11.29.2006

Alberta sinks even further to the right

Just when you thought Alberta politics may be returning to common sense after their home team (Stephen Harper and the Conservatives) won the last federal election, University of Calgary professor/right wing nutbar Ted Morton gathers the support fo enough angry white men still traumatized by the National Energy Program and Same Sex Marriages to get within striking distance of the Premier's office.

Morton's strength has caught a few observers off guard, including this page's Alberta correspondent, Don from Revolutionary Moderation. Many had predicted a much better result for Jim Dinning, whose organization and endorsements easily outstripped the other front-runners. While Don believes a Morton victory might be a long-term boost to the remnants of a left wing in Alberta, this page believes that Premier Morton will cement our eastern neighbours as the Alabama of the North and threaten national unity more than having to stay after school and write out "Quebec is a Nation" 500 hundred times. Any and all true progressives in Alberta are invited to contact this page about relocation opportunities to the more comfortable political climate of British Columbia.

This page had the opportunity to study in the Political Science department at the University of Calgary, so I know the effect that Morton had on people like Ezra Levant, Jason Kenney, and the Prime Minister. Imagine that effect on an Alberta Tory machine that permeates every aspect of public life. Morton can seal the deal this weekend if he continues to play to the contrarian ignorance of rural Albertans, blames the province's pseudo-problems on "the east", and keeps up the arrogant tough-guy posturing. If this page wasn't glad I left the Redneck Republic of Alberta years ago, I certainly am now.

2 comments:

Don said...

Caught me by surprise? Hardly! In true Colbert style, I called it five weeks ago. Trust that I'm calling it again when I say that as Premier, if he manages that trick, his reign will be brief and noteworthy only in the sense that Harry Strom's was noteworthy - as the man who gave away what his party owned for decades.

Andrew W. said...

Hey, thanks for mentioning just where Morton fits in vis a vis the whole Calgary School of neo-liberstraussian economics.

I think it's something that only people who studied at U of C, or who knew people who did, who are aware of the cult-like influence Morton and Flanagan have had on a good number of prominent Calgary-based conservatives.