In terms of actual concrete action, I forsee nothing will be done about the other 9 questions. However, the 50-some percent yes questions will be a convenient basis for Danielle Marlaina Smith to continue with the “blame Ottawa for our problems” game.
Maybe we need to start considering that Ottawa is a large part of Alberta’s problems, I mean, Ottawa keeps on giving the UCP exactly what it asks for. Things might be better if Alberta if Ottawa actually treated the province the way the conservatives claim they do.
I hate this framing so much. The nine questions were intentionally designed to appear rational to the average person at first glance and were improperly presented to voters by the very nature of their framing.
It’s NINE QUESTIONS. The Forever Canadian campaign solely focussed on Question 10, other campaigns focussing on the other nine questions as well had a MASSIVE uphill climb for educating voters on those questions and why they were either deceiving or generally poor choices, WHILE having much less reach. Had voters been properly educated on these questions and had Question 10 not acted as a cover for the importance of the other nine, I’m 100% certain the votes wouldn’t have swayed the same way they did.
But hey, let’s just go ahead and keep framing Albertans as everything bad in the book, not include nuance, and then somehow claim that you’re in favour of unity when you get clicks off an inflammatory title against people who live here, while burying the facts of the wording of the questions over twenty paragraphs deep in your article. It’s also so rich of Rachel Gilmore to go ahead and say this blanket statement as if she isn’t publishing this story on a platform infamous for making a profit in platforming white nationalists and neo-nazis.
Temporary Albertan here. There isn’t a lot of love for immigrants here… It’s Canada’s Texas.
“Temporary Albertan here”
Congrats, I’ve been here all my life, and I know plenty of people that are the opposite way. There’s literally multiple non-profits to support immigrants both in Edmonton and Calgary, and while yes, you get the asshole here and there that’s generally racist, people are more frustrated at things like the LMIA program than they truly are at immigrants.
Are you suggesting that a significant portion of the people who voted for racism, didn’t understand the questions, or thought they were answering yes to questions they didn’t understand?
Which is it, is Alberta proudly racist or is Alberta stupid as fuck?
I find this hilarious that people throw people here in no-win situations constantly where when you’re not being labelled as both simultaneously, you have to choose one or the other.
Like I’m not over here calling Ontarians a bunch of idiots for electing Rob Ford, Nova Scotians for Tim Houston, or British Columbians for the polling Conservatives are having there, and yet because “it’s Alberta” it’s justified to blanket insult people here constantly.
You’re blatantly ignoring context in order to score cheap and easy points online because “Alberta bad” is easy and popular. People are rightfully frustrated that they can’t find a job and that the federal government is doing nothing about blatant LMIA abuse by companies for entry-level positions or positions that they can’t fill because of blatant underpaying wages. They’re frustrated that they see news stories of international students using food banks to cut their costs, and aren’t provided proper context by the media at large of the federal government’s failing to properly inform those students of what it costs to get by here. The questions were also clearly framed to make things sound rational.
Being misled is not the same as being outright stupid, and if you want to go ahead and claim that it is, then I fundamentally disagree with you. All these cheap insults do is fan people’s thoughts of western alienation in a time where we’re supposed to be unifying.
They are still racists, but they are our racists.
