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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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Alberta being weak again
The town of Barrhead has a population of 4320 people. Only ~~10%~~ (correction, 16%) of the town petitioned for this as-yet-unpassed bylaw. Those individuals don't even represent the town of Barrhead, much less the entire province.
I don't mean this personally - I'm surprised that someone who is as vocal about proportional representation as you are would be insensitive to the demographic facts of this matter.
First off, 851 people (20%) signed the petition.
"Those individuals" who raised this are undoubtedly tied back to Take Back Alberta - or at least, the organizers are.
They will do the same thing that Westlock did: Present this as a neutral "no special interests" policy, and then advertise the shit out of their rational opinion, attacking the woke extremists for forcing their issue on what should be neutral territory.
Then they'll get about a 51% vote - not representative of the entire town, but enough to ban pride symbolism in the town.
Then they'll move onto the next town - maybe Rocky Mountain House or Didsbury or Sexsmith or Brooks. Actually, scratch that - they won't touch a town in Smith's riding for now.
But over time, they'll get the same bylaw passed in another town and another and another, until they can claim most of the rural electoral districts. Then - maybe after getting a few larger towns or even cities (Lethbridge), they'll petition the government. "Clearly the majority of Albertans support this neutrality, so let's make it a provincial law."
And David Parker will sit back, chuckling in his white robe and hat, as he destroys the lives of LGBTQ2+ people, and finishes his second front - banning abortion in the province.
Sorry, thank you for the correction on the number of petitioners. I didn't read the article carefully enough. From the article:
I'm just cranky that 54% of Alberta supports conservative and has the most anti-trans stance. Yes, its true Albertans are not a monolith.
For the record I don't like what the UCP are doing in Alberta right now either, and I don't think their approach represents acceptable governance.
You didn't infer this, but I want to say for the record that it would be incorrect to infer, that just because the UCP received 54-ish% of the popular vote in the last provincial general election, it doesn't follow that 54% of the population of Alberta is anti-trans. The UCP as a political entity takes aggressive stances on a bundle of issues that rationally-minded conservative voters would (and do) find unappealing. The fact that a Conservative stronghold like Barrhead could only get ~~10%~~ (correction, 16%) of its citizens behind this petition goes to show that the exclusionary thinking at the core of the petition is overwhelmingly not the norm here among the citizens.
It does mean that 54% is willing to promote UCP even though UCP as an institution is supportive of anti-trans politics. So while not everyone in those 54% might be anti-trans themselves, they are consciously supporting anti-trans politicians, and are effectively helping the anti-trans ideology.
I hear you.
I'm not sure there is really any vote that a thoughtful person could make that doesn't involve some sort of moral compromise. There are things in the AB NDP platform that I really like, and there are some things that I'm indifferent to. There are some things I wish weren't there, and some things that I really wish they made a bigger deal about. Despite that, I'm inclined to vote for them because I align more closely with them than any other provincial party. I think a lot of conservatives feel the same way about the UCP.
Again, I'm not trying to justify UCP policy in any way whatsoever. Kenney and Smith are both fools, and have made the province measurably worse for almost everybody. Despite that, I don't think Alberta should be written off in a casual way. And I don't think even a UCP voter should necessarily be written off. No matter what side of the aisle you're on, a political choice is a balancing act of competing interests and aims.