Calgary is the new Edmonton

Many political observers are claiming that Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and his Conservative government received a wake-up call in Tuesday night's by election victory by Liberal Craig Chiffins in the Ralph Klein's former riding of Calgary-Elbow. However, it could be as easily said that with Klein's personality cult retreating into obscurity, Calgary Elbow voters finally woke up from their 14 year slumber of selfish ignorance and realized that what used to be "Ralph's Team" isn't worth rooting for anymore.

This page had the misfortune of living in Calgary for most of the Klein era, when the city drifted from the promise of a cosmopolitan post-1988 Olympic legacy to being crafted in the former Premier's bullying, alcoholic, misogynist image. Today's shiny new Calgary Liberal voters didn't seem to have a problem with Klein's government blowing up the Calgary General Hospital, punting the University of Calgary to the bottom of national rankings, bashing the rapidly-growing homeless population (who were served by more privatized liquor stores than shelters), and cheering on its union-busting propaganda arm, the Calgary Herald during the newsroom strike of 1999/2000. For some reason, poor government is only an issue for these people when the economy is doing well, as opposed to when their government was lying about a phantom deficit crisis.

In 1986, the Alberta New Democrats swept Edmonton because Don Getty's Conservatives didn't appear to give a rat's ass about what was going on the provincial capital. Does Chiffins' victory foretell a similar sweep the next time down the electoral road, and will that mean real change for Albertans? This page doubts it: the Alberta Liberals reached their electoral peak in 1993 with 30 seats on the promise of "brutal cuts" vs. the Conservatives "massive cuts". I am sure RevMod Don will jump in at some point and claim that Kevin Taft isn't Gordon Campbell. I'm familiar with Mr. Taft's outstanding academic work in analysing and debunking the redneck reactionary bullsh*t that passes for government policy among our neighbours to the east, but he's still leading a Liberal Party in Alberta. Besides, at one time, Gordon Campbell wasn't Gordon Campbell either.