Orange Revolution Stuns Alberta Politics

A year ago our Conservative government here in Alberta was reeling from the scandals of their leader, Allison Redford. She was an idiot on the level of Sarah Palin and we sent her ass packing within a couple of years of her tenure. She could no longer take the pressure of the scrutiny on her lavish spending of the public purse. This included many trips on private jets with family members and the infamous SKY PALACE which was to be her living quarters on top of one of the highest buildings in Edmonton. This penthouse suite (which she authorized hundreds of thousands of dollars to decorate) so became to much of a political liability and she ran for the hills.

Then the Conservatives bring in Jim Prentiss from the private sector. He left his cushy job at CIBC and his arrival was treated as a coronation of sorts but he never sat right with me or most Albertans. He seemed parachuted into a situation he knew little about. The drop in oil revenues hurt his ability to balance the budget and instead of looking for other ways to meet expenses, he immediately turned to all of US and said that we needed to take a hit. It was OUR fault that the government didn't properly plan for lean times when times were good. Of course he tells us to tighter OUR belts as he is ordering an expensive car from the US. You can see the optics here were not good.

So he gets chosen as party leader which makes him Premier and he releases a crappy budget. Then he calls a snap election. Our election season is only six weeks long. There was ONE debate. At the end of it, Rachel Notley, leader of the New Democratic Party (left of center philosophy) was declared the overall winner and she rode that momentum to a MAJORITY government. Red neck, cowboy, conservative, almost but better than Texas, ALBERTA went with the leftist party because they were so pissed at 40 years of the right being in power.

The Conservatives were decimated. Prentiss quit and resigned his seat even while the votes for his seat were still being counted. If he couldn't have the perks and the prestige and the big office and the big chair he was taking his toys and going home. Once again I was dead right about this political opportunist. I am glad many of my fellow citizens saw the same thing.

We needed a change. If we don't like it we can change it again in four years. We need fresh eyes on the problems of funding health care, education and infrastructure around this province. We need the oil wealth to be benefitting more of US collectively (like the Norway model). We need people to be more important than corporate profit. The NDP have a tradition of going against such corporate greed. How this all shakes out remains to be seen but it's the most exciting thing to happen politically around here in a long time. Lots of people are feeling good today. I hope their hope is justified by action.

If you want to know why all this happened you have to know something about the Canadian character. We don't mind if you fuck up. You say sorry and usually that is the end of it. But one thing we will not tolerate is HUBIS. The thought that a politician is BETTER than the rest of us is the one crime we cannot forgive. And Prentiss reeked of HUBRIS...and entitlement. For that reason he had to go and we bravely face a new political future without this opportunistic carpet bagger.