Project Alberta

Why any Albertan, or for that matter anyone west of North Bay would vote Liberal is an interesting question.

Of the three main federal parties two of them are somewhat Western. The NDP are from the old CCF and the Conservatives are from the old Reform. They have Western roots but clearly both have left the fold so to speak.

In Canada it is only the East that needs to be won to form government and those parties have shown that their Western roots are only to be taken advantage of to form government. Still they are from the West and have some understanding of what it is like to be a Colony in a Canada, some understanding of the regional issues.

The Liberals on the other hand.

They are the only Federal Party left that has roots deep in the history of Canada and by Canada I mean the old Canada, Ontario and Quebec and for the Liberals that is more Quebec than Ontario. Canada is the province that set up the West to be Colonies for them and the Liberals more so than any other party can trace their roots back to those days.

They see the West not as a land of people who deserve federal representation, maybe even power. Far from it. They see the West as owing them, a source of money, sometimes hassle and little more. This is displayed in many ways but is most obvious in how Ottawa, the Federal government, takes money from the West and gives it to Canada and the East using the old rich should pay the poor and the tyranny of the majority arguments.

That’s fine for them but one wonders why someone from the West would ever vote for them. The Liberals are most likely to enact national policies that are not in our favour. The CBC, the Liberal Party media outlet, makes it pretty clear that the West is bad and should be shut down. Their position on many issues including our energy industry is one the benefits the East at our expense.

Yet they still get votes in the West.

Where are these votes coming from? Are these people living in the West but from the East? Do they only listen to CBC or is their lack of Canadian knowledge so complete they think they are doing the right thing? Do they not understand the regional battles of Canada? Can they not see this in our National policies? Do they not support their own province, their own region? Maybe they buy the “Oh Canada” argument made by the East or hope that after a 100yrs things might be different, they might be allowed in, maybe to even rule?

When a Western vote goes Liberal it is a double whammy, a vote not cast for a Party that would support the region they live in and a vote for a party that will advocate for policies that hurt the region they live in. Would they vote BLOC if given a chance?

Seriously, why vote Liberal? Why not NDP who have at least some regional understanding? Or maybe Green if you just want a protest vote and do not want to vote Conservative?

I'm not fan of the Conservatives but can't see why I would cut my own throat and vote Liberal.

The Conservatives are too far to the right, and the NDP is too far to the left. The Greens are an interesting option, but the tree hugger stigma remains attached. The Liberals are simply too corrupted to do the job.

The only really viable alternative is a coalition of the left side of the ledger under a new form of management. In fact such a deal may not be that far away.

It does appear to be like that. Of course such a coalition is very bad for Canada, particularly Western Canada but good for ON/QC who see themselves as Canada. I'm sure the CBC would put all it's resources behind such an axis.

It is too bad the NDP could not draw in more Western lefties which might make them more respectful of their roots and move them a little more to the centre. Just updating their thinking could result in a very powerful party.

If you look at the old CCF and the Social Credit ideologies you find a world back then that looks a lot like our own. Radical as some of those ideas were back then they had they anyway to some extent. Maybe they were not so wrong about other things too!