The First Year Of the NDP (comments & concerns)

[tigerdar]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I'd like to see an actual government party whoever that happens to be actually come in when they take power and make it their #1 priority to go through the government services, figure out how they work, who's in charge, how money is spent, where the money goes and actually do something in an effort to make things run a little more efficient and make the money stretch a little farther. I don't care what government party you believe in, there isn't one of us that doesn't know there is significant amount of money just pissed away on bureaucracy, redundancy and stuff that is flat out not needed but is done because "that's just the way things are done". Do that first and try to make that money stretch a little farther and maybe get a little more value from the dollars spent. You are never going to get 100% value but to use just a number for an example, if you get 50 cents on the dollar now, do something to get that to 60 cents on the dollar.

It doesn't matter what party is in power or who's the person in charge. Everyone one of them come in, promise the world, tell us all that we are going to get better value for our hard earned money, say they are going to make some changes. Then they shuffle a few chairs around, change out a director, do some sort of BS audit but nothing changes. The dollars go in and magically most of the money just disappears and the service is the same. You wait hours and hours to see a doctor 5, 10, 15 years ago, you still wait hours and hours to see a doctor today. Classrooms were overcrowded 15 years ago, they are overcrowded today. And so on and so on.

It's the NDP's turn at it and they like all the others promise more hospitals, more doctors and nurses, more beds, lower wait times, more access for seniors, more teachers, more schools, etc, etc, blah, blah blah. Have they done anything to change how the programs run to make them more efficient? Nope. The only difference with the NDP is they aren't cutting the money they are spending on services when we as a province don't have that money to spend. What they are doing is running up more debt and pulling out the wallets of Albertans and taking more of Albertans money. But at the end of the day, until you fix the system, taking more of my pay check and the pay checks of many others won't make a damn bit of difference. The extra money they take from you and I will just go into the system and disappear and we will still have overcrowded class rooms and sitting in the waiting room for hours to see a doctor. Personally, if I am going to get lousy, inefficient services anyway, I would rather I keep some of my own hard earned money and spend it as I see fit. I think the majority of us are smart enough to know how to better spend our money than to give more of it to the government and see it disappear into thin air. That's not a shot at the NDP, that applies to ALL government parties.

Like my dear old grandmother RIP used to say there's two types of politicians...the slime we've elected and the slime that hasn't gotten elected yet (now picture a 4'8 feisty old lady from Newfoundland with the full accent to get the full humourous effect of it).

[Sectionq]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

Nenshi in Calgary
Iveson in Edmonton
Notley's the Preem
4 Liberal MPs and an NDP MP

Alberta isn't that conservative anymore.

Is that right? You sure about that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert...election,_2015

NDP - 604,515 votes - 40.47%
Wildrose - 360,511 votes - 24.23%
Conservatives - 413,607 votes - 27.80%
Liberal - 62,153 votes - 4.19%
Alberta Party - 33,221 - 2.29%

My personal riding of Red Deer south. NDP candidate Barb Miller won.
NDP 7,023 votes - 35.9
PC 5413 votes - 27.6
Wildrose 4814 - 24.6

Conservative vote - 10,227 votes. 52.2%

774,188 Albertan's or 52.03% voted for a conservative party. So are you sure Alberta isn't a Conservative province because based on the number of votes, more than half the province voted for a Conservative party. So when the 2 Conservative parties combine for the next election, if everyone voted exactly the same, the Conservative party is going to win and probably win by a lot because a lot of the former Conservatives supporters that held their nose and voted NDP because they were mad and wanted revenge, are probably going to vote for the Conservatives again.

[Hugoagogo]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I'm sure.

[Sectionq]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I guess we will find out won't we.

[Muley69]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

People LOVE government spending when it suits them.

They HATE it when it doesn't.

The NDP just gave away a HALF BILLION DOLLARS in corporate welfare. And the WRP has said sweet dick about it.

[Hugoagogo]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I guess we will find out won't we.

My sources are never wrong.

[Sectionq]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I'm just going by the numbers. The numbers say more people voted for a conservative party. The difference between the Wildrose and the PC's isn't much. If the former leader - Danielle Smith - can walk across the floor without batting an eye to the PC's, that tells you their differences aren't much. I thought I read that there are talks already between the 2 parties, so by election, they will be joined as one. There are tons of ridings where the NDP went right up the middle between the Conservative and Wildrose. Combine those 2 parties, votes, the NDP don't win. It's pretty simple math.

[Diesel]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

There won't be a merger between the WRP and PC's at any executive level whatsoever. PC grassroots supporters looking to jump off the sinking ship will be welcome with open arms and WRP memberships

[Sectionq]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

Well regardless, I don't see the NDP sliding up the middle again.

[GungaDin]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

I'd like to see an actual government party whoever that happens to be actually come in when they take power and make it their #1 priority to go through the government services, figure out how they work, who's in charge, how money is spent, where the money goes and actually do something in an effort to make things run a little more efficient and make the money stretch a little farther. I don't care what government party you believe in, there isn't one of us that doesn't know there is significant amount of money just pissed away on bureaucracy, redundancy and stuff that is flat out not needed but is done because "that's just the way things are done". Do that first and try to make that money stretch a little farther and maybe get a little more value from the dollars spent. You are never going to get 100% value but to use just a number for an example, if you get 50 cents on the dollar now, do something to get that to 60 cents on the dollar.

It doesn't matter what party is in power or who's the person in charge. Everyone one of them come in, promise the world, tell us all that we are going to get better value for our hard earned money, say they are going to make some changes. Then they shuffle a few chairs around, change out a director, do some sort of BS audit but nothing changes. The dollars go in and magically most of the money just disappears and the service is the same. You wait hours and hours to see a doctor 5, 10, 15 years ago, you still wait hours and hours to see a doctor today. Classrooms were overcrowded 15 years ago, they are overcrowded today. And so on and so on.

It's the NDP's turn at it and they like all the others promise more hospitals, more doctors and nurses, more beds, lower wait times, more access for seniors, more teachers, more schools, etc, etc, blah, blah blah. Have they done anything to change how the programs run to make them more efficient? Nope. The only difference with the NDP is they aren't cutting the money they are spending on services when we as a province don't have that money to spend. What they are doing is running up more debt and pulling out the wallets of Albertans and taking more of Albertans money. But at the end of the day, until you fix the system, taking more of my pay check and the pay checks of many others won't make a damn bit of difference. The extra money they take from you and I will just go into the system and disappear and we will still have overcrowded class rooms and sitting in the waiting room for hours to see a doctor. Personally, if I am going to get lousy, inefficient services anyway, I would rather I keep some of my own hard earned money and spend it as I see fit. I think the majority of us are smart enough to know how to better spend our money than to give more of it to the government and see it disappear into thin air. That's not a shot at the NDP, that applies to ALL government parties.

I agree with your sentiment on paragraphs 1 & 2, but don't think there's time in our 4 year election cycle to understand how everything works, where the money's spent and come up with a plan and implement it. It sounds simple, but it isn't and the larger the organization, the harder it is to do. There are around 1200 people in my organization. They're just starting to roll out a new organizational management system (at an impressive cost in consulting $). They expect it to take 3+ years to implement across all departments.

As for the NDP government, do you really think that after 9 months in power a bunch of political neophytes will be able to change the culture and management system that's been in place for 40+ years? I'm watching and hoping there'll be some substantial changes over the next few years. We'll see if that's enough to persuade the electorate they deserve another term in office to continue the change. or if the backlash from the oil price crash and resulting economic recession spells the end to their reign.

[Deathsdoorstep]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

Is that right? You sure about that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert...election,_2015

NDP - 604,515 votes - 40.47%
Wildrose - 360,511 votes - 24.23%
Conservatives - 413,607 votes - 27.80%
Liberal - 62,153 votes - 4.19%
Alberta Party - 33,221 - 2.29%

My personal riding of Red Deer south. NDP candidate Barb Miller won.
NDP 7,023 votes - 35.9
PC 5413 votes - 27.6
Wildrose 4814 - 24.6

Conservative vote - 10,227 votes. 52.2%

774,188 Albertan's or 52.03% voted for a conservative party. So are you sure Alberta isn't a Conservative province because based on the number of votes, more than half the province voted for a Conservative party. So when the 2 Conservative parties combine for the next election, if everyone voted exactly the same, the Conservative party is going to win and probably win by a lot because a lot of the former Conservatives supporters that held their nose and voted NDP because they were mad and wanted revenge, are probably going to vote for the Conservatives again.

OH! So NOW the PCs are a "conservative party" again? I notice that the PC party out polled the Wildrose. You know...that same PC party that WAPs didn't think was "conservative" anymore???

You think that a province that polls 40% for the NDP is a "conservative" province? You think that a province that has guys like Nenshi and Iveson in the Mayor's offices of the two big cities is "conservative"?

All your numbers prove is that Alberta is definitely NOT a "conservative" province anymore. 40% voted left, 33% voted centre, and 27% voted right. Hardly a ringing endorsement of hard right policies.

A lot can happen in the just over 3 years until the next provincial election.

Right off the bat Notley gave her base the 4 big ticket items: carbon tax, emissions limits, spending on health and ed and increased taxes on higher incomes. Since then she's given them nada. When Gil McGowan is out there saying Notely got it wrong on the royalty review, you know that she got it right. And if the price of oil starts rising in the next year I wouldn't count her out of the next election. Especially if Diesel is right and there is no merger between the WAP and the PCs. Not merging would be insane. It would show ego getting in the way of common sense.

[Sectionq]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

The NDP had 126,752 votes in the 2012 election. You are fooling yourself if you think over 475,000 Albertans suddenly changed into NDPers. There were a hell of a lot of people that voted for the NDP not because they thought they would do a good job but because they were pissed off at the Conservatives for doing a lousy job and they didn't want to vote for the Wildrose because they grouped them in with the Conservatives due to all the candidates walking back and forth. So they decided that the NDP was the best of the worst and figured what's the worst that can happen. I have heard from MANY former Conservatives you did exactly that. So unless the NDP can start growing money trees, they aren't going to be in government for. The NDP is pissing off farmers, jacking up everyone taxes, they put that stupid carbon tax in as another tax grab. Maybe the oblivious people don't think that carbon tax is a big deal but when all your bills start rocketing up because of it, they might think a little differently. Food is expensive now, just wait until all the prices sky rocket as all the suppliers and trucking industry that stocks the shelves start passing along their higher cost of doing business, not to mention the individual stores we all shop at will pass along their higher costs of utilities as well.

When the next election comes and the NDP are crushed, I will look for you first to say I told you so.

[Deathsdoorstep]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

The NDP had 126,752 votes in the 2012 election. You are fooling yourself if you think over 475,000 Albertans suddenly changed into NDPers. There were a hell of a lot of people that voted for the NDP not because they thought they would do a good job but because they were pissed off at the Conservatives for doing a lousy job and they didn't want to vote for the Wildrose because they grouped them in with the Conservatives due to all the candidates walking back and forth. So they decided that the NDP was the best of the worst and figured what's the worst that can happen. I have heard from MANY former Conservatives you did exactly that. So unless the NDP can start growing money trees, they aren't going to be in government for. The NDP is pissing off farmers, jacking up everyone taxes, they put that stupid carbon tax in as another tax grab. Maybe the oblivious people don't think that carbon tax is a big deal but when all your bills start rocketing up because of it, they might think a little differently. Food is expensive now, just wait until all the prices sky rocket as all the suppliers and trucking industry that stocks the shelves start passing along their higher cost of doing business, not to mention the individual stores we all shop at will pass along their higher costs of utilities as well.

When the next election comes and the NDP are crushed, I will look for you first to say I told you so.

No, I'm not fooling myself. Alberta has been adding 100,000 people a year from out of province for years now. They didn't come from Texas.

It is you, once again, who has it wrong if you think that people didn't vote WAP because they likened them to the PCs. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to say. No surprise really. It wasn't Brian Jean that looked cynical and Maciavellian. It was Jim Prentice. Yet more people voted for him.

It is a clear indication of the change in political demo in Alberta that Rachel Notley's NDP seemed like the safer choice for those who wanted change and more people voted for the status quo than the WAP.

[Diesel]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

Considering the WRP had 37 days to rise from the ashes when everyone left them for dead, don't count them out.

[Deathsdoorstep]

Re: The First 9 Months Of the NDP Are a Full On Sh*t Show

Considering the WRP had 37 days to rise from the ashes when everyone left them for dead, don't count them out.

I kind of like Brian Jean. But next time he'll need more to his message than "we won't raise your taxes".