Resisting the pull of cynicism since 1969.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Quirky 'Edmonton' has own voting patterns, culture

Remember that old Onion article "Perky 'Canada' has own government, laws"? Well, there's something reminiscent of that in this unintentionally hilarious Calgary Herald article about how shockingly different Edmonton is from Calgary.

My favourite bit:

Yes, this is a very different town. In fact, New Democrats aren't just a known species here. People like Rachel Notley, taking over for Raj Pannu in Edmonton-Strathcona, have even been described as, wait for it, "Shoe-ins." Not surprisingly then, they do indeed have different concerns and areas of focus than those cowboy-hatted, naval-gazing urbanites 275 kilometres down the QE2.
I suspect they meant "shoo-ins" and "navel-gazing" (does the Herald no longer use human beings for proofreading?), but it's funny enough even without the spelling errors. "You mean, there are entire constituencies in this province where voting NDP is commonplace? Can that actually be true??? Gasp!!!"

While that bit may be funny, though, the Calgarian driving around town and marvelling that we actually have variety in our election signs is just plain tragic. Lesson learned: my God, living in Calgary would suck.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe Calgarians spend a lot of time admiring HMCS Tecumseh?

laura k said...

Not sure if you know this, but you're a finalist in the F-Blog Awards. Congrats!

Even though we are both nominated in the same category, I will be voting for you, and I'm campaigning for you. (Easy to be so selfless, since wmtc is nominated in other categories as well.)

laura k said...

Shoe-ins? Naval-gazing??

You wouldn't think Alberta had a navy, what with being landlocked and all, and not a country. But then, once you put your shoos on the wrong foots, anything can happen. Even the NDP.

Candace said...

The inaccuracies in the article are hilarious!

"I'm reviled in Riverdale," she says with a laugh, referring to her inner-city neighbourhood" - WTF? Should we maybe mention the average house price in that "inner-city neighborhood"?

What a crappy piece of writing, but definitely good for a giggle. Thanks for pointing it out. (And for the record, I will not be voting for what's-his-name Mason in my riding, I will be voting for the energetic, working-on-his-degree WRA candidate instead.)

Idealistic Pragmatist said...

Candace,

I think if you ever voted for Brian Mason, we'd have to take your temperature. *g*