her first term, where's the evidence that she'd make AB unrecognizable? We'd still have a CTax without the petty showmanship and wasted legal costs. What will make AB unrecognizable is the how disappointed many younger voters are in the War Room, etc. of the UCP. Under 40's lean AB NDP or left of the AB NDP in spite of what us older Albertans think. If the AB NDP drifts left it will be because younger generations have had a belly full of what they view as UCP antics and are pulling them left. They'll go where the votes are.
I am unsure what exactly is meant by Conservative ideology and disposition? I sure wish the writer had of defined exactly what was intended in their use of those labels. It appears we are all grouped and branded in the new progressive world of Notley, Singh, and Trudeau. Individual thought, decisions, and perspective, has been disallowed and replaced by group think. The advancement of cancel culture if one dares dispute the "science" or the "experts", or the dogma of the progressive idealogues. The follow the leader rules ensuring we all go down with the ship in this group think mentality. This new post national state where unicorns and money trees are abundant in some fantasy land that appears to be contrived and run by children. We need grownups that deal in reality leading this Province. Its due to the lack of reality, commonsense, and sanity, that has brought this country to its knees and why we are seeing massive debt and the corrosion of society and our quality of life. The last thing Alberta needs is a leader who deems the people and the Province as being Canada's embarrassing cousin. In fact the entire story has been turned around as it has been the hard work and tenacity of Albertan's that have brought both prosperity and hope to this now post national state. The last thing Alberta needs is Notley.
Thankfully Alberta is a free province and as such everybody gets an opinion, gets to say it and suffer nothing worse than disagreement in return. That may not remain the case if Trudeau gets his way. Oh darn!! There’s that pesky “blame it on Trudeau” thing. So here’s mine. Ken is completely off base on this one. He windmilled his three pitches and is dragging his bat back to the dug out. The two big cities of Alberta may not be “ideologically” conservative but the rest of it is Blue with a capital B. Sit in a small coffee anywhere rural/small town/small city Alberta and listen. We’re Blue. Period.
Alberta is following the same pattern as Ontario. As it urbanizes, the political centre shifts to the left. Rural areas will still vote on the right, but the urban vote tips the scale. The segment of the province that produces exportable goods and services is still as conservative as it always was but it is getting smaller.
The NDP however has its own ideology which revolves around disparagement of big business, climate change, and unions.
Kenney has failed to bend conservatism to his will in Alberta but Notley has the same problem with the NDP. Rachel is in a province which is highly dependent on oil and gas and the political left wants to keep it in the ground.
Ralph succeeded because as he put it he figured out where the people were going and got out in front of them. The long list of narcissistic kooks who now seek to take over that party are trying to take people where they want them to go. And they all seem to live in an echo chamber. They had their chance; they made their call; you really what you sow.
Great piece, Ken! Brings to mind the treatise you wrote w/ Sean Speer on Ordered Liberty all those years back. Dispositionally (versus ideologically) conservative is a great way to describe Albertans. I've always found Alberta to be an anomalous mixture of Old (Central/Eastern) Europe and the Wild West but could never find the right words to characterize its political culture. You're bang on here, as usual.
"We need good boring government, not an exciting ideological one. "
That is the most exciting radical political idea I have seen for some time.
Ken I often agree with you on many issues. I have said for several months that the electorate is starving for an adult who can manage the government properly. I don’t care about your ideology as much as how you handle education or health.
Governments have focused a lot of their time on special interest groups to the detriment of the constituents who elect them. The fact that we have made enemies who support us by indifference is a bigger issue that whether we are politically pure or not.
frankly, I don't hold out much hope for this province. Rural Alberta has a stranglehold on their social conservative garbage ideology and they love their "conservative" MLAs. Never mind that they aren't good for the province; never mind that they are actively working to dismantle health care and education to satisfy social conservative ideological wet dreams (education) and wanna be American fantasies (health) - all that matters is that they say they are conservative. It is incredibly short sighted to continue to vote for a party in bed with big corporate donors. The average citizen is not rich (barely making ends meet in this ridiculous inflation) & conservatives with their corporate obedience just don't care about us. I don't think any other party is so amazing or fantastic for the record, I just think the UCP is an obscenity and a blight on this province being propped up by rural alberta
Ken is correct, looking at temperament alone, Notley is closer to the average Albertan than Kenney. Many Albertans enjoyed being entertained by him...for a while.
Albertans are entitled and they are cheap. All Canadians are. Just ask anyone who works in tourism outside of Canada. That is why items such as universal no-fee health care are so popular, because you don't have to open your wallet. Canadians will accept a lot of mediocrity just to not have to pay out of pocket. I would even venture that to some Canadians, Albertans can be perceived as selfish which is part of the individualistic ethos of the place.
Conservatism and cheapness overlap on the Venn diagram. The want to be taken care of by an embracing state has heavy overlap with social conservatism as well.
But one point Ken is wrong is on ATB. ATB was created to provide small business banking when the Bay Street banks, famously stingy as they still are, refused to do business in the province. It a tool for provincial autonomy more than socialism. After all, this is a province where even the utilities are mostly privately owned.
I take exception to only the conservatives being able to run the province. The Social Credit party didn't run the province into the ground. And it was successive conservative governments that squandered the Heritage fund started by Lougheed.
I don't know where the author got the idea that conservatives are against high levels of public goods; they are not. They are against high upper-income tax rates to pay for them.
As long as power could be purchased with oil money, and Alberta's richest taxed lightly, good services were fine; Klein savagely cut them not out of conservative dislike of high services, but on fiscal grounds. Taxes stayed down.
The conservatism of Alberta may be proven mathematically:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/ca/personal-finance/provincial-tax-rates
...where Alberta, Moe's Saskatchewan, and Ford's Ontario have the lowest upper-income tax rates. (The super-low ones in the North were interesting; I think that reflects the difficulty of getting upper-incomes to stay there at all.)
Alberta's conservatism may be further proven by the tax rates under Rachel Notley. The UCP in the article screams "billion-dollar tax grab" because she raised corporate taxes, and some upper-income taxes: but to rates that were still quite low compared to the rest of Canada.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/alberta-ndp-introduces-bill-to-hike-taxes-on-corporations-and-wealthy-1.2429427
...she just didn't DARE raise taxes to BC levels; Alberta is conservative that way. It's about upper-income taxes, not about service levels.
I see this essay as one on temperament, and I agree that Rachel Notley models a conservative temperament. Steady, thoughtful and constant: certainly what I look for in a leader.
Very, very good piece - and not just about Alberta, but about what the meaning of conservatism is and how as an ideology, it's not always in alignment with its ethos and its "disposition".
A quick point about its bank, though, ATB Financial, or the Alberta Treasury Branches as they are called in their enabling Act. It came about in the SoCred days, hummed along placidly for decades providing banking services to the far-flung rural province of old, got swept up in the lending crazes of the 70s and 80s, almost blew up three times - Pocklington's follies, bad loans in the 90s, bad investment in the Financial Crisis - but the province continued to re-up - because eventually, even an innovation like a government-owned bank becomes part of the landscape and, thus, dear to the hearts of the conservatively disposed. Ideological conservatives can't stand the notion, but those who see Alberta as a sum of its history, whose innovations often work when least expected, for whom survival is its own mark of distinction and reason for being, ATB makes perfect sense.
We'll see if it survives crypto.
Ken, great piece. My only nit is, "And we won’t recognize Alberta when they’re done." I think that's a bit sloppy and unsubstantiated. Based on her first term, where's the evidence that she'd make AB unrecognizable? We'd still have a CTax without the petty showmanship and wasted legal costs. What will make AB unrecognizable is the how disappointed many younger voters are in the War Room, etc. of the UCP. Under 40's lean AB NDP or left of the AB NDP in spite of what us older Albertans think. If the AB NDP drifts left it will be because younger generations have had a belly full of what they view as UCP antics and are pulling them left. They'll go where the votes are.
I am unsure what exactly is meant by Conservative ideology and disposition? I sure wish the writer had of defined exactly what was intended in their use of those labels. It appears we are all grouped and branded in the new progressive world of Notley, Singh, and Trudeau. Individual thought, decisions, and perspective, has been disallowed and replaced by group think. The advancement of cancel culture if one dares dispute the "science" or the "experts", or the dogma of the progressive idealogues. The follow the leader rules ensuring we all go down with the ship in this group think mentality. This new post national state where unicorns and money trees are abundant in some fantasy land that appears to be contrived and run by children. We need grownups that deal in reality leading this Province. Its due to the lack of reality, commonsense, and sanity, that has brought this country to its knees and why we are seeing massive debt and the corrosion of society and our quality of life. The last thing Alberta needs is a leader who deems the people and the Province as being Canada's embarrassing cousin. In fact the entire story has been turned around as it has been the hard work and tenacity of Albertan's that have brought both prosperity and hope to this now post national state. The last thing Alberta needs is Notley.
And, like I said. Everyone gets an opinion. Even you.
Thankfully Alberta is a free province and as such everybody gets an opinion, gets to say it and suffer nothing worse than disagreement in return. That may not remain the case if Trudeau gets his way. Oh darn!! There’s that pesky “blame it on Trudeau” thing. So here’s mine. Ken is completely off base on this one. He windmilled his three pitches and is dragging his bat back to the dug out. The two big cities of Alberta may not be “ideologically” conservative but the rest of it is Blue with a capital B. Sit in a small coffee anywhere rural/small town/small city Alberta and listen. We’re Blue. Period.
Alberta is following the same pattern as Ontario. As it urbanizes, the political centre shifts to the left. Rural areas will still vote on the right, but the urban vote tips the scale. The segment of the province that produces exportable goods and services is still as conservative as it always was but it is getting smaller.
The NDP however has its own ideology which revolves around disparagement of big business, climate change, and unions.
Kenney has failed to bend conservatism to his will in Alberta but Notley has the same problem with the NDP. Rachel is in a province which is highly dependent on oil and gas and the political left wants to keep it in the ground.