Election Time in Alberta

Smoky Lake Signal Article No. 203 (January 4, 2012)

Whispering in the Wing

Election Time in Alberta –
Based on a piece of legislation passed on December 6, 2011, Albertans will be going to the polls sometime between March 1 and May 31, 2012 – the specific date has yet to be announced but a good guess is that the election will be called immediately after the provincial budget is tabled at the Alberta Legislature. Currently, the Alberta Legislative Assembly is made up of 83 members: 68 Progressive Conservatives; 8 Liberals; 4 Wildrose; 2 New Democrats; and 1 Alberta Party – for the 2012 election four additional seats will be contested which means that there will be 87 sitting members of the Alberta Legislative Assembly. As to preparations by the various political parties, I don’t think there is any doubt as to what might be going on in the back rooms with the party’s elite: they will be frantically studying their polling data; refining political platforms statements and strategies; getting committed party supporters all excited and putting in place their most “winnable” candidates. All in all, Alberta politics is going to be interesting over the next two or three months.

Political Polls in Alberta –
Opinion polls are very confusing and at times, dangerous devices when it comes to judging electorate mood and voting intentions – nevertheless, polls are still the cheapest way in which to measure the mood of the electorate and that’s why they’re done. For the three or four latest polls detailed on the internet (these polls taken in the last 3 months) the Alberta PC Party s is comfortably ahead of its rival, the Wildrose Party – the Progressive Conservative Party has an apparent acceptance level of somewhere between 45 and 50 percent while the Wildrose’s acceptance level ranks second, at about 20 percent. The Liberals and the New Democrats are at about 15 points each. Looking at historical poll profiles taken over the last two or three years, I don’t think there is any question; Alison Redford in her leadership role has re-invigorated the Alberta PC Party and helped the Alberta PC Party regain its clear, dominant position in Alberta politics.

The Issues in Alberta –
In just a matter of months Alison Redford has shown herself to be an impressive, articulate political leader; but what she has to keep in mind is that the honeymoon period is over and the challenge of an election process has just begun. From my perspective the electorate is particularly interested in three major issues that, to a large extent, will determine their vote – so what I will be looking for from all the political leadership and all of our local candidates are real solutions and implementation strategies regarding: Alberta’s HEALTHCARE screw-up; the PROPERTY RIGHTS confusion which is of particular interest to rural Albertans; and the TRANSPORTATION and UPGRADING of ALBERTA’S NATURAL RESOURCES. In the weeks to come I hope to write about each of these issues in a fair amount of detail while not ignoring other important questions which might come up in this spring’s election competitions.
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