Wow. What a dramatic finish. The rednecks were squealing with anticipation. The beer was on ice.
The Big Oil Barbie was so sure she would win.
But in the end the old wild hog couldn't make it up the hill of its own excrement and bigotry.
Not that Dani is sorry about anything eh? She's unrepentant.
Smith said she has no regrets for not taking a harder line on the anti-gay and racist sentiments of two candidates.“I received a lot of phone calls from our own candidates saying how grateful they were that I didn’t throw these two candidates under the bus at the first sign of trouble,” Smith told the Sun.
Gawd. How depressing. When will she ever learn?
In 2012, you can’t go around warning that homosexuals will burn in hell, as one Wildrose candidate did, or that ethnic minorities can only speak to their own kind, as another did.
You especially cannot, as Ms. Smith did, defend such comments as a matter of religious conscience, or something that can be taken care of with a quick and only half-hearted apology.
Oh, and trying to reframe the abortion issue or those who oppose gay marriage in the context of “conscience rights” doesn’t appear to go down well either. Canada is a wonderful country and Alberta is a wonderful province. We don’t just talk an open, tolerant and inclusive society, we vote it.
Oh well. At least it was quite a spectacle. The Harper Cons were devastated.
Members of Stephen Harper's Alberta caucus, some of whom loudly backed the upstart Wildrose party, watched the provincial election in stunned disbelief, according to insiders."It's pretty much an open wound today," one senior federal Conservative from Alberta said Tuesday.
The pollsters looked like fortune tellers or water diviners. The right-wing pundits were eating crow.
Sharing it with others.
And of course Ezra Levant and Stephen Taylor were left looking ridiculous.
"Eating crow isn't that bad, if it's deep-fried," tweeted Ezra Levant, Sun TV's hyper-partisan host. "Table for 2. Sigh," responded Stephen Taylor of the right-wing National Citizens Coalition.
Again.
But of course the best news is that maybe, just maybe, a new Alberta is stirring. One where a lot of people have apparently decided that they don't want want their province to be seen as a happy hunting ground for racists and anti-gay bigots. Or a far-right firewall petro state closed off to the rest of Canada. Or waging war on it.
And I'm starting to think that this ad was more effective than I first thought...
Because I now think its subliminal message, at least to younger Albertans, was it's bad enough if they hate us, but if they start laughing at us it's OVER.
Oh yeah I forgot. You know made made the Wild Hog belly flop even MORE enjoyable than watching the Cons freak out, or Andrew Coyne eat crow?
Answer: Wondering whether Dr Tom "Strangelove" Flanagan, the Wild Hog campaign manager, ended this horror movie.
The same way he ended the other one...
Because we all know how that one ended eh?
In the Lake of Fire.
Buh bye Wild Hog bigots.
Here's to the New Alberta...
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7 comments:
One can only hope a new Alberta is on the horizon however I wont hold my breath until the province stops electing Harper Conservatives to the Federal Parliament. As long as that keeps happening, and Albertan's think right wing fetus fetish having, privacy intruding, gay rights hating xenophobes have their interests at heart, Canada will remain in the right wing quagmire it's in.
Attention now turns to Christy Clark who is entertaining a name change to shake things up a bit. She doesn't want to be branded a left wing liberal and all, as if her party ever were anything close to liberal. She's deluded enough to think the polls all lie and she will win a landslide victory next spring. Good luck with that.
The thing I found frustrating about this campaign was the amount of labelling of Albertans that I saw. Not everyone here is a hick or a red neck.. The province is the most urbanized in the country. I think its character has been changing and will continue to change given the levels of inter-provincial migration. I think there is a fierce independence streak here (in the non-separation sense) that will always be there and I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. My sense is that a lot of people are growing tired with the Conservative status quo. A lot of ridings where the PCs won were not blow outs as in past elections. Unfortunately with the collapse of the Left the only realistic option was an even more Conservative party.
I do admire how so many parties have been created out here, whether people agree with them or not, from the old CCP to the Reform Party. I wish my home province of Ontario had this same spirit and drive.
hi Ryan...I understand how you feel. And Alberta still has a long way to go before it's a progressive province. But I liked the way they turned their backs on the Wild Hog Party, so I think that's a hopeful sign...
hi bcwaterboy...as I think I told you before. When I first visited BC and was told that the Liberals were the conservatives, and the Sun was the more progressive paper, my head practically exploded. So yes I hope the Clark Con Liberals change their name, because it is confusing. Or fraud. And clearly the only progressive party in BC is the NDP...
hi Way Way Up...I think I know how you feel too. It's never good to generalize, but unfortunately the Wild Rose party didn't help with the labelling problem, as it only reinforced those stereotypes, and made the province look more backward than it really is. But I have to admit, that although she's a conservative, I was quite impressed with Redford. She seems like a decent lady, she speaks French, I liked a lot of what she said, and I hope she can build some bridges to the rest of Canada. And I think you're right, as more people from the rest of the country move to the province it will become a more progressive place. And that would be good for everyone...
Simon, I haven't met Redford personally but I know people who have and they've all told what a genuine caring and passionate person she is.....words I don't think many of us would associate with most politicians these days.
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