Alberta legislature proposes evolution-optional schooling

[TithonusSyndrome]

Anyway, if Alberta is so forward-thinking, and less religious than any other province in Canada,

Nitpick - I'm certainly not denying that Alberta is on the whole a conservative province by Canadian standards at the very least, and IIRC the stats revealed that BC and maybe one other province are less religious than Alberta. I just don't think that its reactionary nature is comparable to any US state with similar levels of influence on the federal government. The "Alberta is Canada's Texas" meme is one I accept only on the grounds of best possible fit, not because the comparison is that hot on it's own merits.

then why did they have to be forced by the federal government to allow gay marriage, while other provinces legalized it earlier?

At this I can only guess, but I suspect that the conservative political establishment in Alberta spends all nights up running their fingers over magazine pages of American conservatives, and as long as there's oil money going around they have nothing to fear from voters and are free to live in their world of America-idolizing.

For that matter, why did they give birth to the Reform Party?

The Reform Party was established in 1987. Look at the rates of rising non-religious beliefs in Alberta in the link, they're pretty high compared with other religions. My guess would be that the Alberta of the Mulrooney era and the Alberta of the early 21st century were drifting further apart, though by how much at that point I couldn't say.

Why do stories like this always come from Alberta?

C'maaaaan, you know that's selection bias. There are plenty of other way more sturdy ways to bash Alberta.

I've met more than my share of people who say they are not religious because they don't attend church every week, even though the more you talk to them, the more you realize they're actually conservative Christians. So you'll have to forgive me when I don't put any stock in that 24% figure.

And you're probably right; a lot of these people are probably just working too many shifts to attend church or resent being told what to do by anyone resembling an authority figure as long as they can get loans approved on another three quads, but the moment the chips are down or their family gets torn apart by their high-stakes living and alcoholism, they submit to the old "religion = morality" canard. I've seen it firsthand with my ex-con cousin.

But as long as there's oil money, consumerism is by far the supreme religious force in Alberta, and Christianity has a token presence at best.

[Phantasee]

I've noticed that Eddie and Morton are very friendly with each other, what with Morton basically killing Jim Dinning's chance at the leadership by getting all his voters to give their second choice to Ed (yay for preferential balloting! ). And Morton is the face of the conservative Christian side of Alberta.

I'm going to call my MLA and Dave Hancock and tell them what's up (especially the point that evolution is not a religious issue, no matter how hard you try to warp it).

[TheKwas]

So, Tith beat me to the stats thing, but i'll add this one:

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census0 ... splay=Page

Calgary and Edmonton are the 4th and 6th most ethnically diverse cities in Canada, after Toronto, Vancouver, Abbotsford (this one is arguable). Ottawa is included twice for some reason.

Anyway, Alberta also brought Canadian politics the NDP, so stop ignoring shit that doesn't agree with your world view. A very diverse range of political parties have popped up in Alberta (though quite a few have been pretty wacky), and demonising the entire province because of one of them is silly.
.

CCF=/=NDP. Anyways, comparing a party that was founded in the 30s, never gained political power in Alberta, and is generally a non-factor in Albertan politics to a party/ideology that has dominated Alberta politics for decades and has huge reprecussions on the federal level is what's silly. The fact that the actual convention that formed the CCF occured in Calgary means shit all.

The rest of the thread really sounds like "We have lots of minorities and a decent amount of non-religious people so we're not REALLY a backwards, bigotted, conservative shit-hole. Don't mind those batshit-insane politicians we elect every 4 year for decades on end."

Is it THE shithole of Canadian shitholes? That's a silly question to ask without having to define 'shithole', but no where else in Canada seems to be so proud of the fact that their culture is uneducated and bigotted.

[Phantasee]

I've seen only one person in my entire life in Alberta who was proud of the fact he was uneducated and bigoted. He was a complete retard and everyone treated him like one. It's silly to imply the entire province is like that, when you should know better. The problem here is that the opposition parties aren't worth much, other than to bitch and complain about everything, whether it's good or not. They rarely offer any real alternatives. This has led to a lot of people who would otherwise be involved with the Alberta Liberal party to instead join up with the PC party, and try to change it from the inside.

Of course, lots of the hard-line, bleed blue, party-member-since-i-was-five members hate the Red Tories, but fuck them too. The Red Tories are the only reason the party doesn't go hard to the right and turn into either a Christian Theocracy, or some kind of weird libertarian lala-land. Or a perogie festival.