Oh, Canada! THIS
makes me happy!
Why it matters that left-wingers just won in oil-rich Alberta
American environmentalists are frustrated that our adorable neighbor to the north is surprisingly retrograde on climate change. The reason is that Canada has a Conservative government. Right-leaning governments almost always have worse records on environmental protection, but this is especially so in present-day Canada because Prime Minister Stephen Harper hails from, and draws a lot of support in, the interior province of Alberta.
Oil-rich Alberta — home to notorious tar-sands operations — is just north of Idaho, and has the politics to match. The right-leaning party has been in power there for 44 years. But not anymore.
On Tuesday, the lefty New Democratic Party (NDP) won the provincial elections on a platform that promises to diversify Alberta’s fossil fuel–dependent economy. The NDP campaigned on criticism of the Conservatives for being too close to the oil industry and a pledge to tax more oil profits. From The Wall Street Journal:
The longtime ruling party of Canada’s energy-rich Alberta province lost its four-decade hold on power on Tuesday, ushering in a left-leaning government that has pledged to raise corporate taxes and increase oil and gas royalties.
The Alberta New Democratic Party swept enough districts to form a majority, taking most of the seats in both the business center of Calgary and the provincial capital of Edmonton, according to preliminary results from Elections Alberta.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/why-it-matters-that-left-wingers-just-won-in-oil-rich-alberta/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update&utm_campaign=socialflow
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I'm just hoping it bleeds across national boundaries! Can you imagine if Idaho went blue? Or at least blue-ish? I guess they call that purple...
I live in e. Washington state, which is more like Idaho than it is like Seattle, I'm afraid. I would love to see a resurgence - or surgence - of blue here. Once upon a time there were actually Democratic reps from this area. Not in the past 25 years or so. We're lucky if we get a moderate Republican!
Of course, on a state-wide level we've got our 2 stupendous Senators: Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. And our excellent Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
We have a small but lively cadre of Democratic activists here. I've held the caucus at my home a couple times! We're hanging on - not giving up! Sadly, it's taken having a few patrons - wealthy donors and supporters - to keep us going.
after they have exhausted every other possibility 
