Alberta Politics II

[240glt]

Ugh. How embarrassing.

My hope is that he turns off enough moderates that the NDP get in again.

If a Kenney UCP does get in, Edmonton is in trouble.

[jawagord]

Another round of restaurant closures have hit Calgary, but this time it's not just the economy it's the tax and wage hikes of the Nenshi-Notley-Trudeau policies which are causing owners to throw in the towel. Unintended Consequences.

Economics 101 says during hard economic times governments shouldn’t raise taxes. But no, every level of government  — the city, the province and the feds — have hiked our taxes and other things,” adds Morgan.

“Beer taxes, liquor taxes, the carbon tax, business taxes, for the privilege of operating a business in this city, the hike in the minimum wage we could handle, but then Rachel Notley mandates that on Jan. 1, holiday pay is going up by 25 per cent,” explains Morgan. 

Restaurant owners are also hit with new rules that forbid employers or employees to bank hours for a day off in lieu. Now if a waiter works overtime, they must be paid, time-and-a-half, rather than get extra time off later.

“It’s nickel and dime, nickel and dime at the very worst of times,” says Morgan, who is sad for his staff who have yet to find work. “These people in power are bozos, they have no clue what’s going on out here and the pain they’re causing. They just keep on socking it to us.”

On Friday night, Catch & the Oyster Bar served its last dreamy bowl of New England clam chowder and its last plate of wonton-crusted tempura prawns. For an establishment that was voted Canada’s best overall restaurant in 2010, it’s a big fall from the heady days of tough-to-get reservations and waiting lists.

.... other formerly renowned Calgary restaurants that have recently closed down, including Divino, which was successful for 33 years; The Belvedere, which was around for 19 years; the Trib Steakhouse and Rush Ocean Prime, to name just a few.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...mes-in-calgary

[lubicon]

Two comments:

First, the change to require overtime be paid rather than banked sucks. I had not idea the Provincial Gov't was changing this as well.

Second, can someone explain to me how Nenshi has raised taxes? He is one vote on council and as far as I know business taxes were not raised by him and him alone. They did go up but as I understand it that is due to how they are assessed and have nothing to do with anything specific Nenshi has done. Like he has the power to anyhow.

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Two comments:

First, the change to require overtime be paid rather than banked sucks. I had not idea the Provincial Gov't was changing this as well.

Second, can someone explain to me how Nenshi has raised taxes? He is one vote on council and as far as I know business taxes were not raised by him and him alone. They did go up but as I understand it that is due to how they are assessed and have nothing to do with anything specific Nenshi has done. Like he has the power to anyhow.

So one vote makes Nenshi just another alderman, then Rachel is just another MLA and Justin is just another MP? Getting a little tired of this old defence the mayor is only 1 vote in 15. Sure there are no official parties in city politics but the mayor does have a cabal of politically like minded alderman to support his agenda. Municipal Taxes have gone up for many small businesses under Nenshi's watch so as head of the city he gets the blame. What was the mayor's tax solution, cap increases at 5% for this election year.

[240glt]

The Alberta Party appears to be loading up with ex PC's. It'll be interesting to see if the AB party can garner any legitimate support in the next 18 months or so, Greg Clark's resignation seems like a bit of a desperation move, and I don't think this is going to have any material effect on the next election save for splitting the right vote, which I am frankly just fine with

If we see Lukazuk pop back into the picture we know that this is more of the same old same old

[Cage]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Second, can someone explain to me how Nenshi has raised taxes? He is one vote on council and as far as I know business taxes were not raised by him and him alone. They did go up but as I understand it that is due to how they are assessed and have nothing to do with anything specific Nenshi has done. Like he has the power to anyhow.

As Mayor, Nenshi is Chair of Priorities and Finance Committee that determine the spending and revenue priorities for the city. On the priorities side, he gets to have significant influence on civic priorities for both capital and operating.

Also As Mayor, he has the bully pulpit, which he uses to to advance specific priorities that Councillors do not have equal footing.

Example: Mayor gets infront of the media and makes the case for Police budget increase, makes the case for holding the line on Transit cuts, speaks out regarding cuts to Parks, advocates for the spending initiatives all over the city.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by 240glt

The Alberta Party appears to be loading up with ex PC's. It'll be interesting to see if the AB party can garner any legitimate support in the next 18 months or so, Greg Clark's resignation seems like a bit of a desperation move, and I don't think this is going to have any material effect on the next election save for splitting the right vote, which I am frankly just fine with

If we see Lukazuk pop back into the picture we know that this is more of the same old same old

I don't see the AB Party loading up with ex PC's, more appropriately I do see the AB Party taking on a lot of Federal Liberal Party of Canada organizers and supporters. Yes some of these people were part of the Red Tory brigade, however that has more to do with having your worst day in power being 10 times better than your best day in opposition.

Look for most of the askher movement to move into AB Party t-shirts for volunteering, organizing, and candidate selection for 2019. A lot of people were expecting the unsuccessful challengers to run in 2021 will be surprised to find them running provincially in 2019.

So to recap, I don't see a lot of true blue PC's leaving to join the AB Party, atleast not those who voted PC or WRP in 2015. However I do see AB Liberals and moderate NDP supporters moving to AB Party.

[240glt]

^ I'm not sure if I agree, but my impressions are based on the media's reporting of the conference in Red Deer, and who seems to be popping up in support of the AP on social media. There may be a smattering of liberals there, but that's really not a lot of people here in Alberta

I think you're way off in suggesting moderate NDP'ers are jumping to the AP. I think the moderate NDP'ers are actually quite happy with the current government. It's the more ideological, less pragmatic NDP supporters that are probably not happy.. and those folks are going to be even less happy with the AP. As a moderate NDP member myself, that's how I see it.

[canucklehead2]

The latest poll on Alberta politics show a tightening race with the NDP about 9% off their result in 2015 and the combined C-U-P (as I am calling it since a rather large subset of their base seems obsessed with the genitals of others) down and dropping... So really it will come down to the soft supporters who may have voted NDP and PC in the past and could be persuaded by any number of election promises made... https://insightswest.com/news/albert...litical-scene/

[Calgarian]

So a UCP MLA just likened marijuana legalization to the communist revolution in China. These guys are fucking brutal, this is just a bigger, dumber version of the Wild Rose Party.
https://globalnews.ca/news/3889241/a...st-revolution/

[canucklehead2]

Lolz, the comedic gravy train just keeps on coming. That's what you get when you let just anybody become a politician and you vote blindly. I'm still for anybody running however I do think all candidates should take a basic skills and history test as well as fill out a four-quadrant political opinion survey so everyone knows their candidates believes on everything from the get go... Otherwise, you get hysterical reactionaries saying Trump/Palin levels of ignorance. This only furthers the cause that the only real option to keep Alberta as the fastest growing jurisdiction in the fastest growing nation in the G7 (look it up haters) is to vote NDP...

[Cage]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ I'm not sure if I agree, but my impressions are based on the media's reporting of the conference in Red Deer, and who seems to be popping up in support of the AP on social media. There may be a smattering of liberals there, but that's really not a lot of people here in Alberta

I think you're way off in suggesting moderate NDP'ers are jumping to the AP. I think the moderate NDP'ers are actually quite happy with the current government. It's the more ideological, less pragmatic NDP supporters that are probably not happy.. and those folks are going to be even less happy with the AP. As a moderate NDP member myself, that's how I see it.

My impressions of the AB Party conference in Red Deer are formed by the over 50 people I know who made the trek to RD, most on the same bus. I Also looked at a tonne of twitter photos to see who is in the picture.

So when I talk about the Federal Liberal Party of Canada invading the AB Party, this is really through the Calgary political scene lens. Most of the faces I saw in photos from the RD event are the war room staff, volunteers, and campaign organizers.

I find social media photos to be better than mass media photos. If you're a political operative or even just veteran of one political campaign; you know how to avoid getting in the background of mass media photos. This is much harder to do with social media photos.

When I say moderate NDPers are jumping ship to AB Party, I'm talking about Calgary based support. I don't have any insight into Edmonton or rural AB. In Calgary, a lot of moderate NDP see themselves getting wiped out in 2019. The suburban Calgary electorate is mostly looking at 2015 as a big gigantic mistake that can only be fixed with a flux capacitor carrying Delorean going 88 mph.

That is why moderates like Karen McPherson are going from NDP to AB Party. This is a response to the civic election results where very conservative Jason Kenny supporter candidates were elected in the same communities that went
NDP in 2015. The same analysis of civic election results is why Ric Fraser (elected PC, now independent) is hesitant to become the 3rd AB Party MLA. Fraser's riding mirrors most of ward 14, which voted 86% to UCP/Kenny supported Peter Demong.

[PPAR]

I doubt the NDP is too concerned about suburban seats in Calgary SW. They know those are gone in the next election. I suspect they will run a campaign with 45 ridings in mind and prey that the UCP continues to play to their base. They will have a legitimate shot of holding the Edmonton area and urban/ NE Calgary. Problem is that Kenny is a smart politician. It will take him loosing control of the message for the NDP to dominate the urban moderates. I think that is their only path to victory. They need a lot more of “the southern Alberta Cancer Centre is just a fancy box” from disconnected MLAs in order to survive.

[canucklehead2]

Kenney isn't smart, but he does play the role of puppet well... We all know the $1.5M spent on securing his leadership was bought and paid for by Koch Industries. Then again they are also their own worst enemy with almost a weekly Trump-like outburst from their "leadership"... Its fast becoming a Trump vs HRC rerun all over again and we all know how that's gonna end...

[adam-machiavelli]

I see voter turnout in the Calgary-Lougheed riding is way up from 2015. Anyone seen any by-election polls?

[itom 987]

I hope they don't vote for Jason Kenney.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Two comments:

First, the change to require overtime be paid rather than banked sucks. I had not idea the Provincial Gov't was changing this as well.

Second, can someone explain to me how Nenshi has raised taxes? He is one vote on council and as far as I know business taxes were not raised by him and him alone. They did go up but as I understand it that is due to how they are assessed and have nothing to do with anything specific Nenshi has done. Like he has the power to anyhow.

"Restaurant owners are also hit with new rules that forbid employers or employees to bank hours for a day off in lieu. Now if a waiter works overtime, they must be paid, time-and-a-half, rather than get extra time off later."

Anyone know if this also applies to salaried employees?

[240glt]

Anyone know if this also applies to salaried employees?

Doubt it.

I get paid for 40 but work a hell of a lot more than that.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

"Restaurant owners are also hit with new rules that forbid employers or employees to bank hours for a day off in lieu. Now if a waiter works overtime, they must be paid, time-and-a-half, rather than get extra time off later."

Anyone know if this also applies to salaried employees?

Not according to our HR department when they presented the updated legislation to us. And interestingly they also said time off could continue to be banked but at a rate of 1.5:1 rather than the old 1:1.

[Corndogger]

Kenney cruises to victory in Calgary-Lougheed byelection

Premier Notley, I look forward to meeting you in the legislature.

James Wood James Wood

Published on: December 14, 2017 | Last Updated: December 14, 2017 10:52 PM MST

Jason Kenney continued his steamroller run through Alberta politics Thursday, easily winning the Calgary-Lougheed byelection and setting his sights on Premier Rachel Notley.

The United Conservative Party leader was the heavy favourite in the race — triggered by the resignation of UCP MLA Dave Rodney to make way for Kenney — and unofficial results showed the former federal cabinet minister with 71.5 per cent of the vote and a nearly 6,000-vote lead over the NDP’s Phillip van der Merwe.

van der Merwe, a family doctor, finished a faraway second with 16.5 per cent of the vote, while Liberal Leader David Khan was in third with 9.3 per cent of the tally.

The byelection marks the fourth major win for Kenney in the past nine months, following his victory in the Progressive Conservative leadership in March, successful referendums on uniting the PC and Wildrose parties this summer, and his triumph in the UCP leadership race in October.

Full story at: http://calgaryherald.com/news/politi...eed-byelection