EDMONTON — Alison Redford, seeking her first public mandate as premier of Alberta, is sending voters to the polls April 23.
A smiling Redford made the walk Monday down the legislature’s third-floor marble hallway, past the portraits of the province’s previous premiers, to Lt.-Gov. Don Ethell’s office, where she asked him to sign the writ dissolving the government and calling the election.
“We’ve met before but never under circumstances like this,” Redford said to Ethell, who presided over her swearing-in ceremony as premier in October.
Ethell also signed off on a senator-in-waiting ballot to be held at the same time as the election.
Redford then headed to her first campaign event — a speech where she was flanked by her Edmonton-area candidates.
She struck an optimistic tone.
“We have a tremendous economy in this province and we have a wonderful quality of life,” she said. “I don’t want this to be a campaign about fear. I want this to be a campaign about hope.”
Redford’s Progressive Conservatives are gunning for a 12th consecutive majority dating back to 1971, but it promises to be a bitter fight.
After years of smashing opponents on the left side of the political spectrum, the Tories are being challenged on the right.
The Wildrose party under leader Danielle Smith has grown in popularity in recent years by staking claim to the traditional Tory turf of balanced budgets and landowner rights. They argue the Conservatives have become profligate spenders, running up billions of dollars in budget deficits in recent years despite oil hovering at US$100 a barrel.
“I think Albertans understand that this party does not deserve another majority and they are looking for another party for whom to cast their vote,” Smith told reporters at the legislature Monday. “We are going to offer some positive ideas for change.”
Redford’s team has struggled in recent weeks with allegations of influence peddling by the government’s Asia trade representative and the revelation that politicians have been paid for years to work on a committee that doesn’t meet.
Doctors have assailed her for failing to call a public inquiry into allegations of intimidation in the health-care system. She’s even faced fire over the election call itself, breaking a promise to fix a date and opting instead for a three-month window.
The Wildrose has been running second to the Tories in pre-election polls and both sides have already taken swipes at one another in attack ads.
Redford has signalled her party’s battle plan recently telling the when she told the house that a Wildrose promise to balance the budget would mean closures of hospitals and schools.
The oil-rich province has not incurred any long-term debt from the deficits because it has dipped into its multibillion-dollar savings account.
At dissolution, the Tories held 67 of the legislature’s 83 seats, the Liberals had eight, the Wildrose four, the NDP 2 and the Alberta party one. There was one Independent.
There will be 87 seats up for grabs this time due to boundary redistribution in a growing province of 3.7 million. There are more seats in Calgary, one extra in Edmonton and an added one in the Fort McMurray oilsands area.
To the left of the Tories, things are fragmented.
The Liberals under new leader Raj Sherman have 60 candidates in hand, but expect to run a full slate by voting day. They are promising to balance the books by increasing taxes on the wealthy, while cutting tuition for students, reducing the size of government and adding more long-term care beds to reduce long wait lines for health care.
The New Democrats under Brian Mason were the first party to field a full slate and are hoping to ride the NDP’s popularity in the last federal election. The party has not released its policy platform yet, but promises to fight for fixes to health care. It also plans to push for a re-regulated electricity system to reduce Albertans’ power bills.
Glenn Taylor’s upstart Alberta Party has 26 candidates and is running on a centrist platform of more democratic transparency, reduced red tape for business and health care that focuses on prevention rather than just treatment.
The Tories are looking to make history. A win would ensure they have the longest continuously serving government in Canada at 44 years.