The return of "Redmonton"

Not going to lie, I want this to happen.

338Canada.com

Well, well, well. It looks like I am this close to having to sing Edmonton’s praises. That’s not to say Calgary isn’t helping — it is — but Edmonton appears poised to, ahem, paint the town red.

There’s still two weeks left of the campaign to lead Canada through what is expected to be difficult days, possibly years, ahead with Donald Trump mucking around with the global economy and wreaking absolute havoc with his own.

As CPC leader Pierre Poilievre tries to get the public over the perception of him being terribly unlikeable — since he spent his two decades in office going out of his way to be unlikeable — and Liberal leader Mark Carney holding the only hope to defeat an incredible number of equally unlikeable CPC candidates, I’ve been focused on the city in Alberta that was once called “Redmonton”.

I’m a Calgary girl, it’s true, but Edmonton is not without its charms. Mostly, the charm is the people; and the heritage, which is a slightly different take on the same one Calgary has but with better costume options.

Edmonton has the ability to make centre left-leaning look rebellious and I cannot help but respect that. Because I spent more time in rural and Calgary generally, Edmonton once seemed like a wild west of its own but the kind that was willing to blaze a trail rather than just have a shoot-out at the corrals.

Forgive my fangirling here, but I’ve mainly lived in rural ridings where conservatives win 70 per cent of the vote. So, yes, the grass looks a little greener there, but I have also developed an aversion to dealing with more traffic lights than I can count on my fingers (and I have all mine).

There are trade-offs.

When I think of Edmonton, I generally think of my badass girlfriends who are fabulous, fearless, outspoken women and the many people who support all of us as we have made our way through the political wilderness to find one another.

I suppose it’s fair to say those are my favourite people all over this province, but when it comes to elections, Edmontonians seem to be more united in their willingness to buck the trend of the rest of the province when it suits them.

And in an election this important, it is apparently suiting them quite well.

That’s not to say I’m discounting the conservative party — that would be a foolish thing to do in Alberta — most of the races in Edmonton are tossups, save the NDP stronghold of Edmonton Strathcona.

Voter turnout will matter just as much this election as it does every other, and since most of the races in each of those ridings are incredibly close, one can’t make any assumptions on how they’ll play out.

Little has changed since last week

Little movement still favours the Liberals, from what I can tell. I feel like there’s still some soft CPC support that is waiting for something big to turn the tides but if it doesn’t happen, they’ll move their votes.

I know few want to hear it but I feel the same about what’s left of the NDP support as well. There is absolutely dedicated votes for both parties, like the Liberals, that wouldn’t move no matter what, but if neither looks like they’ve improved after this weekend, I think it’s safe to say people will still move their votes to the party who looks like it might win.

I’m sorry to say that it’s how some people vote. It’s really no better or worse than those who will never give up on their party of choice; it’s just the way it is.

One slight change that the nation’s US propaganda media arm columnists are all yelling foul over is when a CBC journalist, who was down in Washington this week, asked whether Donald Trump’s position on Canada had changed over the past few weeks.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied that nothing had changed, the lack of 51st state rhetoric was simply due to the fact that no one had asked.

Conservatives have tried to keep Trump the Terrible out of the electorate’s mind because they know it doesn’t help them. It’s an odd path because one thing that conservatives are really good at is dialing up fear; but apparently it’s only for things that aren’t real.

Take the carbon tax for example. There was a fairly steady narrative that the carbon tax was to blame for increased grocery prices. Yet, as of April 1 the carbon tax no longer applies. I’ve gone shopping since April 1; if anything has changed, it’s that prices have continued to rise.

There was also Mr. Harper’s “tough on crime” agenda back in 2011 that Mr. Poilievre has decided to take on as well. Imagine my surprise when, as a student in a criminology concentration, I learned that the most statistical likelihood of being a victim of crime was not mom and pop, or a family living in the suburbs, but young men aged 18 to 24. The people who tend to show up and vote, however, are statistically more likely to be fearful of being victims of crime.

The point is simply that they seem to have no problem fear-mongering over imagined threats but the moment an actual threat arises, they go silent. It boggles the mind.

I don’t know the socioeconomic make up of every province, but I do have a better understanding of my own and it’s just another reason that I’ve put my faith in Edmonton this election; we’re a highly educated province that isn’t nearly as gullible as those who would seek to use manipulation need us to be.

City of Champions still

It’s not just that I’m hoping “Redmonton” can be a thing again, or that I can quip at least one more time that they painted the town red; I want Alberta to be part of the solution.

We have a premier who can’t stop taking the offensively defensive position with Ottawa and who has gone out of her way to demonstrate she’ll only work in good faith with her ideological peers. That’s not leadership, it’s isolationist, and she’s taking the province down with her.

Federal leaders have admitted they didn’t always get it right with Alberta’s provincial leaders, but our provincial leadership could benefit from brushing that chip off their shoulder.

Or, trying what the MAGA-aligned Alberta Premier calls a “diplomatic approach” that she has thus far reserved solely for a hostile foreign administration whose leader has belittled our resources, our economic contribution, and our citizenship.

No, that guy, who actually does all of the things the Alberta Premier and her like-deluded ilk like to say the liberals do, gets “diplomacy”. So many of us are bemused by this behaviour. Is this really what they think rural Alberta wants? I live here and I know it’s not as popular as they’d like to believe.

I’m one hundred per cent behind those areas that can send some representatives to Ottawa to work with them on our behalf because we can’t rely on the UCP to do it.

I’m just thankful Edmonton, and Calgary, can step up for the rest of us. I’m also hearing Edmonton clinched their playoff spot again this year.

It’s like they’re rubbing it in being all flexible voters and getting another playoff season.

*insert Wayne and Garth “we’re not worthy” GIF here*

I’m mostly kidding. We love Edmonton, they’re just different sometimes.

But as the iconic Phil Connors said upon finally waking up to the third of February, “anything different is good.”

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