How about the Misunderstood Corner of Alberta instead?

Medicine Hat may or may not be the “Forgotten Corner of Alberta,” but its politics are certainly being misunderstood by national level commentators.

The Conservatives maintained support in Monday’s byelection, pretty much hitting it out the park with 70 per cent for Tory candidate Glen Motz.

But not content with crushing the local Liberals and issuing a victorious poking-out-of-the-tongue at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some pundits quickly pointed to the results to predict electoral doom for the provincial New Democrats.

The federal NDP had its poorest showing ever during the election, and the Tory campaign worked hard to tie the leaders in Edmonton and Ottawa together.

The contrarian would argue that Premier Rachel Notley has enough problems of her own without owning Trudeau’s, and vice versa.

But the basic thought is that the dismal vote tally for the NDP (just 353 on 34,000 ballots), means the Trudeau Liberals are eating up the NDP’s voting base.

The extended argument however, only works if you think the Alberta Liberal Party is poised for electoral success in 2019.

That’s beyond belief, but still what some columnists extorted this week from faraway places.

The Alberta Liberals are in about the same place they were at the May 2015 election, when they couldn’t muster candidates in every riding.

It’s also the same place the Federal NDP is in today, apparently, considering the selection of Bev Waege as the local candidate.

A good party soldier but a paper candidate, Waege stepped forward but declined media interviews and didn’t appear at the only all-candidates forum.

Is it too much to think the federal party strategist looked at the 2015 Alberta election — when Waege’s similarly silent campaign nearly won second place in Cypress-Medicine Hat — and figured popularity might carry over.

It did not, and quote one local ND party stalwart: this is “what happens when (national) headquarters interfere with local NDP candidate selection.”

For the record, the provincial and federal NDP are more closely aligned than branches of other political parties, but the two have been on the outs since last spring.

That’s when the national party delegates in Edmonton jettisoned Leader Tom Mulcair and sent the “Leap Manifesto” to debate at the riding level.

Even Notley mused about a split with the federal brass, saying the document was ill conceived.

As for provincial politics, local Wildrose and PCs may be in knots calling Bob Wanner’s win for the NDs in the city riding a vote-splitting mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

One must admit though that Wanner is the best candidate — with name recognition and general resume — that the NDs have put forward in the area perhaps ever.

It’s not too much to think that progressive voters lined up behind him as simply their best choice, and perhaps the same is true for Stan Sakamoto who boosted the Liberal profile in town.

Taxes!

Americans vote for president in about 10 days but also to decide ballot measures.

In Missouri, a proposal would allow the extension of sales tax to services — a move heartily opposed by an unusual coalition of realtors, barbers and others currently exempt.

Currently, tax there is only applied to goods, but increasingly governments are facing a funding crunch as the service sector’s share of the economy grows.

Sweden, by the way, has a new strategy to tackle its growing trade gap, by reducing its sales tax on repair services like tailoring, cobbling and small appliance repair. The gist is that such jobs are hard to automate, are better paid than retail, and help battle a growing “throw-away culture.”

Sales tax there is currently 25 per cent, by the way, but half that amount on such labour would be refunded.

A look ahead

It being technically the fifth Monday in the month, no city committee meetings are scheduled.

The provincial legislature begins its fall sitting on Monday. Happy Halloween!

100 years ago

Hatters were going all out to prepare for the upcoming provincial poultry show set to be staged in the city, the News reported on Nov. 2, 1916.

Mayor A.C. Hawthorne announced he would not run again in the upcoming annual city election.

Council dedicated $700 to road improvements near the Hedley Shaw Mill after receiving news that the grain company had purchased excess land from the Church of England Cemetery near Kipling Street.

Local clergy had arranged to exchange pulpits throughout churches, providing guest sermons in the morning then speaking to their own congregations at night.