N.S. election: Progressive Conservatives projected to win majority

were WAY off.

BREAKING - old-timey PROGRESSIVE Conservatives not terrifying to voters, but reactionary new-type conservatives still as palatable as deep fried dog-doo to majority of citizens

I'm surprised that the Liberals are that low in public favour in NS.

Apparently drinking and driving trumps boudoir pics.

How Nova Scotia’s premier-designate Tim Houston made sure no one could mistake him for Erin O’Toole

John Ibbitson used to rip on Atlantic Canadians for all politically agreeing with each other too much. He also bragged about the coming "Big Shift" that would make Alberta the main center of political power in Canada and lead to the collapse of the 'Laurentian Consensus'.

Leaving aside how completely stupid Ibbiton's "Big Shift" claim was, it's ironic that he ridiculed Atlantic Canadians for agreeing with each other too much while praising Alberta, a province where people have said everything from a fence post to a plate of half-eaten onion rings could get elected if it were painted Conservative blue.

The funny thing is that I'm not so sure the social conservatism giving O'Toole so much grief is that big a sell even in Alberta. It didn't hurt Ralph Klein when he refused to use the notwithstanding clause in the Vriend case or to overturn gay marriage, and the Wildrose Alliance lost an election they should have had in the bag largely due to to the "lake of fire" stupidity. Even Preston Manning has said things that would have gotten him tarred and feathered in the American Bible Belt, and have gotten him ridiculed by Ezra Levant. Nor did Harper suffer much of a backlash by blocking abortion from becoming a public issue again.

And whatever our issues with how we actually pay for it, most Albertans certainly don't complain about spending a lot on public works or social services.

For all the shade we throw at Eastern Canadian Red Tories, our own conservatism sure shares a lot of traits with theirs. In that respect, we're more similar to Atlantic Canadians-and more different than most Americans-than someone like Ibbitson realizes...

...or wants to admit.

Key theme with the cons is liberty and freedom. They are all up in arms when others tell them what to do but are dead quiet when they tell others how to do it.

Alberta's "exceptionalism" is turning out to have been as beneficial for us as Texas cutting off their own energy grid from outside assistance was during their ice-storm a few months back.

Yep...

I agree with most of what you're saying, but I'm not sure about the social conservatism angle. Conservatism in Alberta seems to be divided between urban and rural conservatives from what I see, with the urban types being more Progressive conservative, and the rural types leaning more to Wildrose values.

Have you ever been to southern Alberta? I've been there a few times in recent years and every time I'm shocked by the anti-abortion signs, anti-LGBTQ signs, and general social conservative vibes down there. Maybe that's due to to their deep religious roots (LDS is very ingrained down there), or the fact that many families have members in US red states, or maybe it's something else entirely, but many there strongly advocate for many so-con issues down there that aren't palatable in other parts of the province.

Never having spent time in northern Alberta, I won't comment on it, but central Alberta isn't much more centre right then their cousins in southern Alberta, but I think they are a tiny bit more mainstream.

Maybe things have changed in the 12-odd years since I've been down there, but I attended a conference in Cochrane for work in 2009. The older curator of the museum told me about how she wrote to some Texas friends about how she thought Obama was doing a good job as US President and was shocked at their vitriolic reaction. Another younger lady down there was more than a little vocal about how she didn't want us integrating with the U.S. And then there was the audience being receptive to keynote speaker Preston Manning talking about how Albertans generally needed a "wake up call" on the environment.

As for central Alberta, it's been nearly a decade but I still remember how much my Dad hated the old provincial PCs and wanted them gone, but held his nose and voted for them because he couldn't stomach their social conservatism. Ditto with my oil industry-working cousin, another PC hater.

Both these guys bled Tory blue and considered "Trudeau" to be a four letter word, but the Wildrose's social conservatism was a deal-breaker for them. And that kind of attitude was widespread enough across Alberta to keep the Wildrose to a southern rump. Even then I'd be interested to see by how much of a margin those Wildrosers won their seats.

We need to keep in mind it was Alberta farmers, ranchers, outdoorsmen, and other rural people/groups that stopped Kenney's plan for coal mining dead in it's tracks. It would have been easy for the UCP to ignore protests in the cities only and forge ahead but when the rural areas rose up in anger the politicians couldn't ignore it. I haven't given up on rural AB completely. I'm hoping that as COVID subsides, and after the new separatist parties/Wild Rose/Maxime Bernier/etc. that the most angry Albertans are placing their bets on all get shellacked, first in the federal election and then in the next provincial one, a lot of the fever will die down dramatically and we'll be the way we were before the trauma & rage of the last five years began.

Even before Kenney's not-so-bright idea on coal mining, I heard anecdotally about the number of angry letters the Environment Minister was getting about the province's plan to sell and/or close a bunch of provincial parks. I can only imagine how many angry constituents were also banging on the doors of the rural MLAs' riding offices.

Sometimes I wonder if Jason Kenney is an NDP sleeper agent with all the things he's doing to make it easier for Notley to get re-elected.