Gerrymandering is alive and well in Alberta politics
By Lethbridge Herald on May 11, 2024.
Editor:
What is gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is “the managing of electoral district boundaries to ensure that a specific outcome occurs”. It’s a $50 word for “the fix is in.”
In the U.S. of the 1800s, gerrymandering was used to ensure that Black votes were discounted and Black candidates were not elected . How about Alberta in the 2020’s?
The Edmonton Journal recently ran a feature on “Tory-mandering” . They took a look at three ridings which are traditionally NDP.
Edmonton-South and Edmonton-Ellerslie both have about 68,000 constituents, and Edmonton-South West has almost 66,000.
Now how about three rural ridings which are UCP? Lesser Slave Lake has 26,715 constituents, Central Peace-Notley has 27,155 and Drumheller-Stettler has 40,065.
In plain language: In these rural ridings, the Journal found that it takes about half as many voters to elect a UCP MLA as it does for an NDP MLA to be elected in Edmonton.
This was wrong in the USA in the 1800’s – and it’s wrong in Alberta in the 21st century.
Leslie Lavers
Lethbridge
12-11
…more of the “authoritarian force in Alberta.” We should not be allowing this toxic political behavior to be normalized.
“Why the UCP is a Threat to Democracy. Political scientist Jared Wesley makes the case. And explains how Albertans can push back.”
http://www.thetyee.ca
our democracy has been eroded by the likes of gerrymandering, lobbying, sticking to first past the post rather than rep by pop (thus, “majority” govts based on as little as 38% support of the votes cast; first past the post is fine with a two party system, but canada has had a multiparty system for generations now), utter lack of transparency, campaign “promises” made but far too often not delivered, forced through legislation that was never given a mandate by the voter, massive omnibus bills that have become the norm whereby very many laws are forced to be voted on as an entirety and not separately, lack of laws and enforcement where corruption and illegality exist….
Last summer I had a Rural Albertan farmer tell me Rural Albertans only vote conservative but he couldn’t explain why they are falling for these Reform Party lies while they are pretending they are conservatives and there is nothing conservative about them. He couldn’t explain that. In other words any fool can hide behind the word conservative and that’s good enough for them.
As I pointed out not only did Ralph Klein help the Packing Plants screw the beef producers out of millions of dollars during the BSE.crisis and allowed the foreign markets to close with his Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up Stupidity he allowed the oil industry to pollute their land with abandon oil wells, making their land virtually worthless if they want to sell it and retire, and dumped the cost of cleanup onto the backs of their children. He gave them the highest power bills in Canada, the highest properly taxes, the highest vehicle registration fees, the highest vehicle insurance premiums, highest licensing fees for new drivers and even the highest liquor prices, so why would you be foolish and support that?
Now these Reformers under Jason Kenny and Danielle Smith have wasted billions more while they continue to give away billions in royalties and corporate taxes making it impossible to fund the municipalities properly and when Trudeau helps them survive she wants to stop it because it make her look like a damn fool for accusing him of stealing all our money when he obviously isn’t.
So while these ignorant Rural Albertans find it smart to allow themselves to be treated like morons those of us true conservatives aren’t that dumb and while we try to put a stop to it we get called all sorts of names for not being as gullible as them. Who are they hurting the most? Their children and our children and grandchildren of course. I wonder why more and more people are calling them red neck hillbillies because that’s the impression they give, easy to fool and easy to trick and boy do these Reformers love them , Danielle Smith knew where to elected, didn’t she?
It also takes half as many members to elect an NDP MLA in rural ridings so what is your point. Lol.
But you didn’t notice how easy it is to fool Rural Albertans? Danielle Smith knew it, why haven’t you figured it out? As I said they haven’t been smart enough to tell the difference between a Reformer and a True Conservative like you have proven time after time that you’re no different, right?
Point is, once the NDP get the unions on board and other government dole parasites on board , they could care less about producing a palpable brand for rural Albertans, Reformers or what ever you want to call them in your continued rants, the NDP does nothing but cry and whine about issues, and it has no appeal. In other words they could care less about anyone outside their ideology. All for them and not the province. They just want someone else to pay the bills for the big contracts and other fantasies.
….while not forgetting that if yourself or one of your loved ones become severely ill and gets, excellent, non-ideological, no-parasitical care from a highly educated and skilled member of United Nurses of Alberta….
Well said. Of course these mindless seniors never think about that, do they? Over a 4 year period I was in hospital on 4 different occasions and had 4 different operations and these unionized nurses couldn’t have treated me any better.
Yeh they are good when you can get one. What other profession has 60% full time employees and the otherb40 copping the good shifts and OT and your health care be damned. Try that on in Education.
What creates extreme left or extreme right parties is a failure to operate successfully in the middle. We dwell on issues that have little to do with governance and a lot to do with religious backgrounds. So how do you operate in a sphere where Religious policy enters politics in a commanding way, only to see the Religious bend the rules of their own faith to accomodate new society?
It has become a game of the “Good Books” of the world governs all, unless of course we find donations drop in which case the “Modified Good Books” now govern the world!
There is no need to wait for “the second coming of Christ” because the theologeons and self righteous are taking “him/her/they/thems place!
We create oppostion where no opposition should occur because the division of church and state should be a clear cut. When church and state are mired in this fog of ill content, you get “benders”. Benders that will mod the “Books” on the fly to accomodate “this moment in history” , they make the assumption the “bend” is permanent, therefore deserved.
You cannot form a society that bends because the benders always seek new bends and bigger bends.
Remaining in power by bending rules has become a dual for all parties at a level not seen for centuries. Wherever an edge can be used it is exploited, the smarter we become to these new trickeries, the dumber we become. Eventually much like the AI generated “beautiful woman” that has a huge following on the Internet, we soon will get AI generated images of what a world wants as a leader and the person behind that image will not have any of the qualities that the AI created.
The greater the interference, the dumber we get!