The election campaign in Alberta is officially launched.
Chief Electoral Officer Glen Resler announced Monday that Albertans will go to the polls on May 29 for the province’s 31st general election.
United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader Danielle Smith and New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Rachel Notley both kicked off their campaigns Monday in Calgary.
This Alberta metropolis should be decisive for the outcome of this election. Polls indeed suggest that the NDP of Mme Notley could repeat his dominance in the other metropolis, Edmonton, as the Conservatives in Mme Smith could retain rural areas and small urban centers. The outcome of the provincial election could therefore be played out in the greater Calgary region.
The NDP must win most of the 26 seats in Calgary, traditionally won by the Conservatives, to compensate for the expected victories of the PCU elsewhere in Alberta.
The two parties have been campaigning informally for weeks, and the two leaders have already taken part in rallies over the weekend — the NDP has even launched its campaign theme song.
Danielle Smith kicked off the CERB campaign by promising that a Conservative government would create a new marginal tax rate, 8%, for Albertans earning less than $60,000 a year. She said the measure would also save Albertans earning more than $60,000 $760 a year. Albertans earning less than $60,000 would pay 20% less tax, says Ms.me Smith.
At Monday’s New Democrat campaign launch in downtown Calgary, Rachel Notley said the NDP is focused on protecting health care and education, while creating jobs and making life more affordable. for Albertans.
She said Danielle Smith will tell Albertans whatever they want to hear, “and then she’ll go ahead and do whatever she wants — privatize your health care, gamble with your pensions, pander to extremists.” .
A race for two
Alberta is expected to see a “two-man race” between the UCP and the NDP, with no other party currently holding seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Liberals, the Alberta Party and the Greens will have to fight hard to get out of the margins.
Both the PCU and the NDP campaign for economic stability, promising rules for state coffers to be replenished with the oil windfall, while fully funding education and improving the health care system.
It would be a tightrope path to victory for Mme Notley, who is seeking to become the first Alberta leader to return to power after a one-term hiatus.
Rachel Notley led her party to a surprising victory in 2015 — the first for the NDP in Alberta — benefiting from a split in the right-wing vote between the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party. But the two right-wing parties then united to form the PCU and they were elected in 2019, under the leadership of Jason Kenney, former federal minister of Stephen Harper.
Danielle Smith warned voters that a second Notley government would mean the return of tax hikes and spending increases, even if oil prices were low during the NDP’s term. This government has posted multi-billion dollar budget deficits and sustained debt.
However, this fall in oil prices during the Notley years gave way to an oil boom under the CERB, which enabled Prime Minister Smith to increase spending practically at all levels in the budget last February, while generating a surplus of $2.4 billion.
Controversies also at the PCU
But the PCU also drags pans under the leadership of Mme Smith and his predecessor.
Under Jason Kenney, the party has declared war on healthcare workers, tearing up the framework agreement with doctors and demanding pay cuts for nurses amid the pandemic. The Kenney government also fired the chief election officer who was investigating the party.
During the pandemic, Mr. Kenney also angered his party’s far-right with mandatory vaccination measures and health restrictions, leading to an uprising by members of this right-wing coalition. Activists finally forced Mr Kenney out last fall after a timid 51% vote of confidence.
Enter Danielle Smith, a former Wildrose Party leader turned radio host — and an ardent “antivax” activist. She questioned the evidence of science and stirred up controversy when she said early-stage cancer patients should take responsibility for their disease.
Once elected leader of the PCU and becoming premier, she fired the Alberta Health Services board and chief medical officer of health, blaming them for overwhelmed hospitals during the pandemic. She called people who weren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 “the most discriminated group she had ever seen in her entire life.”
More recently, she has come under fire for taking an active role in a court case involving violations of health measures related to COVID-19. She had urged the judicial authorities to consider whether it was really worth prosecuting.
The provincial ethics commissioner is also investigating a phone call in which Danielle Smith offers to help a defendant in his criminal trial related to a border blockade against pandemic measures.
Chief Electoral Officer Glen Resler said Monday that nearly 20,000 election workers are being recruited to run polls in Alberta’s 87 ridings.