Which is more liberal: Alberta or Colorado?
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  Political Geography & Demographics (Moderators: muon2, 15 Down, 35 To Go)
  Which is more liberal: Alberta or Colorado?
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Poll
Question: Which is more liberal: Alberta or Colorado?
#1
Alberta
 
#2
Colorado
 
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Total Voters: 59

Author Topic: Which is more liberal: Alberta or Colorado?  (Read 4394 times)
King of Kensington
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« on: July 21, 2014, 11:12:36 PM »
« edited: July 21, 2014, 11:18:27 PM by King of Kensington »

Canadians seem to like to compare Alberta to Texas: mainly due to the oil industry and the Calgary Stampede, but it's a pretty superficial comparison; Alberta has more in common with Alaska than it does with Texas and there are just as many if not more "cowboys" per capita in Wyoming and Montana as there are in Texas.

Both have "mile high cities" (Calgary and Denver look quite a bit like in my opinion) and world-famous ski resorts in the Rockies, and have a fairly bifurcated religious profile with a both a lot of religious "nones" as well as pockets of evangelicals and Mormons.  Alberta strikes me as a bit Colorado-like politically, if it were in the US I could see it as a libertarian-leaning Republican state that broke for Obama in 2008.

There's the "it's Canada" argument for Alberta, but then again oil politics drives it rightward, and Colorado has Boulder and has legalized marijuana etc. (though I would guess every province of Canada favors legalizaton or decriminalization).
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Hatman 🍁
EarlAW
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« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2014, 08:25:22 AM »

Alberta is more like Montana, but with large cities. Colorado proved its liberalness by legalizing pot. Do you think Alberta will even be close to the first province to do so?
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2014, 09:03:38 AM »

lol
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Njall
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« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2014, 12:43:21 PM »

I'll just leave this here - make of it what you will.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2014, 01:30:02 PM »

Alberta is more like Montana, but with large cities. Colorado proved its liberalness by legalizing pot. Do you think Alberta will even be close to the first province to do so?

Ha, even B.C. hasn't done it yet.  How on earth could they have not got enough signatures on the ballot for a referendum?  Is it just too readily available anyway and thus nobody saw the point?
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Dr. Cynic
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« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2014, 02:09:53 PM »

Colorado is drifting to the left. Alberta has and probably always will be, on the solid right.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2014, 03:16:26 PM »

There are some small signs that things are changing in Alberta too.  A few years ago the right-wing upstart Wildrose Party lost to the PC's who have morphed into a sort of "moderate Republican to DLC Democrat" type party.  And the federal Liberals have been doing better in by-elections and polls recently.

But it's still got the petro-state politics going and the Conservatives are sort of a "party of the region" on the federal scene, while there's still a lot of resentment toward the "Easterners" in the Liberal Party.  It's also become so filled with transplants that long-time Albertans are shrinking as a share of the population, they're more likely to be social conservatives and the most inclined to vote Wildrose, and to hold "Eastern bastards freeze in the dark" sentiment.  Still, don't see the province voting anything but majority-Conservative federally for a long time.

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TDAS04
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« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2014, 03:30:55 PM »

Alberta does seem quite similar to Colorado in many ways.  I think both are left/libertarian on social issues.  Doesn't Calgary have a Muslim mayor?


Interesting that most Albertans support the death penalty.  Do you think it has majority support in other provinces?
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Citizen Hats
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« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2014, 05:15:18 PM »

Alberta is more like Montana, but with large cities. Colorado proved its liberalness by legalizing pot. Do you think Alberta will even be close to the first province to do so?

Ha, even B.C. hasn't done it yet.  How on earth could they have not got enough signatures on the ballot for a referendum?  Is it just too readily available anyway and thus nobody saw the point?

Because getting referendum ballot signatures is bloody hard in BC. They have to be a percentage in a majority of ridings. If you sign it once, and sign it again accidentally, or you sign the petition for the wrong riding, you get invalidated. There's a reason why there's only been one referendum petition vote in twenty years
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EarlAW
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« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2014, 08:35:22 PM »

Alberta does seem quite similar to Colorado in many ways.  I think both are left/libertarian on social issues.  Doesn't Calgary have a Muslim mayor?


Interesting that most Albertans support the death penalty.  Do you think it has majority support in other provinces?

Yes, Calgary has Muslim mayor.  A pretty awesome one at that.
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Хahar 🤔
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« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2014, 09:19:46 PM »

An Ismaili mayor, at least.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2014, 09:52:32 PM »

Colorado = the Vermont of the Rockies
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EarlAW
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« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2014, 09:59:27 PM »


I'm not buying that study. Southern Alberta more left wing than the North? Calgary more left wing than Edmonton. Yeah, ok.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2014, 10:16:43 PM »

I'm not either. 
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Njall
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« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2014, 01:43:41 AM »


I'm not buying that study. Southern Alberta more left wing than the North? Calgary more left wing than Edmonton. Yeah, ok.

Those numbers are within the margin of error of each other, so the differences are negligible.  I should point out that Albertan conservatism in the modern day has a lot more basis in fiscal conservatism than in social conservatism.  As for the North vs. South part, it could be true depending on their regional definitions.  It's quite likely that their definition of 'South' could include places like Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat.  Yes, rural southern Alberta is deeply conservative, but the south also has a a much greater urban population.  If you lump St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan, and Sherwood Park in with Edmonton, then the North lacks an urban population comparable to the south's.

Regardless, there are some issues (support of same-sex marriage being a key one) where Alberta is clearly to the left of Colorado.


Alberta does seem quite similar to Colorado in many ways.  I think both are left/libertarian on social issues.  Doesn't Calgary have a Muslim mayor?


Interesting that most Albertans support the death penalty.  Do you think it has majority support in other provinces?

Yes, Calgary has Muslim mayor.  A pretty awesome one at that.


He is indeed very awesome. 

As for the death penalty thing, I would imagine that it does, at least in the Western provinces if not elsewhere.  I don't have polling data to back that up though.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2014, 02:23:55 AM »
« Edited: July 23, 2014, 12:31:23 PM by King of Kensington »

Funny I recall quite well "fiscally conservative not socially conservative" Alberta dragged kicking and screaming into accepting same-sex marriage as the law of the land in Canada.  But of course that was a decade ago and now many people have accepted it and realized the sky wouldn't fall, plus there's been demographic changes etc.  

On the Vote Compass I don't see much of a north/south difference on abortion (the Mormons in the south are balanced out by evangelicals further north I suppose?).  Only inner city Calgary and inner city Edmonton are notably more pro-choice than the Canadian average.

http://votecompass.com/results/ca-2011/abortion/

There's a Canadian pro-choice majority, but 80% is way higher than most polling I've seen and we don't what they mean.  Here's an Angus Reid poll from 2008:

http://www.angusreidglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/archived-pdf/2008.06.20_Abortion.pdf

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jfern
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« Reply #16 on: July 23, 2014, 02:45:00 AM »

Alberta is probably more liberal on social issues. Colorado is probably more liberal on environmental issues. Someone else can make a guess about other economic issues.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #17 on: July 23, 2014, 01:54:45 PM »

Wow Colorado is cleaning up.  I also find it interesting that this seems to have sparked much more interest than New York State vs. Ontario.

Wonder if we're going to see demographic changes in Colorado as a result of its leftward shift on social issues.
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Boris
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« Reply #18 on: July 23, 2014, 09:45:04 PM »

fwiw, a legalize marijuana referendum would probably pass in Alberta with a similar margin as Colorado:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Half+Albertans+favour+legalizing+marijuana/8942826/story.html

But I think it'd be easier to isolate oneself in left-wing bubbles in Colorado (Boulder) than in Alberta.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #19 on: July 23, 2014, 09:46:28 PM »
« Edited: July 23, 2014, 09:51:28 PM by King of Kensington »

Edmonton-Strathcona = the Boulder of Alberta?
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Njall
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« Reply #20 on: July 24, 2014, 02:29:37 AM »

Funny I recall quite well "fiscally conservative not socially conservative" Alberta dragged kicking and screaming into accepting same-sex marriage as the law of the land in Canada.  But of course that was a decade ago and now many people have accepted it and realized the sky wouldn't fall, plus there's been demographic changes etc.  

On the Vote Compass I don't see much of a north/south difference on abortion (the Mormons in the south are balanced out by evangelicals further north I suppose?).  Only inner city Calgary and inner city Edmonton are notably more pro-choice than the Canadian average.

http://votecompass.com/results/ca-2011/abortion/

There's a Canadian pro-choice majority, but 80% is way higher than most polling I've seen and we don't what they mean.  Here's an Angus Reid poll from 2008:

http://www.angusreidglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/archived-pdf/2008.06.20_Abortion.pdf



Ralph Klein was a big part of our little tantrum over SSM a decade ago.  As for abortion, I'm guessing that 'abortion choice' in the Lethbridge college poll would encompass those who favour no/few restrictions on abortion, as well as the majority of those who favour legal abortion with some restrictions.


Edmonton-Strathcona = the Boulder of Alberta?

Which one - provincial or federal?  Federally, yes.  Provincially, it's certainly the most left-wing economically.  Socially, ridings like Calgary-Mountain View and Edmonton-Centre are probably to Edmonton-Strathcona's left.
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #21 on: July 24, 2014, 08:49:27 PM »
« Edited: July 24, 2014, 08:51:44 PM by King of Kensington »

For the record, I don't think Alberta is the most socially conservative province.  It's probably either PEI or New Brunswick.  Saskatchewan is probably more socially conservative as well.
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Hatman 🍁
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« Reply #22 on: July 25, 2014, 07:04:48 AM »

Well, Atlantic Canada did give Bush better numbers than Alberta when they did those US Presidential election polls.

I do know there are no abortion clinics in PEI, and didn't NB just close down their only clinic? They are also the 2 worst provinces for the NDP.
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2014, 08:00:50 PM »

For the record, I don't think Alberta is the most socially conservative province.  It's probably either PEI or New Brunswick.  Saskatchewan is probably more socially conservative as well.

If you look at the Political Compass' data on abortion, gay marriage, and euthanasia, Saskatchewan is the most conservative, although Alberta is in 2nd place. The most socially conservative riding is far and away Provencher (Vic Toews' old riding).
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King of Kensington
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« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2015, 01:36:56 PM »

Well given the events in Alberta, does anyone want to re-consider? 

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