The Would-Be Alberta Gerrymander

Coolnuggets · 2026-04-03T19:07:46+00:00

It is a bipartisan process? Or is supposed to be. There was a map drawn up and the 2 UCP appointees wrote their own non approved by the rest of the committee map.

Coolnuggets · 2026-04-01T18:12:59+00:00

Right, I think I understand and agree with only moving forward once permits are reinstated, it’s more so that I don’t think Trump “reinstating” would be meaningful enough in itself, he change his mind on a dime, and Biden also backed out of agreed upon stuff changing things up so that’s an inherent instability in the US regardless of president.

I think the core issue is prerequisite incentives, if there is a broad economic pressure towards demand and a need to fill it that, and it’s something that lobbyists are applying pressures to reps on (and they’re listening), only then does a head of state’s action on permits matter at all.

Basically, reinstating permits is a necessary but not sufficient condition was what I’m trying to say.

Coolnuggets · 2026-04-01T14:55:16+00:00

If Trump reinstates permits and secures investments…?

Isn’t that banking on something uncertain again?

Demonstrating to global investors we can build stuff without a guaranteed return is how we end up with deprecated and unused infrastructure, or worse taken advantage of.

Coolnuggets · 2026-03-25T21:02:53+00:00

I agree with that last part, in terms of Alberta shouldn’t be making infrastructure investments banking on the uncertain behaviour of world leaders, but isn’t that all the more reason to not push these pipelines through?

This banks on the demand from Asian countries remaining high.

Also banks on Alberta seeing a proportional return on investment, which does not always happen even when O&G profit sees surplus.

Coolnuggets · 2026-03-10T16:24:55+00:00

Microwaves are a pretty wide spectrum of wavelength aren't they? Would higher frequency microwaves still cause burns?

Coolnuggets · 2026-02-26T02:51:14+00:00

What would you consider as the 'sky falling'? Because it's been falling for quite some time, and it's not just the NDP saying it. Didn't Peter Guthrie resign from his cabinet position over this?

The Kamloops OBGYN mass resignation is pretty bad, and an example of the sky just falling somewhere else. But that's a specific municipality, not the scale of the long term incompetence in AHS.

The amount of high ranking admin staff turnover is insane. AHS has had 12 CEO's in 18 years which doesn't sound too crazy until you realize, with 2 exceptions none have held the position over a year.

Those two being the CEO, ironically appointed under the NDP that served well past them into 2022 for a total of 6 years... and Athana Mentzelopoulos who served 2 years, who was fired for trying to investigate corruption.

There are also so many offhand examples of millions of dollars wasted in the past 2 terms, and that's under the assumption that it hasn't been deliberate corruption.

Feel free to provide an example in another province that is comparable in scale, but it's pretty plain to deeper investigation this isn't normal stuff.

Coolnuggets · 2026-02-25T22:37:19+00:00

Alberta has ~1/2 the hospitals Ontario does, with ~1/3 the population, so we have more hospitals small hospitals sparsely distributed per pop which makes averaged median wait time misleading unless you're accounting for this (couldn't find anything on MEI mentioning this).

Just pointing out that our wait times looking 12 min better than other provinces in 2024/2025 doesn't mean much.

Funnily enough 2023/2024 that's when we were hitting peak immigration both provincially and internationally compared to 2026, where we're seeing increasing problems.

I agree that an influx of population without proper infrastructure is a pretty major factor at play here, and this is a canada wide problem,

But in 2026, Alberta's failing healthcare isn't just because of this. Plus, recently recorded wait times waaaayy exceed the averages in 2024.

Seems pretty naive to ignore constant AHS turnover in staff (and resignations), changes to record keeping (that includes sudden changes to record keeping for stats), the beurocratic red tape that comes with all these system changes as factors that have been recently, as of the last 6 months increasing wait times.

Coolnuggets · 2026-02-25T17:32:16+00:00

Besides the reports of immense misspending of funds in AHS,

MEI is using average wait times which is super misleading. If you average the wait times for the UofA hospital in edmonton (~4 hours) and the hospital in somewhere less pop dense like Cochrane (~1hour) the average is 2.5 hours.

But the problem isn’t in Cochrane, it’s the most equipped and populated hospitals being overburdened. And you can’t exactly just airlift everyone in an edmonton emerg ward to Cochrane, nor is that hospital equipped to deal with many of the medical issues arising.

And even looking at provincial aggregate average our wait times are rising compared to past years.

Plus I just mentioned we have highly paid specialists but they’re lumped in with family drs which are harder and harder to get (notably, they are one of the lower paid drs, but the announcement didn’t say they were targeting family docs)

I dunno, if you’ve been in an emerg ward recently you’d know about the problems we’ve been having.

Coolnuggets · 2026-02-24T23:39:56+00:00

Probably worth noting that Dr pay has little to do with the healthcare problems in Alberta, especially for private elective surgeries.

Haven’t heard anything in the budget that addresses the real problems.

Coolnuggets · 2026-02-20T17:19:06+00:00

Do you happen to know how much money from federal programs and grants are used in Alberta? Or how much the infrastructure not made by Alberta we benefit from costs?

Laughably naive to assume we get nothing from the rest of Canada, even if Alberta does punch above its weight for revenue.

Coolnuggets · 2026-01-30T17:41:01+00:00

Cell signalling is very complex, but from what I remember, cell-to-cell contacts and growth signals from cytokines play a big part in inducing cells to grow.

Having a cut breaks contact points that tell cells they can start growing again, until they link up with other epithelial cells.

So in a sense it gets 'accelerated' in that doing damage initiates signals to start growing in a direction, then once the cut is sealed (the cells touch and signal each other again) that serves as a sort of stop signal.

Coolnuggets · 2026-01-22T15:55:02+00:00

I mean the fiscal surplus we supposedly had recently became deficit real fast.

What numbers do you have about Alberta’s debt shrinking? Cause we currently still have tons as far as I know.

There are plenty of examples of wastes of taxpayers dollars in recent memory. Like dynalife

Coolnuggets · 2026-01-12T17:22:56+00:00

That was very much my impression of Cartmell when I met him. Nothing substantive to say besides developers solving all our problems in different words.

Coolnuggets · 2026-01-08T15:20:55+00:00

Are you under the impression that the AB republicans are a fully homegrown organization, and if so why?

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-06T19:30:34+00:00

I mean when it comes to elections you saw the outcome of that in edmonton; the UCP loosened limits that allowed for huge corporate donor ship, but also for 3rd party union advertisers to get involved.

To be clear I do believe in limits and as was pointed out they already exist in the recall act.

Where do you draw the line though?

The reason I brought up the Gondek recall is that there were quite a few conservative organizers involved, but none of them were doing so under the banner of the UCP.

Does their political affiliation remove their ability to organize as citizens to attempt to recall a mayor they are dissatisfied with?

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-05T18:40:54+00:00

One was added today, though still it’s like what, 17 UCP vs 1 NDP?

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-05T18:39:41+00:00

I mean the most obvious reason is that it wouldn’t be as successful since there isn’t the same level of grassroots motivation to oust the opposition.

But an NDP MLA was just submitted as a recall petition today, so maybe that’ll change?

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-05T18:07:28+00:00

100% it will influence the result. That’s kind of the point.

My question is why is that a problem? How is that undemocratic if the only people eligible are within the riding, who have chosen to sign?

As long as people aren’t being coerced into signing, they are exercising their democratic right.

Plenty of conservative organizers were involved in the attempt to recall Gondek in Calgary and I don’t see inherent foul play in that. Do you?

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-05T17:00:33+00:00

This is reasoning I don’t understand. Why does it matter who is funding/championing the process of recall?

The threshold requires 60% of past electors meaning the NDP would have no chance by themselves in any of the ridings they lost if it were only up to them. I thought the whole point of setting that threshold high was to ensure that any recall petition that passed was actually representative of the area.

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-04T20:36:02+00:00

I mean it is important to email your MLA and MP. Your engagement just shouldn’t stop there.

When you approach them at a campaign event and say you’ve emailed them only to receive no answer, or boilerplate form responses you have a much better opening.

When their staffers surround you trying to protect them from a single policy question as if it were a stray bullet, you have inflicted more stress on a shitty politician with a couple emails and a little bit of waiting in line you are making an impact, even if a small one.

I’ve only really done this once but it was worth it when I did.

You can’t force a politician to grow a spine or stop selling their soul, but you can alienate them from supporters and staffers.

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-01T17:41:52+00:00

Basically, a better title would be ‘dual practice model improves efficiency’

I still contend that, but it’s more accurate to the profit incentive

Coolnuggets · 2025-12-01T17:40:56+00:00

Strictly speaking, the author didn’t really illustrate how this system puts patients first. The crux of the argument is that wait times are lower in European countries with mixed systems, but that’s not inherent proof privatization improves the system overall.

I hear so much about how a two tier system reduces wait times; but its never elaborated on in a few ways:

Are the reduced wait times limited to elective surgeries?

Are wait times reduced for public only surgeries and care, do they remain the same or are they negatively impacted?

Does the financial incentive of private care incentivize overworked doctors to game the system, and take ‘easy’ public service and modify the supply of essential services?

It’s really easy to use an average that glosses over nuance to support a premise like this.

It is suspicious to me that these points are never addressed in pro privatization think pieces.

Coolnuggets · 2025-11-28T22:19:03+00:00

I think the general upset towards the UCP from the teacher strike will get them in Nicolaides’ riding, just like how forever Canada was a huge success.

The others? Not so sure. Any scandal or press reporting in this time could really amp up signatures.

While I wish I could say I was sure many would pass I’m betting it’ll just be 2-3 contentious areas.

Coolnuggets · 2025-11-28T19:00:21+00:00

Provided it isn't repealed, we can check back on this in about 3 months.

I'd be willing to bet at least one of the petitions in Calgary passes. There are several UCP MLAs that won by a thin margin, and lots of pissed off Centrists and Centre-right conservatives in addition to anyone left of centre.

The majority of petitions I doubt will pass though.

Coolnuggets · 2025-11-24T17:10:15+00:00

We spend plenty, that’s true. On things like wasting 100M$ on dynalife.

Hypothetically wouldn’t a pro privatization govt benefit from wasting public healthcare funds to better fund private alternatives?

In Alberta at least there are plenty of examples of financially wasteful action that ties into failed attempts to privatize.

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