Alberta’s legislature has been dissolved and the writ issued for a May 29 vote, officially kicking off a four-week general election campaign that promises to be competitive down to the wire.
UCP Leader Danielle Smith focused her first stump speech Monday in Calgary on the promise of low taxes and an affordable cost of living, including through government rebates and a continued gas tax holiday.
“It’s a choice between a UCP government that will cut your taxes and make life more affordable, or an NDP government that will make you pay more across the board, from taxes, to fuel and groceries and beyond. It’s a choice between moving Alberta forward and building a brighter future or returning to the NDP’s costly and failed polices. We can’t afford to go back,” said Smith as she was backed by fellow UCP candidates on a suburban driveway.
Smith promised, if elected, the UCP would introduce a new tax cut by creating an eight per cent bracket on income under $60,000, potentially reducing taxes for those eligible by 20 per cent, saving those who make more than the threshold $760 and costing provincial coffers an estimated $1 billion.
Smith took the reigns of the ruling party last fall by promising a renewed aggression toward Ottawa, a firm libertarian stance against pandemic health measures, and the total shakeup of leadership at the provincial health authority. Her campaign attracted the support of party members who had helped toss former premier Jason Kenney from the job.
Both of Alberta’s major parties have been unofficially campaigning for weeks, including with kick-off parties in both of Alberta’s major cities over the weekend. Smith announced last week she would give a huge provincial gift to a Calgary Flames-anchored event centre in the city considered to be the election’s biggest battleground, a deal the Opposition NDP insists hasn’t been made transparent to voters.
Both parties have been trying to paint themselves as the best bet for economic stability, affordability and revitalizing the Calgary core. Smith has also been touting her interim health administrator’s efforts to reduce wait lists and ambulance response times.
New Democrats have for months been making their own promises to bolster a battered health-care system, hire frontline health-care workers and teachers, and put to bed many of the UCP’s most controversial ideas, from establishing a provincial police service to pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan.
‘It is time for common sense’: Notley
At an address Monday in Calgary surrounded by supporters and candidates, NDP Leader Rachel Notley focused on pitching her party as the choice for steady, responsible governance that will invest in public health care. Notley pointed to Smith’s previous policy paper suggestions that Albertans pay out of pocket for doctor’s visits.
Smith has since made a public health guarantee that no Albertan will have to pull out a credit card.
“After four very hard years dealing with a health-care crisis, an affordability crisis and a UCP government constantly in crisis, this campaign is actually about giving families hope … it is time for that hope, it is time for stability, it is time for common sense, and it is time for trusted leadership,” said Notley, saying Smith will simply tell voters what she thinks they want to hear.
“And then she will go ahead and she will do whatever she wants — privatize your health care, gamble with your pensions, pander to extremists. The fact is, it is just time for a better government,” said Notley.
After gaining in public support during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDP has been in many recent polls in a statistical tie with the UCP for popular support in the province.
Normally, the premier would prompt the election campaign by meeting with Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani to sign the legal documents, but Lakhani was out of the country Monday, meaning her responsibilities fell to Alberta Chief Justice Ritu Khullar.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer, Glen Resler, confirmed Monday around 11 a.m. that the writs were issued, and the 31st provincial general election is underway.
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