Final Friday! Three days left until Election Day in Alberta
Toss out all the old assumptions. This is 2023.
There are three days left until Election Day in Alberta!
The parties and their leaders are spending the final days making their last pitches to voters and rallying their supporters.
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley spoke to a crowd of about 350 supporters at a campaign rally in Medicine Hat yesterday before heading back to Calgary to speak at a backyard gathering in support of Calgary-Fish Creek candidate Rebecca Bounsall.
Neither of these places are where an NDP leader would traditionally spend any time during the final days of the campaign in past elections but all of the old assumptions have been tossed out the window in 2023.
Notley and her big orange campaign bus are scheduled to spend this afternoon on a whistle stop tour in support of NDP candidates running in Calgary-Acadia, Calgary-Foothills, Calgary-Glenmore, Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-North, Calgary-South East, Calgary-Shaw, and Calgary-West.
The NDP is holding campaign rallies in Calgary on Saturday and in Red Deer and Edmonton on Sunday to cap off their campaign.
United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith drew a big crowd of 2,000 supporters at a rally at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino in Calgary last night. Earlier in the day, Smith made a campaign stop in Calgary-Cross to support candidate Mickey Amery, who is facing a challenge from NDP candidate Gurinder Singh Gill.
This is at least the second time during the campaign that Smith has made a swing through this particular north east Calgary riding.
And we are thick in poll soup again!
Respected pollster Janet Brown has a new poll out this morning showing the UCP with 49% in battleground Calgary compared to 46% for the NDP.
A Calgary-specific poll from ThinkHQ shows the NDP with 49% and UCP with 43% in the Stampede City.
A poll released earlier in the week by Abacus showed the UCP with an edge in Cowtown.
Elections Alberta reports that as of 8:30pm last night, 461,433 people had voted in the advance polls set up in ridings across the province. With two more days of advance voting open, Albertans could be on track set a new record (700,476 people voted in the advance polls in 2019).
Thank you to everyone who reads and subscribes to the Daveberta Substack. If you like what you read here today, share it with a friend or coworker, and feel free to leave a comment or send me an email if you have any feedback or ideas you want to share.
Dave
PS. In case you missed it, check out my list of 19 ridings I’m watching on Election Day and the new episode of the Daveberta Podcast with special guest Chris Henderson.
Campaign promises
Smith pledged to introduce the Taxpayer Protection Amendment Act that would block the provincial government from increasing personal taxes or taxes on businesses without a referendum.
Notley pledged to introduce the Save Albertans’ Money Act, which would lower the cost of utility bills, auto insurance, children’s activities, tuition and to implement $10-per-day childcare and extend the program to before- and after-school care.
Notley also said she would introduce the Investment Certainty Act, which would repeal the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act and eliminate the small business tax. She would also introduce the Pension Protection Act, which would prevent any future provincial government from leaving the Canada Pension Plan.
Edmonton-Glenora NDP candidate Sarah Hoffman joined Red Deer-North candidate Jaelene Tweedle to announce plans to hire more teachers, educational assistants and support staff, and to reverse cuts to supports for students with special learning needs. Tweedle is running against Education minister Adriana LaGrange.
Calgary-Foothills UCP candidate Jason Luan announced his party’s plan to create a Community Recreation Centre Infrastructure Fund to provide an $80 million investment over four years to build mid-sized recreation facilities.
This week in endorsements
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre recorded a video endorsement for Smith that was released on the UCP’s social media channels. This endorsement is not a surprise and, quite frankly, it felt a little underwhelming because Poilievre didn’t bother actually coming to Alberta to deliver it.
Janet Hancock has endorsed Edmonton-South West NDP candidate Nathan Ip in his campaign against UCP candidate Kaycee Madu. Hancock is a long-time educator and former principal of Lillian Osborne High School in Edmonton. She is also the wife of former Progressive Conservative premier Dave Hancock, who was MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud from 1997 to 2014 and served as a senior cabinet minister under Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford.
Former MLA Blake Pedersen endorsed Edmonton-City Centre NDP candidate David Shepherd. Pedersen was elected as a Wildrose MLA in Medicine Hat in 2012 and crossed the floor with Smith to the PCs in 2014. He was defeated in his bid for re-election as a PC candidate in 2015 and later joined the Alberta Party. He now lives in Edmonton.
A handful of current and former Members of Parliament have been spotted on the campaign trail this week.
Two MPs are campaigning in Lesser Slave Lake this week: Edmonton-Griesbach NDP MP Blake Desjarlais with NDP candidate Danielle Larivee, and Peace River-Westlock Conservative MP Arnold Viersen with UCP candidate Scott Sinclair.
Calgary-Peigan UCP candidate Tanya Fir was joined on the campaign trail by Calgary-Sheperd Conservative MP Tom Kmiec.
Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Heather McPherson joined former MP Linda Duncan on the doors to support Morinville-St. Albert NDP candidate Karen Shaw. McPherson has also been campaigning for Sherwood Park NDP candidate Kyle Kasawski.
Calgary-Midnapore Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie was on the doors with Calgary-Fish Creek UCP candidate Myles McDougall.
Former Edmonton-Centre Conservative MP Laurie Hawn recorded a video endorsement of Edmonton-City Centre UCP candidate Richard Wong.
Former Edmonton-Griesbach Conservative MP Kerry Diotte has been seen frequently on the campaign trail in support of UCP candidate Raj Sherman in Edmonton-Whitemud.
We are the champions! POLITICO Trivia Night in Edmonton
It was a lot of fun to join this crew at Wednesday’s election trivia night in Edmonton hosted by POLITICO’s Ottawa Playbook.
Thanks to my teammates Jackie, Karen, Anne, Barb and Meaghan for a fun time (we won!) and thanks to POLITICO’s Nick Taylor-Vaisey for organizing the event. Special guest quizmasters Adam Sweet and Edmonton-Wetaskiwin MP Mike Lake did their best to keep us on our toes.