Premier Notley to deliver State of the Province address

Premier Rachel Notley is in Calgary Wednesday where she’ll deliver a state of the province address.

She’ll give the update at the Jack Singer Concert Hall at 12:30 p.m.

It comes as a new poll suggests her party is in real trouble of losing the support of Albertans.

With the price of oil stabilizing somewhat, Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams says Notley won’t just be giving idealistic projections.

“Count on her to focus on where she expects the economy to be going, what she wants to do to help that along, so the economic stimuli of things like job creation will be something she’ll address as well,” she said.

Williams expects the carbon tax will also get a lot of attention as Notley tries to explain its benefits when it comes to economic growth.

“She’s going to talk about it being revenue-neutral, that it might actually generate more jobs, more economic growth, social license, all of those sorts of things,” explained Williams. “It will be her opportunity to place the carbon tax into a bigger picture of economic growth rather than an increase in taxes.”

But no matter how positive the speech is, a new poll from the Citizen Society Research Lab at Lethbridge College shows Notley faces an uphill battle.

The survey says the leaderless Progressive Conservatives are surging ahead with decided voters across Alberta with 38.4 per cent support.

That puts the PCs 13 points in front of the Wildrose, which polls at 25.7 per cent while the NDP sits in a dismal third at just 19.7 per cent.

In Calgary, the Conservatives enjoy 41.4 per cent support, compared to 17.2 per cent for the NDP.

There is also a strong desire to unite the right with 66.2 per cent of all Albertans supporting some kind of merger between the PCs and Wildrose.