Things that make me go hmmm?

Me this morning. Me every morning. Source: who knows.

Hi faithful readers of five. I'm here at work (not technically working), watching the snowmageddon arrive in my fair city. I feel like making random comments/questions/musings/ramblings about the world-at-large (mostly political). The things that make me go hmmmm.....

• I have heard the Progressive Conservatives of Alberta describe the Wild Rose Party of Alberta as extremists. If that is the case, then why did you let that element rest in your party for 30+ without censure, constraint or expulsion? Don't you have yourselves to blame for the party that emerged? Hmmmmm....
• I have heard the Wild Rose Party of Alberta describe the Progressive Conservatives as corrupt. Really? You sure enjoyed the hand that fed you for 30+ years without complaint. I guess as long as you don't get to share in the pork, then it's an issue. Hmmmm....
• Interesting debates about meals costs for politicians and health care executives. On some instances, sure the complaints are legitimate. But do we honestly think that you can have a meal for two under $50.00 in Edmonton anymore? Do people think that they should go for meals to McDonald's? Hmmm.....
• If I hear one more squawk about how awful the National Energy Policy was for Alberta in the 80's, immabout to lose my sh*t. First off, can we all deliberately ignore what was going on in the rest of the world that probably had a larger effect on the price of oil and gas? Also, it's been 30+ years. Policies have come and gone. Alberta is doing more than fine now. In fact, are we not now pushing for a national energy policy by our own conservative/federal conservative government? You can call it under any name you want now, but it is essentially the same type of policy. Hmmm......
• Let's stop pretending that any vote for Justin Trudeau as a leader of the Liberal Party of Canada is because of any policy ideas he is putting forth, and more to do with the fact that he is a Trudeau, and a handsome one at that. Hmmmm....
• On that note, how long will it take before anyone in the Liberal Party of Canada realize that Marc Garneau is the best possible leader of the current hopefuls? Will it be too late? Hmmmm....
• Why do we complain about how early Christmas music is released onto the public? I remember Christmas music blaring in the malls in November when I was a kid. So why are we all acting like this is some sort of new phenomenon? Hmmmm....
• Why do we treat Advent like Lent? It is not the same. One is a joyful period of anticipation. The other is a solemn period of anticipation. While we are always to be mindful and reflective of our interior selves, we don't need to treat Advent like a funeral. Hmmmm....
• How much privacy and platform changes will we truly accept from Facebook before enough truly becomes enough? Hmmmm.....
• Can we all agree that TWITTER = Total Waste (of) Intellect, Time, Talent, Energy and Resources? So let's stop pretending that we are intellects in 140 characters. Hmmmm.....
• For that matter, why do people act like self-proclaimed experts on all subjects on social media? Hey, I can pull a quote from a Google search too. A fact doesn't always trump a viewpoint based on personal experiences. Let's stop pretending our "facts" don't stem from a personal bias. I can hunt down any "fact" to support my bias too. Hmmmmm.....
• Can we all stop pretending that Gordon Lightfoot's performance at the CFL half-time show was any good? I get it. He is a legend. But it was not good. He needs to retire his guitar. Hmmmm....
• Speaking of not good, did the organizers of the CFL half-time show really think that those who like Justin Bieber would become fans of the CFL? Are you kidding me? Do you know the audience this boy attracts? More importantly, do you know your audience?  Hmmm....
• On that note, whoever decided that Gordon Lightfoot and Justin Bieber would be good CFL half-time entertainment should have tossed that plan in the garbage and booked Rush and Trooper. Surely they aren't busy these days? Hmmmmm....
• Now that Nascar, Baseball and CFL are over, sports TV suckssssssss! Hmmmmmmm......
• Is there anything good on TV anymore that doesn't involve "reality" TV and singing/dancing/food competitions? Hmmmm.......
• Why can't I get frozen borscht from the grocery aisle? Hmmmm....
• If men celebrate Movember for prostate cancer research, can I propose that women celebrate Janu-hairy for ovarian cancer research? I will gladly not shave my legs for a month. Hmmm......
• I will say this once: please stop playing Last Christmas by Wham EVERY FREAKING HOUR. It is stupid. Replace Christmas with any word and the song applies. "Last Ramadan, I gave you my heart...", "Last election day, I gave you my heart..." Adding the word Christmas randomly does not a Christmas song make. Hmmmm....
• For that matter, I'm tired of radio stations switching to an all Christmas music format. Can't you just slip some Christmas songs in between Careless Whisper and Boys of Summer? Hmmm....

There you go. I sound kind of angry. I am a bit owly today. I blame waking up. I had a nice warm blanket, was in dream land, and then woke up to an alarm clock with Christmas music. Bastard world!

Dani wades into politics...does she drown or float?

Hello my faithful readers of 5. It's blog time. (a.k.a. I'm sick and bored out of my tree, and possibly picking for a fight...one that I will have no energy to actually fight back, thus rendering this post useless. But I digress.)

This has been an interesting election to say the least. The Alberta PC Party has been the monarchy government in power since well before I was born. I honestly thought I would die before they were ever remotely close to loosing power. The Alberta Liberal Party has been the official ghost opposition for just as long, with the Alberta New Democrat Party hanging on for dear life.

Then some weird things started to happen.

• Cowboys and rig pigs started getting pissed off at their PC party for moving to the center, so every single slight from royalty taxes to land rights started to become a bone of contention. In response, they voted Allison Redford, who kinda looks like she belongs to the Liberal Party (through a screwy system in which the 3rd place candidate became the leader.)
• Middle class white collar liberals started fracturing because of lack of leadership, vision, and fatigue at constantly sailing on the Titanic. So some left and formed The Alberta Party, which is what you get when you merge a Liberal and a Conservative...I think? So how did the Liberals respond? They elected to their leadership someone who used to be a PC Conservative party member, who quite frankly is a odd-ball who has great one liners, but shaky policy promises.
• The NDP carried on as always, appealing to the hippies, students, and eco-warriors, continuing to be led by a blue-collar worker (who doesn't have the support of actual blue-collar workers) who has led the party down in seats after every election.
• Remember those pissed-off cowboys and rig pigs? Well they got attracted to a shiny new party, the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta. They elect someone who is a self-professed Libertarian to lead the socially conservative group, one that make's the PC's look like New Democrats. In the process, they nominated a pastor who hates gays, a man who thinks he's pretty fly for a white guy, and a member who likes to rub elbows with the KKK.

So are we clear? We have a liberal leading the conservatives, a conservative leading the liberals, a blue-collar worker leading the hippies, and a libertarian leading the conservative party, and a new liberal party led by another conservative.

You have a party that has ruled, unchallenged, for so long that they have ignored and pissed-off their base, and sometimes reek of corruption. You have a shiny new party with good fiscal policies, but scary-as-shit candidates running on scary-as-shit social issues. You have a party that has been destroyed by a scary-as-shit conservative pretending to be a liberal. You have a party that has no hope in hell of winning in this province because of good social policy but crazy-bad fiscal policy. And you have another shiny new party made up of mostly former liberals pretending to be Red Tory's. 

What this election has come down to is change.What kind of change do we want?

I will say a few personal thoughts:

• Change for the sake of change isn't a great reason to change. I don't think the PC government had operated as badly as some claim, but I don't think they've governed as well as they should have. If they do get elected back into power, let's hope they remember how close they came to losing it all, and get back to being a government, not a monarchy. *Note: I like monarchy's, but only the royal kind...not the political kind*
• On that same note, as scary as some of the candidates are, I don't think the WRA is as bad as some make them out to be. They do have some good policies. Every time Danielle Smith speaks, I am scared less and less, and more sure that nut-jobs will be tempered. For that matter, as scary as some of the new parties candidates are, we are also the same province that let a government sit in power for 41 years with members who thought the same thing (Ted Morton, Doug Elniski, Tony Abbott etc...). So why the outrage now? If Alberta was ok with nutters for 41 years without speaking out, I suspect they will be ok with nutters for 41 more years....
• Don't discount the other parties. They have good policies, and who ever wins the election amongst the two leading conservatives party, it would behoove that leader to sit down with these other parties and cherry-pick the best they have to offer. It makes sense.

Despite the craziness, I think everyone should vote. But instead of voting strategically, vote for who you truly believe in, and let the election be a true reflection of Alberta's views. It may surprise people in ways they didn't suspect and lead to a better balance of power amongst all parties.

Also, one final note: I know we are tempted in social media to use it like a bully field, tweeting punches left and right. I know we can get upset about issues, people, viewpoints. But remember that we are all human. No one person is one-dimensional. Allan Hunsperger is also a caring family man, father, husband, grandfather who does mission work in third world countries, and served his community in good faith for many years, and maybe in the fullness of time will come to see the error of his thinking by meeting people of the LGBQT community.

People vote for parties for many different reasons. A vote for the PC's does not necessarily mean a vote for pay nothing committees. A vote for the WRA does not necessarily mean a vote for bigotry. A vote for the NDP does not necessarily mean a vote for stricter environment regulations.

We all have our views. We all have our issues that are important to us. And we vote accordingly. If the vote doesn't turn out your way, people aren't stupid. They are informed on the issues important to them, which don't necessarily mean the issues important to you.