April 20th campaign wrap up
Posted Apr 20, 2012 3:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With just a couple days left in the campaign, leaders are out drumming up as much support and votes as they can.
The NDP’s Brian Mason is calling on all parties to end to ‘pork-barrel politics’; saying says the PC government has turned public appointments into nothing more than political rewards.
“Conservatives chose not to put this law into effect because they’re quite happy with the current process, all done behind cabinet doors. It let Alison Redford appoint her leadership rival Gary Mar to his plum, $200,000-plus post in Asia without vetting of any sort,” Mason said. “Ken Hughes, another political appointee to the Alberta Health Services board, just slid back into politics and is running in this election.”
Raj Sherman says a vote for the Liberals is a vote for public healthcare, saying only his party will protect and improve Alberta’s healthcare system.
“Albertans need to be clear about this,” said Sherman. “On one side, we have the right-wing PCs who wrecked our healthcare system and want to privatize it, and the Wildrose with their plan to privatize even faster. And then there are the Alberta Liberals – the only party with a fully costed plan to protect and improve our health care system – and to fight privatization.”
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith says she has had enough with critics labeling her party as narrow-minded and bigoted and is reminding voters to focus on platform issues.
“Wildrose has laid out a very clear, practical, and affordable plan for Alberta over the course of the campaign, while the increasingly desperate PCs have run up a $7-billion tab of unbudgeted campaign promises,” Smith said. “But this election will also be a historic choice between the Redford PCs’ plan to change our character to satisfy someone else’s idea of who we should be, and a new Wildrose government that will uphold the traditions of tolerance and individual freedom that have been hallmarks of Alberta’s character for over a century.”
The PC’s Alison Redford says while her party could work with the NDP or the Liberals in the legislature they would not be able to with the Wildrose Party, saying values of her party clash so much with those of the Wildrose she doubts they could find common ground.
Redford says she remains concerned about homophobic and racist remarks made by two Wildrose candidates.
