I refuse to believe that the people of Alberta are as socially conservative and right wing as their political representation suggests. I do not believe that the people of Alberta would take away a woman’s right to control her body, or is genuinely opposed to gay and lesbian lifestyles and their right to marry, or support the reckless destruction of the environment, or as anti-union as their politicians are…but that’s who represents them.
I think the support that the Conservatives enjoy in Alberta is mainly due to political convenience. The current Prime Minister is from Alberta, and the Conservative party in its current form can trace its roots to the Reform Party movement that almost is exclusively an Alberta phenomenon.
But the Conservative party ideology is hardly progressive, its hardly even mainstream. There may be pockets of hard core social conservatism, but largely, the nation – including Alberta, is progressive.
There needs to be a concerted effort to unmask the Conservatives IN Alberta (and the Prarie provinces) as about as un-Canadian as the Repubicans in America that Stephen Harper’s party got most of its training and knowledge.
