Sarah Palin sees eye-to-eye with Albertans in Calgary speech

[CHIMO]

Source: The Canadian Press

Sarah Palin drew a straight line from Alaska to Alberta as she told a sold-out, largely adoring crowd in Calgary that the province gets her message of less government, lower taxes and development of natural resources.

In what was billed as her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska last summer, Ms. Palin's trademark folksy charm was on full display Saturday night.

She joked that her distinctive accent means she's often mistaken for Canadian and that she has two great-grandfathers from Canada, including one from Moose Jaw, Sask.

“That must be where my love of moose came from,” she said to laughter and applause.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/sarah-palin-sees-eye-to-eye-with-albertans-in-calgary-speech/article1492634/

[UTUSN]

1. I just think Quitter is not LBN. n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

2. There's a big anti-Federal government movement in Alberta

I remember seeing billboards in various places in the province that called for keeping the Canadian government out of Alberta affairs. They want to regulate the tar sands themselves and keep all the proceeds.

[Posteritatis]

25. Which is kinda wacky since they effectively run the country lately.. (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

3. Eye-to-Eye? Do the Albertans see Russia from their window too?

[LiberalFighter]

4. Did they let her in without a visa?

[Botany]

5. Oh golly gee ..... them lucky people in Alberta with their oil sands

[rurallib]

6. So are they ready for Sarah's version of health(?) care?

[rpannier]

7. That's the issue I would have liked to have seen her bring up

I'd have been interested in how many people shared her vision for Health Care

[Posteritatis]

23. She got booted from some events in Ontario a few months back over that

Went on a rant about how Canada needs to scrap its health care system so hospitals can make a profit. Not surprisingly, a couple of hospitals she was going to speak at decided to have someone else show up instead.

[cartach]

8. Albertans ???? Come on !

Give us a break. There was a grand total of 1200 people in attendance and only half of them gave her a standing ovation. And those were 600 rednecks and the other half who didn't go along with the herd were there out of curiosity similar to what happens when a there's a new arrival at the zoo. And I'll bet many of those had their entrance fee covered by the ultra right wingers who sponsored Palin's appearance. Don't insult all Albertans.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. and I will bet most of them are Americans themselves,

There are 100,000 Americans in Calgary and the number is growing by about 10,000 a year. Most of them from Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming.

I'm one of them,

[daleo]

32. I had heard that number, but it always seemed high

I will defer to your local knowledge, though. I suppose that's one of the reasons that Calgary and Edmonton seem a world apart.

[rationalcalgarian]

9. Can I please fix this headline?

"Sarah Palin sees eye-to-eye with American Republicans living in Alberta"

Please do not lump us in with the followers of this blithering idiot!

[hatrack]

10. I'm sorry - did I miss something? Is she a Canadian citizen? Is she running for office there?

We should care . . . why?

:puke:

[Posteritatis]

24. The GOP's long been a fan of leaning on our political process.

A couple of times during Bush's terms they had Celucci try to give Parliament orders on the Commons floor. It would be sad if it wasn't so offensive.

[PM Martin]

11. Alberta is highly reactionary.

One should expect see the redneck wannabe mafia embrace HER! :puke:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. Oh yeah, those crazy redneck Albertans...

virtually all of whom are to the left of most elected Democrats in California.

[PM Martin]

14. The Cons received nearly 70% of the votes in the

last federal election.
Modern "Canadian" Cons are nearly as bad as your GOP.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. I haven't met any,

The only thing Canadian Conservatives have in common with Republicans is dedication to promoting incompetence and corruption, politically they are barely right of center by our standards.

[Spazito]

19. Huh? They received less than 40% of the vote which is WHY they are...

a MINORITY government. Geez, if you are going to exaggerate the numbers, at least make them somewhat believable!

[Posteritatis]

22. Percentages federally != percentages in Alberta's ridings

Some of the latter are pretty damned depressing, though I was pleasantly surprised to see a bit of orange there for once in the last federal election.

Alberta's our Texas politically.

[Spazito]

26. You did not make it at all clear you were only talking about the vote in Alberta...

as opposed to the vote nationally which is very misleading, imo. The percentage nationally does NOT equate equally to the percentages in Alberta's ridings at all. Federal percentage of Con votes is less than 40%. Over 60% of Canadians do NOT want them as the government.

As to having an NDP member elected in Alberta, I have to admit I was quite shocked, and pleasantly surprised, even though it was in Edmonton, the most 'liberal' city in Alberta.

Edited to insert missing word "not" into the header.

[Posteritatis]

27. Yeah, claiming that was a federal percentage was kind of silly of that other poster

I could buy 70% of Albertans being full of conservative kool-aid, though.

I sorta hope to see more colors in the Alberta electoral map next time around. On the one hand, I sort of expect it - they really have been singularly inept in the last couple of years - but my friends who've moved out there for one reason or another at points find the politics deeply toxic and despair of that sort of thing.

[Spazito]

28. Yep, I live in St. Albert (bedroom community for Edmonton, lol) and...

even here it smacks of Texas-lite more than anything else. As long as Alberta 'lives or dies' based on oil it will not change here, sadly, imo.

[47of74]

16. If the people up in Alberta want her...

...they can have her, with all my blessings.

[Zoeisright]

17. Fuck her and fuck her 'adoring' brain-dead, racist 'public'.

They all deserve to have very bad lives.

[Javaman]

18. moron speaking to morons...

Stephanie Hansen, 18, who wore a pin with Ms. Palin's face, could barely contain her excitement. She gushed that she felt out of place among the much older audience.

“I love it, I'm really glad that I came. It was really enlightening.”

She admitted she didn't know a lot about Ms. Palin's politics, but she said she loves her nonetheless.

“I admire how she can have a family and still be able to work as much as she does and everything she does.”

[Spazito]

20. She used to sneak across the border to Whitehorse to get her medical care!

"The vocal opponent of health-care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” she said. “And I think now, isn't that ironic?”"

Geez, her inability to see her outrageous hypocrisy is simply :wow:

[mitchum]

29. Abortion

[Bragi]

21. Calgary is a suburb of Houston

No reason they wouldn't like her. She espouses the selfish idiocy they believe in.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Spazito]

33. Calgary, Alberta is an 'outlier', it wants to be Dallas....

the rest of Canada lives in the real world. Canada has universal healthcare and equal marriage so, yes, it is the 'liberal bastion' you thought it was, even Alberta has universal healthcare and equal marriage.

[Posteritatis]

34. That's the short version, definitely

It's like the US; I could say it's intrinsically conservative because of stuff I hear out of the south, but there's also plenty of Portlands (or Austins) there. It has Berkeley, but it also has Bob Jones University. We're generally the same way up here; Alberta is the most conservative Canadian province by a vast stretch and is one of the main power bases for the federal Conservatives. In my own province, all three major parties can generally closely contest any of the seats in provincial or federal elections.

Nationally we have an annoying tendency to lean towards whatever the US is currently up to. Harper's campaigned explicitly on the "we must be a good puppet state!" platform in the past, which has no doubt been throwing his own planning into chaos lately now that there isn't a Bush in the WHite House...

[daleo]

31. This event was put on by the Fraser Institute

Which is a right wing thinktank. This was a picked rightwing crowd, even by Alberta standards.