The Weekly Roundup - April 28, 2023
Both the UCP and NDP campaigns are ready to go for the election set to be called on Monday. The UCP are holding Calgary and Edmonton rallies with Leader Danielle Smith on Saturday framed as campaign launch events. You can expect both campaigns to be making stops in Calgary early next week to kick off their respective campaigns. The UCP are going with a slogan of “Moving Alberta Forward”, while the NDP are using “A Better Future For Alberta”.
Campaigns working well operate like a well-oiled machine with a war room calling the shots and orchestrating the ground game, as well as a tour team organizing a series of events each day to meet with local campaigns (whistle stops) and media events to announce key planks of a platform. Steve Outhouse is the campaign manager for the UCP while former Notley chief of staff Nathan Rotman will helm the NDP campaign.
Polling continues to show that the election is too close to call, and as the old adage goes, the only poll that matters is on election day. The 28-day writ period is sure to be dynamic, and New West will be sure to bring you context and analysis throughout the campaign.
Below, you’ll find the top federal and provincial stories of the week.
Top Federal Stories of the Week
More than 100,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada continue to be on strike. Today the federal government tabled a new contract offer, with the union stating they hope to continue bargaining over the weekend to reach a fair deal. Wage increases and work from home policies are integral parts of the ongoing negotiations.
Evacuation of Canadians from Sudan are ongoing with officials stating that the window for air evacuations is closing. Criticism of the federal government’s lack of organization in conducting evacuations has drawn parallels to a similar situation in Afghanistan in 2021 with defence minister at the time Harjit Sajjan sharing with a House of Commons committee this week that he did not have the time to check emails during the crisis.
Top Alberta Stories of the Week
Internal polling must have told the UCP that proceeding with an announcement of a Calgary arena deal would do more good than harm in the pre-election period. The reaction to the provincial government ponying up $330 million has been mixed, to say least, with some questioning the timing as buying votes, and other parts of the province wondering where their share of similar taxpayer dollars is. At the very least, the UCP have succeeded in making funding for the arena a wedge issue between themselves and the NDP.
Candidates are being finalized for the UCP and NDP in advance of Monday’s election call. As expected, current Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Tany Yao has been named as the replacement candidate in the constituency following the resignation of party nominee Zulkifl Mujahid. With Yao in place, the UCP have a full complement of 87 candidates. The NDP have a handful of constituencies where a candidate will be nominated this weekend to bring their total of candidates up to 87.
Both the UCP and NDP committed this week to not hiking personal income taxes should they form government, with the UCP taking it a step further and extending their “No Tax Hike Guarantee” to business taxes as well.
Upcoming Events Calendar
May 1, 2023: The Alberta provincial campaign will be called
May 6, 2023: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend King Charles’s coronation in London
May 29, 2023: The next Alberta Provincial General Election will be held