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Both Washington and Oregon have very different politics within their borders. My wife is from Washington, and on there eastern half (dry side) of the State the population is heavily Republican, but on the western half (wet side), they are heavily Democrat.
Alberta is a big place as well, and like most provinces has different politics in different areas. Same goes for here in British Columbia with the dry areas being much more conservative than the wet areas. The coast and the interior rainforest part of BC are NDP all the way, but where I live in the Okangan they vote for whoever "keeps the socialist hordes behind the gates of Hell where they belong." This quote is, of course, from former Premier of BC who hailed from Kelowna.
When it comes to Alberta, the wettest part of Alberta (around Edmonton), is quite liberal even by BC Interior standards. Calgary is more conservative, but southern Alberta (Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, etc.) is more conservative still.
Comparing Alberta to the States, Alberta has a flat tax, which would not fly in even some of the more conservative states.
Alberta as a whole is conservative compared to a typical state, but how conservative really depends on how you define your terms, or which measures you are looking at. There are many different definitions of liberal and conservative, and some of them even contradict other ones.
I don't think it's so much a wet and dry thing rather as being whether or not the city has a college or a lot of transplants. I'm pretty sure Bend is more liberal than Albany for example.
I don't think it's so much a wet and dry thing rather as being whether or not the city has a college or a lot of transplants. I'm pretty sure Bend is more liberal than Albany for example.
It has very little to do with wet and dry, just giving examples. Even within the most [insert political ideology here] area, you will find enclaves of the opposite.
I live in Alberta and it's not socially conservative at all, just fiscally. Even the Wildrose Party who is extreme right don't focus much on the social aspects but more on the fiscal and money issues. So compared to all the southern states, Alberta is much more liberal. However it is still more overall conservative compared to many northern U.S. states.
There was an interesting book called "Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the myth of Converging Values". It basically polls American's and Canadian and finds that Canadian are more liberal on most issues. Also, that Canadian Provinces don't really vary as much as American states. Alberta (most conservative) and Quebec (Most liberal) don't usually stray more then 5 percentage point from one another. Texas vs Main can have wild swing up to 25 percentage points or more.
Furthermore the book concludes that Alberta is more liberal than the most liberal American States (New England: Vermont, Main, and so on).
People also have to remember that the NDP, which is considered socialist, has its roots in Western Canada and Alberta.
I think the biggest reason Albertans don't vote Liberal, NDP, or Green is for two reasons. Trudeau: he literally flip Western Canada the bird and his National Energy Program caused Alberta's economy to bust when it should have been booming. This was suppose to help Ontario and Quebec, but it didn't. Second reason, is the hypocrisy of the leftist parties.
"The oil tar sands need to be shut down because it's like putting X amount of cars on the road, yet we need to bail out the auto industry in Ontario and Quebec which is literally putting cars on the road."
Hard to vote for parties that neither knows nor cares about the issues in Alberta and pass economically harmful and hypocritical policies against Alberta that benefit Quebec and Ontario.
The reason you get a lot more differences in the states is that their country is divided 50 ways. Divide Canada 50 ways, and you'd get a much wider swing as well. BC is generally friendly to the NDP, but here in the Okanagan Valley of BC, people absolutely hate the NDP, and vote for whatever party is going to "keep those socialists hordes behind the gates of Hell where they belong."
Similarly, in Alberta we find that the Edmonton area is much more friendly to the NDP than Calgary or Lethbridge.
Yes, during a famous incident he gave the "Trudeau Salute" to a group of protesters in Western Canada, and Western Canadians loooove bringing that incident up as if he were intentionally flipping off them and their dead grandmother as they were minding their business over morning tea. Meanwhile, he was rather justified in flipping off what was in fact a mob of bigots shouting anti-French slogans and profanity at him. If a bunch of French Canadians ever did the same to me for being an Anglo you bet your ass I'd do the same damn thing.
Yes, during a famous incident he gave the "Trudeau Salute" to a group of protesters in Western Canada, and Western Canadians loooove bringing that incident up as if he were intentionally flipping off them and their dead grandmother as they were minding their business over morning tea. Meanwhile, he was rather justified in flipping off what was in fact a mob of bigots shouting anti-French slogans and profanity at him. If a bunch of French Canadians ever did the same to me for being an Anglo you bet your ass I'd do the same damn thing.
It's less about the bird and more about the billions. The NEP has doomed the Liberal Party in Alberta for at least another 20 or so years, until everyone who had to live through it as an adult is dead.
How many "liberal" US states can boast a Gay Muslim mayor in one of their major cities?
Allison Redford is also a Liberal lawyer who worked for the UN for pete's sake.
Salt Lake City has a Lesbian mayor.
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