Election called
It’s probably the worst kept secret in Alberta politics but we now know that we will be heading to the polls on March 3rd.
Directly after the throne speech, Premier Ed Stelmach walked into the office of Lt.-Gov. Norman Kwong and asked for the legislature to be dissolved for an election. Am I surprised? Not at all. For months there has been speculation that the Premier, who hasn’t faced the voting public yet, would take the plunge and drop the writ.
The Premier used the throne speech as a well-publicised way of shining light on the PC platform. It’s not a new move but a good strategic one to try and let everyone know what the conservatives stand for. The throne speech always gets a tonne of media coverage, so it makes sense to use that to promote the PC values. But the herald is reporting that Stelmach has been under fire for this strategy. Wildrose Alliance leader Paul Hinman was not happy that Stelmach would use the throne speech as a campaign commercial. The quote in the Herald reads like this: “The Lieutenant-Governor’s throne speech is an expression of a vision of Alberta’s future; it should not be dragged into the campaign arena”.
While most of the initiatives in the speech had already been announced, there was that golden nugget Stelmach was saving for the election. It was announced that the PC’s would like to eliminate health care premiums, which would save individuals about 500 bucks a year and families just over a thousand. Before we praise the Tories for making the move let’s look at both sides of the story.
This will likely be one of those promises that creates buzz amongst voters. But the funny thing is, the Tories want you to believe this is their strategy, yet by taking this step it only confirms that basically no matter who you vote for…the premiums will be scrapped. Opposition parties, like the Liberals and NDP, have been calling for the elimination of premiums for years along with organizations like the Canadian Taxpayers Association. So you can vote Red or neon Orange and still eliminate the health care premiums. At least now the holdout Tories have set the plan in stone, which is obviously good news for us.
Now that the election has been called, the battle begins. I predict that this could get nasty. I don’t mean really nasty, like people swearing or name calling, but more like passionate debates and some heavy campaigning to bash the “other guys” political stance.
Of course Calgary will be the battleground of this election. Slowly but surely we have seen poll after poll showing support for Stelmach’s PC’s dropping and the undecided voters grow massively. With the Liberals not really moving in their position of popularity, those undecideds obviously came from the Tory side of Alberta politics. This shows that the official opposition (the Liberals) has so far failed to convince voters that they will govern better than the Tories, meanwhile those voters are losing confidence in the PC party.
This election will be the “undecided election”. That is the Cormac Mac Sweeney unofficial title for the 2008 campaign. All parties will be scrambling for your vote since you don’t know who you want as a representative in the legislature. The Tories will be desperately trying to keep their former supporters on their side and the Liberals will be desperately trying to convince you they can do a better job over the next 4-5 years than Stelmach and his buddies. Meanwhile on both sides of the political spectrum, the two major parties have to try and steal or retain votes from the other Alberta parties. The NDP on the far left and the newly formed/merged Wildrose Alliance on the far right.
Those two parties are trying their darndest to establish themselves as a serious threat on a provincial level, but have failed to gain widespread support in recent years. None the less, they will most likely be thorns in the sides of both the Liberals and Tories. The Wildrose Alliance will steal right wing votes from the PC’s and the Liberals could lose valuable left wing support to the New Democrats.
This whole equation should result in a fiery and passionate campaign where the only rule should be “no holds barred”. All candidates will put on their charm to sweet talk you or become aggressive while attacking their opponents. Just like school children they will do everything in their power to get your vote and win a seat in Edmonton.
For the PC’s this is a critical campaign to re-establish themselves as the governing party of Alberta…a tradition that has lasted more than 3 decades. For the Liberals it is their chance to take advantage of the Tories, who are showing a rare weakness in the history of the party, to prove to Albertans they have the nuts and bolts to keep this province prosperous and powerful. The Liberals have the most to gain and the PC’s have the most to lose, meanwhile there are two other parties just trying to break through.
No matter how this ends someone is bound to fail, making the taste of victory that much better for the winners. Stelmach does not want to face a minority government or a significant loss of seats (it could cost him his job), and with the slight momentum the Liberals have picked up leading into this election they can’t afford to lose seats and take a big step back in progress. In other words, this battle we call an election should be good.