Election call expected Tuesday
Posted Apr 7, 2015 7:14 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Get ready to head to the polls, Alberta.
Premier Jim Prentice has called a news conference for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday to make a major announcement, and it’s expected he’ll drop the writ and trigger a month-long election campaign.
The move comes a year before Alberta law says the election needs to be called.
Mount Royal University Political Scientist Lori Williams told City News Prentice will likely argue his party needs a strong mandate to implement his controversial budget, because it’s going to be rolled out over three years.
“They want time to sort of manage all of that and hopefully by the time they call their next election, be in a position where the budget is in a better place, the deficit is diminished, and Albertans are more likely to support them,” Williams said.
Another reason for the early election call could be that the opposition parties are in disarray, and MRU Political Scientist Keith Brownsey expects that could fuel attack ads.
“The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, against the government’s austerity plans on the one hand,” Brownsey said. “There will be attack ads from Wildrose on the other against describing what they would consider to be the government’s profligate behaviour.”
However, he said the PCs benefit from a premier who’s good on television and a strategy to wean us off oil and gas revenue which could resonate with voters.
Many are wondering what the opposition parties need to do to get the attention of voters and make a run for the Conservative throne.
Dr. Allan Bonner is the author of 11 books, including “Political Conventions; The Art of Getting Elected and Governing.”
He said it may be difficult for voters to figure out which message to believe this time around as all parties involved can claim they are the fresh face.
“What Mr. Prentice and his colleagues will be doing is saying that Mr. Prentice is the agent of change. He’s new, he’s different,” Bonner said. “What the opposition will be doing is saying: we are the change. They are the same old, same old, and the electorate has to decide.”
As for tactics, Bonner says the opposition parties may decide to employ a negative attack campaign to start off, but will have to switch the message at some point to “what we can do better” than the long-reigning PCs.
