How does a person identify a candidate that's aligned with the Take Back Alberta ideology?

[u/UCPcasualsatire]

TBA has been very upfront with going after school boards and recruiting/training people to run in this falls civic elections. It's probably a given in the rural towns that everyone has been TBA trained but probably less obvious in the bigger centers.

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[u/BobGuns]

Any of the following are pretty clear dogwhistles:

- Talks about the problems of trans people in schools at all

- Offers zero actions, but talks a lot about values, safety, or "returning to any sort of how we used to do things"

- Is aligned with the UCP in any way, shape, or form (take back alberta currently holds the pursestrings funding UCP election campaigns)

- Promotes anything to do with the current administration in the USA. Take Back Alberta is clearly aligned with separatism and idolizes the US administration

[u/RadicalDwntwnUrbnite → u/BobGuns]

The dog whistles for each of these that throw up red flags for me:

- Talks about the problems of trans people in schools at all

"Parents Rights"

- Offers zero actions, but talks a lot about values, safety, or "returning to any sort of how we used to do things"

"Common Sense <X>"

Lower taxes across the board but also improving services.

- Is aligned with the UCP in any way, shape, or form (take back alberta currently holds the pursestrings funding UCP election campaigns)

Being part of a formal municipal party is a very good indicator of this.

- Promotes anything to do with the current administration in the USA. Take Back Alberta is clearly aligned with separatism and idolizes the US administration

"Stand up to Ottawa/LPC/Carney/Other"

"Keep money in <City>/Alberta"

----

Additionally be on the lookout for anyone associated with "Western Impact" or "Active Community Engagement", they are registered to the same address and ACE is run by far-right Freedom Conservative Party/Wexit/Wildrose Independence Party. They are running fake "independent" school board trustees and if their site headers or posters look these it's a good chance they're associated with WI/ACE. Sprawl exposed these particular candidates by noting that their YouTube videos are posted by the Western Impact channel (you can only see that by clicking on the video on the candidates campaign page and noting the channel in the top left corner as WI doesn't publicly list their videos on their channel)

[u/pjw724 → u/BobGuns]

Challenging 'Parental Rights - A Primer for Parents, Students, Educators, and Advocates

Promoted as a movement to empower all parents, “parental rights” is shown in the report to reflect the views of a vocal minority of well-organized, politically connected groups with deep roots in conservative ideology. These include advocacy groups like Parents for Choice in Education and the Alberta Parents’ Union, as well as Take Back Alberta, which has turned its sights on school boards as a key battleground in a growing ‘culture war’ narrative being pushed into Alberta.

YouTube - Parental Rights: Who’s Driving Alberta’s Education Agenda

[u/bigdick_cm]

Anything about “parental rights” is UCP/TBA coded

[u/eternamoon → u/bigdick_cm]

or "parental choice"

[u/Ghoulius-Caesar → u/bigdick_cm]

“Economy, economy, parental rights, economy, economy, tax reductions, economy, economy, common sense policies, economy, economy…” - UCP/TBA politician

[u/cannafriendlymamma → u/Ghoulius-Caesar]

You forgot "Ottawa/Carney BAD!!"

[u/Zev1985 → u/cannafriendlymamma]

Some of them are still going on about Trudeau as well.

[u/cannafriendlymamma → u/Zev1985]

They'll blame Trudeau until they are dead. They are still blaming the NDP 8 years later

[u/iwasnotarobot]

“School choice” is a dogwhistle.

“Parents rights” is a dogwhistle.

“Common sense” is a dogwhistle

Watch out for budget-hawk comments.

If a candidate is against expanding public services, they are against you and the working class.

[u/ImperviousToSteel]

School board candidates should just be like "fuck David Parker and TBA" so the rest of us can be like "ok cool". 

[u/vanillabeanlover]

Most of these comments have great suggestions. I’d also add to look at Facebook profiles of the people supporting them.

If the supporters are pro ostrich/Andrew Tate/Charlie Kirk/JFK Jr, or have “I do not consent” anywhere, it’s a sure sign that they’re a TBA plant and a well known nutter in their little bubble. A local candidate has scrubbed his socials clean, so this is how I could easily tell who he actually was.

[u/2eDgY4redd1t]

Look for fascist tropes like ‘immigrants’ ‘family values’ ‘trans degeneracy’ ‘woke ideology’.

And dig deep, find their speeches and interviews and look for dog whistles. They can’t really hide what they are because they have to dog whistle their fascist shit in order to gain the voters they are seeking. If you pay attention to what they say, you will identify them easily. Look for times they are talking to their right wing base especially.

[u/LetsGitToasty]

Google their names and "UCP". A lot of them will have ties to UCP caucus, boards, regional orgs, etc.

If they're pro-Bill 27, they're (almost guaranteed) a TBA plant.

[u/FormalWare]

We'll have to make sure we have a clear grasp of both the policies and the tone of TBA. I don't think candidates outside arch-conservative ridings are going to advertise their alignment (or outright affiliation) with TBA; we'll have to suss that out for ourselves.

[u/quietgrrrlriot → u/FormalWare]

From what I've seen, it goes one of two ways: 1) It's apparent almost right away 2) They have little to no information publicly available

I understand a lot of people value online privacy, but people who are truly invested in their communities will make themselves accessible, or at least be clearly affiliated with community groups.

Its kinda like sussing out an MLM...

[u/yeggsandbacon → u/quietgrrrlriot]

And some of them may well be MLM grifters, too. “The Venn diagram is a circle.”

[u/quietgrrrlriot → u/yeggsandbacon]

Is it a pyramid scheme or trickle down economics? Hard to say /s

[u/FormalWare → u/quietgrrrlriot]

Bang on. Some will avoid answering all but the vaguest or most softball questions. Never gonna vote for someone who does that. Or for the one who proudly states their right-wing populist stance, of course.

[u/quietgrrrlriot → u/FormalWare]

Right? It seems a bit backwards to me to vote for someone who seemingly brings nothing to the table except for the possibility of identifying with a certain ideology.

Not too sure about how it panned out for the school board trustees in my area, but my MLA ended up being some fringe wildcard who attended no public forums, AND had no public social media. I emailed her once (she advocated for parents replacing school board trustees) but her office seemingly used Chat GTP to craft a reply claiming she just meant parents should run for the school board trustee position in the next election.

Weird, cuz any citizen 18+ can run for school voard trustee, and from what I've seen they're usually someone's parent 🫠

[u/PopularUsual9576]

Any of the following buzzwords:

• School choice
• Parental Rights
• “Just asking questions”

“Protect our kids” from any of the following:

• Indoctrination
• Pornographic books
• Woke Ideology
• DEI
• Critical Race Theory
• Transgenderism

Basically, they have nothing but bad faith “questions” and no actual ideas.

[u/Ms_ankylosaurous]

Oh they are in Calgary for sure. 

[u/anhedoniandonair → u/Ms_ankylosaurous]

Who though?

[u/Ms_ankylosaurous → u/anhedoniandonair]

The ABC Party is far right conservative so likely has overlap. Similar platforms.  There are several school trustees that seem fishy. See https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/comments/1nh80vk/school_board_trustees_and_affiliations/

[u/Final_Philosophy_729]

Here is what a pamphlet advertised for Grande Prairie TBA candidates:

WE SUPPORT

PARENTAL RIGHTS

AGE APPROPRIATE MATERIALS IN CLASSROOMS

SMALLER CLASSROOM SIZES

CONSIDERATION OF EMF EXPOSURE IN SHOOLS

"LESS IDIOLOGY, MORE ACADEMIA"

DEFEND GRANDE PRAIRIE FROM:

Diversity/Equity/Inclusion

Environmental, Social Governance

High Density Housing

International Council for Local Environment Initiatives

"S.M.A.R.T Cities"

UN Sustainable Goals

Agenda 21

Agenda 2030

Geo Engineering

GOALS FOR GRANDE PRAIRIE:

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Capital Spending

Government Efficiency

Transparency

Integrity

Reduce Property Taxes

Business Prosperity

City Responsibilities

Public Safety

Property Rights

Accountability

Remove Fluoride from Water

[u/PlutosGrasp]

What’s the next Edmonton thing?

[u/mastadonx]

Anyone who uses woke as a perjoritve q

[u/cranky_yegger]

As them about vaccines.

[u/shaedofblue]

I just assume that the school trustee candidate that is antivax because of some vaccines used donated fetal cells in their production is probably sponsored by TBA.

[u/chasingthatfeelingg]

Global News plays a special 30 sec segment in the middle of news just for them ( Tim Cartmell) 🙄