Conservative Alberta Conspiracy

"The record number of births bodes well for the future of our province."

Only if they're raised as patriotic Canadians.

I admit I am part of the problem. I have fathered yet another child. When will my wife stop getting me drunk?!

I feel so bad for all the CO2 my clan is producing. What can I do? I have decided to hold my breath once a day for at least 30 seconds. That should help.

Sorry Earth. Sorry Liberals.

Is Alberta going to take in OctoMom..that would help the boom even more. Sounds like she's getting a rough ride in the US,and we in Canada are an open-arms society.

Best wishes to all the new people (and their parents).

This is good
We need more home grown kids and lots of 'em
We need to remember what this country IS really about.
We owe it to those who gave their lives in order to enhance ours thru the freedoms many take all too much for granted.
As well,we owe it too our gene pool to have more kids.
Yep...more kids...a better education system, based on healthy,tangible values...emphasis on responsible life skills.
Now I'll be quiet.

Interesting that "mohammed" is not in the top 10 picks for boys, unlike the U.K. where it moved into 2nd place back in 2007.

Unfortunately the demographic of much of the baby boom in Alberta is exactly the people Steyn warned us about in America Alone. My wife works in one of the maternity floors here. A big part of the births are contributed by immigrants to Alberta, and they are having many, 3, 4, 5 or more in a family, as opposed to the home-grown variety, who are having one, and then when the mother is quite a bit older and established in her career. The article doesn't point the demographics out, but they bear our Steyn's contention quite well. What is happening in Europe is starting here as well.

The names chosen for the children are also encouraging. Some names - Kayla is one - are just disasters waiting to happen,. One will simply never see them in university. Kids with sensible, traditional names usually do well -- probably because they have snesible, solid parents.

A big part of the births are contributed by immigrants to Alberta, and they are having many, 3, 4, 5 or more in a family ~ Noel

As I proposed earlier, it doesn't matter what colour (skin or ethinic) they are, provided they're raised as patriotic Canadians.

Noel: Steyn did not warn about immigrants. That is a mischaracterization of his book. He was concerned about "Muslim" population growth ... which comprises a very tiny part of Alberta's immigrant population; and about those who do not hold liberal democratic values.

It's really fun shopping because of all the young families here in Alberta. Go to a mall in Kelowna, and it is depressing because of the lack of babies. BC is getting most of our retired workers and Alberta is getting the new generation of our country.

Just think, all those little Conservatives soon to spread out across Canada, it's downright uplifting!

Hey.Be nice.We are just trying to replace all those ducks killed in the tailings pond!
And glasnost....you can bet your last buck that any kid born in AB is a patriotic Canuck!

Paul @ 7:09

Unfortunately a big chunk of the "immigrant" births in Calgary are to those who face the east, and whose women wear the veil, in other words, Muslims, just as Steyn warned about. The "locals" are contributing much less than their share to the number of babies born, having one, maybe two, vs the Muslims having 5 or more, each a year apart.

a big chunk of the "immigrant" births in Calgary are to those who face the east~Noel

Are you surmising, or can you substantiate this?

Noel: I suggest you support your claim. For instance, there is nothing in the list of names given that would suggest your claim is true.

From a completely non-scientific basis, take a walk in West Edmonton Mall on a Saturday; it's a wonderful patchwork of every possible ethinic group known to man, with hardly a hijab to the be seen. Furthermore, how many Mosques are there in Edmonton, a city of 750,000? Alberta's immigrant population is incredibly diverse, capitalist, and productive.

"Kids with sensible, traditional names usually do well -- probably because they have snesible, solid parents."

Do you mean traditional, or do you mean common? Traditional names seem to imply names that have been common in the past, but how is one to figure that out? The name Wesley was once all the rage in Victorian England, but now it is as exotic as they come.

If you did mean common (which I suspect you did despite your impending denial), then your belief may hold to a degree. People with common names are, for the most part, average. Sure they'll get into university and sure they'll get middle management jobs, but does that constitute doing "well"?

Consider the names of some of the richest people in America. They are traditional names, but not neccessarily common.

Sheldon, Herbert, Roland, Micky, Edmund, Leonard, Riley, Warren, Bennett, Wesley, Marguerite, Amos, Imogene, Kirk, Theodore (got an awful lot of those these days, eh?), Cargill, Clayton, Sumner, Clemmie, Mortimer.

All thoroughly uncommon names, but all vaguely tradtional.

For what its worth, Kayla is derived from Greek. It has a meaning and is a variant of the name 'Katherine', meaning Pure. Why would a Katherine do well and a Kayla not? I am sure there is a method to your conclusion. It just seems to be beyond the spectrum of human rationality. A tad bit bizzare, to say the least.

Kids with sensible, traditional names usually do well -- probably because they have snesible, solid parents.~ John Lewis at February 15, 2009 7:06 PM

A tad bit bizzare, to say the least. Posted by: Namemaster at February 15, 2009 7:45 PM

To say the least.

i think it is a mix actually i think simply becasue there is such a small population of muslims in alberta compaired to others i mean in total there birth rate is astonishing and yes having 2,3,4,5,,6, kids a year apart is very true but the fact that they represent such a small portion of albertains we won't see the effect's for 20 years remeber that ..so jimmy might be the most populare name right now ..but give it a decade ...and also really a muslim is fine if like they say are being brought up with western values and understand what conservatism means...if they are proud of the canadian flag ..and don't jump ship once they see what liberalism is doing to our eastern provinces and america in general ..liberalism is very bad and dangerous and i am not sure why our govornment is polluting out education systems with teaching grade 8 student's how to put a condom on a cucumber ..when we should be teaching absinence with good familly moral values and having safe sex ed taught later on when there minds are developed and more ready to understand the implications of sex...and all of that stuff liberalism is going to start a war soon man america is becoming more and more divided on the big issues becasue the liberal propaganda has corrupted a few generations of kids already . read micheal savages the enemy withing ..as well look at yuri brezmenov from 1984 what he said ..crazy now pair the 2 up and look what you have in america today ...i will stay in alberta drive my quad cab diesel by my guns and lot's of ammo ...respect and love my neighbour and live the conservative dream ...lol lots of kids .

Someone told me it's caused by those darned potatoes from the Beiseker colony.

From the London Times.

"Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found."

'nuff said.

It would be nice to know where she is getting her numbers. Alberta's Quarterly Demographic Statistics are reported at http://www.finance.alberta.ca/aboutalberta/demographic_quarterlies.html
The fourth quarter is not yet published for 2008, but if one scales according to the 2007 numbers (which total 45,600), one gets 48,000 for 2008.

According to the CNEWS article, 2007 saw 48,589 births while 2008 saw 50,543.

You'd have to contact Alberta F&E to get the details of how babies are counted, but a 5% discrepancy is huge. At a guess, the "official" figures correct for residency period (out-migration).

Of greater significant is the crude birth rate: 12.9 for 2007 and (estimated) 13.3 for 2008. These are hardly anything to celebrate – it’s less than the USA (14.2 in 2007) and New Zealand (13.6 in 2007). Israel did 17.7 in 2007. While I don't have the data to actually calculate the fertility rate, assuming similar population distributions between Alberta and the USA still puts them below replacement.

Sorry. This is a non-story. MAYBE of significance if trend data are shown…but 2 years is not a trend.

Tenebris, the source for the story is on the government main website http://alberta.ca/home/NewsFrame.cfm?ReleaseID=/acn/200902/253006BC3ED08-DF7C-C970-2E30950F32C4D192.html. The Quarterly Demographic Statistics obviously haven't been updated yet.

A lot of boys and girls are going to be teased and bullied in a few years with some of those names their parents gave them.
By the time those two boys grow up, Barak and Obama will be names associated with a president who did not change anything except the debt.

Us Albertans are trying to get the numbers up before the next census in 2011.

Another five MP's or so would be about right.

C'mon Saskatchewan and B.C. Join the fun.

I can't speak about too many of the other 50,542 kids that were born in Alberta this year, but I can speak confidently about one of them. My fifth child is a 2008 Alberta baby. While her name does not appear on the list, I can assure you that neither she, nor any of her siblings are being brought up with anything other than strong conservative values.
Her mom is first generation Canadian (parents came from India and Caribbean), and I am one of the despised (male, white, Christian, conservative, oil industry engineer, father of five, and I like steak).

gord, again, there is no denominator for the names, so I don't know what that stat really means.

Say ten Muslim people call their son Mohammed. Seven Anglicans call their kids George, six Jewish people call their son Abraham, six Lutheran people call their son Martin, etc etc. In the example that I give, although Mohammed is the most popular name, it doesn't mean that more children of Muslim parents are being born in England.

So, without a denominator, stats can be misleading. )No doubt Mohammed wouldn't have been even in the running thirty years ago in Great Britain.) But that stat doesn't necessarily mean that more Muslim kids are now being born in Britain. (Not that I'm saying that's what you said though)

That being said, I know that many of my childhood friends didn't bother to have kids, they were just too busy, in their minds, having a great time being perpetual adolescents.

And, I agree with glasnost, we need to produce Canadian kids, not encourage a bunch of hyphenated kids that just have the label Canadian as a meaningless add-on

We happily added to the Alberta baby boom last year. Baby Abigail is doing well.

paul at 7:58 PM

yup, teaching kids to put condoms on cucumbers has to cause one to shake their head, no not that one, though we should be glad they are int teach them of inserting them whole into their mouths, and su....well you know!!

and I have to wonder what names they may have giving the cucumbers that will now not be born, and would their name have caused them to succeed or fail. Can you imagine a cucumber named salad, it would be devastated before it ever reached chef's college.

Actually most of us Albertans are David Ickes “Lizard people”. He’s just a little confused as to where we are hiding. He he……………….

We will eventually rule……………viva la separation!

people naming their kids like Japanese words.

All Japanese words end in a vowel or the letter N.

my newest Albertan grandson's name ends with an N.

Knight 99 - Re the west ruling - Interestingly, Ignatieff was saying the same thing:

"Sometimes we've fallen prey to the temptation to run against the West, you know, to run against Alberta, to run against the Saskatchewan energy sector. This is not the way to go," he said.

"The western economy is the beating heart of Canadian progress in the future. This is where the action is. And, if this is where the action is economically, then we have to be there too."

I feel bad for PMSH - Ontarians will never really vote conservative in any meaningful amounts for the foreseeable future and Quebeckers will hate him no matter what he does (according to me at least).

It's a sad situation for Canada actually.

And - congrats to all the new parents and grandparents here!

Erik:

What's with the negative attitude.

If Quebecers hate us, that's a good thing. It gives them something else to hate other than themselves ... and who could blame them for hating themselves?

What better place to have littl'uns than Alberta?

set you free - I would like to see Conservatives be a strong national force, but sadly I don't see that happening soon. Nothing to do with Harper, I think he's great and should be better respected.

Back to the Quebec thing - I remember twenty years ago, my ex and I had a student over for supper who came from Quebec to Calgary for a month elective. She was scared to come here - her brother was telling her horror stories about how she would be treated, and how she would hate it. Of course, she had a great time, and everyone got along, and she was shocked at how nice people were here.

Hey - off topic - but I just asked a few kids if they had heard of "God Save the Queen".

They had no idea what I was talking about.

Erik:

Think redistribution.

set you free - well, I agree, and if the amount was doubled, hard core separatists wouldn't love us twice as much as they do now.

I really wonder to what extent Quebeckers know the economic realities of Canada compared to the ROC - let alone - that pesky business surrounding Churchill Falls . . . .

Miles at 10:21 pm:

Yours sounds very much like one of the families to which I am a very proud grandfather. Parents of different backgrounds, working hard and raising children as proud and patriotic Canadians, living traditional values. My best wishes to your family in Alberta.

Erik:

Quebec population 7.8 million, 75 seats.

Alberta/B.C. pop 7.8 million, 64 seats.

Well, if you're going to bring out facts one by one to torture me, I can only guess! Senate seats, per capita income, taxation, etc etc

I still remember the huge exodus in the 70s, and I work with many anglo Quebeckers who fled at that time.

I guess my point was IMHO people just generally want to get along, and it's mainly politicians who screw us all up by encouraging division.

There *are* many good and honest politicians, but they generally aren't the ones in power, and their frustrations just lead down the road to getting a poorer pool "volunteering for duty". Crappy firebrands make the headlines, and somehow dupe the electorate into re-electing them

Posted by: Erik Larsen at February 15, 2009 11:20 PM >>

“It's a sad situation for Canada actually.”

I agree wholeheartedly! I wish nothing but the best for the remainder of Canada but without doubt Alberta, energy sector aside (not the only industry) has dominated and provided one of the highest standards of living in the world. Could this possibly be due to decades upon decades of Conservative governance?
I couldn’t believe a fellow I met a few months ago who had moved to Alberta several years ago from Saskatchewan. He showed me pictures of his nice house on an acreage outside of Sherwood Park along with all his new expensive toys, from playtoy hot rod to skidoos, quads blaa blaa blaa. As our conversation continued he started telling me what idiots Albertans are fixated on a conservative government and we were too stupid and shortsighted to give the NDP a chance. He was actually militant and aggressive about it. Needless to say the conversation got heated after I said he sounded like a paki coming from a dysfunctional country to tell us how it is (BTW he was a racist I simply put things in terms he could understand based on an even earlier conversation).
The point I was making but did not register, is that he and his wife came to Alberta because neither could find suitable employment at the time in Sask, and within a few years reaped the rewards of Alberta industry and conservative planning. They on the other hand were thankless miscreants and exactly the kind of emigrant Alberta could do without.

Friedman's four ways of spending money:

1. You spend your own money on yourself (and are very careful)

2. You spend your own money on someone else (and are also careful)

3. You spend someone else's money on you (lunch on the company card - hey, let's order something extra nice!)

4. You spend someone else's money on somebody else (in government, you're judged on if you're a "good person or not" correlated to the more you spend - well, then, better spend a lot)

Government - please leave the money with us - we know how to spend it.

felis corpulentis:

Thank you.
All the best to you and yours, as well.

Personally, I think it is more Al Gore's fault and not a "Conservative Secret Agenda". With the 30 below global warming experienced of late, I can see nothing better that to cuddle under that Hudson Bay blanket to stay warm. /grin

Maybe its something in the water. Quebec is sure to have great interest in this matter. PQ governments of the past have urged the traditional Quebec family to have many more babies. If they did then someday when they have the next neverendum they could stand a chance to win over "l'argent et les votes ethnique" (money and the ethnic vote)

"gord, again, there is no denominator for the names, so I don't know what that stat really means."

It's just a statistic. It's a piece of the puzzle not the whole puzzle. It won't give you the big answer. But if you apply it to other information that you already have it may get you closer to solving the puzzle.

Paul and Glasnost are missing part of my point. The observation was that the women having a number of babies, a year apart are Muslim, while non-Muslims are having less children. This is as observed by my wife, who is a nurse on the busiest maternity floor in Calgary. So what Paul observed is right, they are a minority, and a small part of the "boom" but in 20 years, who knows if these new kids are going to be true Albertan, or are they going to be like those demonstrating near the synagouge in support of Hamas, as we have seen here last month. If they begin having children in the same sort of numbers as their parents, the demographics will eventually shift.
Steyn's theory about low western birth rates vs high Muslim birth rates is starting to show in Alberta as well, whether or not Muslims are a small minority.

I think it's mainly a demographic effect. There have been a lot of folks from other provinces moving to Alberta in the last decade looking for work. Most of them would be in their prime child-bearing years. Were it not for the oil boom, many of those births would be in Saskatchewan or Newfoundland.

I am guessing I am the evilest of evils....not only have I fathered my children in Alberta, but I have now transplanted my WASP children into southern Ontario.......ohhh the horror...I expect the NDP, PC police and all the other left wing social engineering wackos will be descending upon my abode any minute....GOD HELP ME!!!