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1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Sunday, 08-Apr-2018 23:06:44 EDT Adam

   ...is probably not getting built. This is probably a good thing, but it will have the unfortunate side effect of almost certainly guaranteeing the demise of the Alberta NDP in the next election. Not that the Alberta NDP have been particularly socialist, but I'd MUCH rather them than Kenney and his dreams of bringing back the Klein years.
   http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/kinder-morgan-puts-brakes-on-trans-mountain-pipeline-activities-1.4610626

   #cdnpoli #canpol abpol

   1. ☭⚑ Comrade Angles ⚑☭ (angle@anticapitalist.party)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 00:07:38 EDT ☭⚑ Comrade Angles ⚑☭

      in reply to

      @ink_slinger Not a pipeline through the mountains for trans people. 0/10, Very disappointed. :V

   2. Michela (michela@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 03:46:41 EDT Michela

      in reply to

      @ink_slinger The crazy (and somewhat unfortunate) thing is that the ABNDP would likely not be given a second term, no matter what.

      Alberta is such a die-hard conservative province, that it appears the conditions to bring progressive government (like concurrent big scandal and vote splitting) will not return for some time.

      So I think we can celebrate this pipeline win without qualification when it (hopefully) happens for good. :)

      1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 08:24:39 EDT Adam

         in reply to

         @michela Alberta isn't even really *that* conservative. It's mostly that our electoral boundaries are drawn in a way that gives over-representation to rural areas, even though most of the province lives in urban areas (specifically the Edmonton and Calgary metro regions). Of course, Calgary is more conservative due to oil headquarters being located there. It's a more complicated province than many people might think.

         1. Michela (michela@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 11:48:13 EDT Michela

            in reply to

            @ink_slinger Hm. Well, that I don't know about. So I can't say, though it makes some sense, since the conservative provincial government drew those lines. What makes it harder to buy is the fact that their federal MPs are almost all conservative too, and those districts are drawn by Elections Canada.

            In any case, the result is that the ABNDP is probably done after the next provincial election, regardless of whether or not the oil companies get another pipeline. ;)

            1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 11:53:44 EDT Adam

               in reply to

               @michela This is a weird province. A lot of people *think* they are conservative, because of some weird identity issues (and "fuck the easterners" mentality that no longer makes much sense, if it ever did). But then if you talk to them, they're probably more liberal than conservative. It's quite odd.

               1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 11:55:45 EDT Adam

                  in reply to

                  @michela More odd is the fact that the CCF/NDP were born of prairie populism. There is a history of communism, socialism and other radical politics in western Canada, but there's also a long trend of electing conservative governments. Most of the time I just shrug and continue to assume my views will be underrepresented in my province. *sigh*

                  1. Bob Jonkman (bobjonkmangreen@gs.jonkman.ca)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 12:48:31 EDT Bob Jonkman

                     in reply to
                     I think you've identified the problem: lack of representation. Every party except the #ABNDP is under-represented in the legislature, and the ABNDP majority of seats has 100% of the power with only 40% of the votes -- 60% of the population gets no say in what the ABNDP decides to ram through. The #NDP across the country has a policy of implementing #ProportionalRepresentation, but every time they get in power they break that election promise.
                     1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 13:00:48 EDT Adam

                        in reply to

                        @bobjonkmangreen On paper, the NDP represent a lot of my views but, yes, I agree with essentially everything you've said here. And, in reality, they are always more centrist than you'd think by looking at their policy book.

                        1. Michela (michela@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 16:38:54 EDT Michela

                           in reply to

                           @ink_slinger @bobjonkmangreen I also think that we should have proportional representation across the country, however, that wouldn't do much for Alberta in the short term, and wouldn't change the present state of things because they are back to two main parties now. Maybe the greens would wind up with one or two seats in a proportional system, but even that seems unrealistic at the moment (maybe it's not -- I don't know enough about their presence in AB to be sure).

                           1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 16:50:46 EDT Adam

                              in reply to

                              @michela @bobjonkmangreen The Alberta Greens forgot to file some paperwork a while ago and had to dissolve. They're back now with a slightly different name (Alberta Greens instead of Green Party of Alberta, I think). They raised a whopping $200 in the last quarter, so they're not particularly popular. I think the federal Greens do pretty well in a few parts of the province, but the provincial party is mostly a non-entity.

                     2. Mark A. Gibbs (indi@sn.genesismachina.ca)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 13:46:12 EDT Mark A. Gibbs

                        in reply to
                        I don't think there's a single party that's *ever* held power at the federal or provincial level - in any province - that hasn't promised #ProportionalRepresentation at least in spirit at some point, then changed their mind once in power.
               2. Michela (michela@mastodon.club)'s status on Monday, 09-Apr-2018 16:30:56 EDT Michela

                  in reply to

                  @ink_slinger Ha. Yeah. I totally get that.

                  It's like the oil battle itself. Many people in Alberta seem to take BC's resistance to more AB pipelines on our own land as some sort of personal attack. We just want to take proper care of our home, and the Earth at large.