On the eve of the election writ drop in Alberta, both candidates for premier are firing up political support with campaign-style rallies.
As of May 1, the current official opposition New Democrat Party (NDP) and the reigning United Conservative Party (UCP) will have less than 30 days to convince voting-age Albertans whom to elect as the next premier in what is anticipated to be a fierce battle between the two parties in the provincial election.
The election is expected to be held on May 29.
Newly minted Premier Danielle Smith, a self-described libertarian who supports individual freedoms, has already faced controversies in her short term in power after her predecessor, former premier Jason Kenney, resigned as UCP leader in May 2022.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley, daughter of former Alberta premier Grant Notley, has union support but introduced controversial legislation to regulate farmers and also raised taxes during a brief four-year term ending in 2019.
The question is, will voters return Smith to her seat, or will they instead elect Notley and return her to her seat to retake control of the province?
NDP Launches Campaign in Edmonton
Notley released her campaign song, “Stand Together (For the Better)” by The Dungarees, on April 29, saying, “What an amazing way to kick off our campaign to build a better future.”
In a video posted April 30, wearing jeans with a blazer and walking next to her bright orange campaign bus, Notley announced that she will be travelling from Edmonton to Calgary. “Let’s paint the city orange!” she tweeted.
Alberta Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley on April 16, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson)
Notley said the NDP is focused on health care and making changes to the school curriculum.
Her party started delivering election signs for its slate of candidates, stating a “record-breaking” 50,000 orange signs will be distributed.
NDP candidate for Calgary West Joan Chand'oiseau wrote on social media: “You won’t believe this... I have just put in another order for signs because we have four times the number of signs we had in 2019.”
Chand'oiseau’s campaign website said her crew planned to deliver as many private signs as possible on April 30 and May 1. “A quick installation is for the SHOCK and AWE effect to show undecided voters that if they lend us their support, they are backing a winner” it said.
UCP Begins in Calgary
Smith began her campaign in Calgary on April 29, wearing black boots, blue jeans, a cobalt blue T-shirt, and a long black jacket. She announced plans to be in Edmonton later in the day. Smith met with supporters in a parking lot outside the campaign office of UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz, who is running for re-election. Tyler Shandro was also in Calgary at the rally, later campaigning with federal Conservative MP and Treasury Board shadow minister Stephanie Kusie.
More than a dozen current UCP MLAs, mainly from Calgary, joined Smith at the rally.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith holds her first press conference in Edmonton on Oct. 11, 2022. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
Smith’s speech focused on the economy, lower taxes, job creation, help for those with addictions, and crime reduction, with a campaign slogan of “move Alberta forward.”
She said the election is about keeping Alberta moving forward. “Whether we want Alberta to be stronger. And safer. And more affordable. Or... whether we want to go back.”
The UCP blamed high taxes under the NDP’s four-year government term—May 2015 to April 2019—for “a record 13 consecutive quartres of people leaving Alberta for other provinces,” citing Statistics Canada data. The UCP takes credit for reducing the corporate tax rate under the NDP from 12 percent to 8 percent, the lowest in Canada.
Smith said during the four-year period Notley was in power, she raised taxes and fees 97 times.
Battle
In an interesting start to the election campaign, Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid published an article on April 28 that was critical of Smith’s stance on freedom and individual rights, and the admiration she had expressed in the past for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Braid complimented Smith for being “strongly pro-choice,” and for the “less known” fact that her chief of staff is gay and a recovering homeless addict. He also noted that the province’s chief firearms officer, Teri Bryant, appointed before Smith took office, is a post-operative male now living as a female.
“There’s one quality that can explain the premier’s bursts of political strangeness,” suggested Braid. “She’s a libertarian more than a conservative.”
The UCP put out critical ads against the NDP on April 29, stating that Notley’s party, if elected, would “put Trudeau caps on our energy industry, destroying our economy,” and alleging that the NDP would increase business taxes and bring back a controversial bill to regulate private farms. The UCP also suggested that the NDP would refuse to support a new arena in Calgary.
The NDP meanwhile, unveiled plans for “Family Health Teams,” which the party said “will mean that within ten years, up to one million more Albertans will have access to a doctor within a day or two.”
The NDP’s campaign plan also includes a promise to give $1.5 million to the Chinatown Recovery Fund to revitalize Edmonton’s Chinatown, and $50 million in capital funding for improvements to derelict buildings in downtown Edmonton. The party proposes to address “crime and safety” in Edmonton’s city centre “by restoring fine revenue” that the UCP had eliminated.
Controversy
Both Smith and Notley have baggage heading into the election. Smith faces an ongoing ethics investigation after a recorded phone call was released between her and street preacher Artur Pawlowski during which he complained about his criminal charges.
Notley’s party faced accusations of verbal mistreatment and abuse of volunteers in 2022, and her former MLA Thomas Dang was charged with hacking a government website with COVID-vaccine records.
Notley also raised the possibility of resurrecting Bill 6 in recent days, legislation that she put forward following her election in 2015. The bill regulated private farms, forcing them to carry worker’s compensation insurance and follow employment standards rules. Thousands of farmers protested against Notley.
The UCP in 2019 campaigned in part on repealing the legislation, and did so after they took power that year.
Hospital Support
The UCP on April 25 announced a government investment of up to $300 million, subject to cabinet and Treasury Board approval by August 2023, to enable construction of a new sports arena and event centre in Calgary, to replace the aging Saddledome.
The UCP government had first committed in July 2021 to build a new stand-alone Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, with more pediatric beds, while Shandro was minister of health. On March 23, the UCP announced that the new budget included $3 million over three years that the province would provide to help build the hospital.
On April 29, nearly a month after the UCP budget announcement, Notley announced that the Alberta NDP government would “proceed with planning and designing a brand-new, stand-alone Stollery Hospital” and would “commit an initial $40-million investment to this critial project.”
Both the UCP and NDP have pledged that they will not raise personal taxes if elected. The UCP also promised not to raise business taxes.
So far, these might be the only issues both parties agree on.
