The four-week sprint to determine whether Alberta’s long-ruling Progressive Conservatives get to add another four years to their four decades in power is almost certain to start today.
Premier Alison Redford, who spent Sunday in meetings and with her family, is expected to visit Lt.-Gov. Don Ethell this morning to ask for the legislature to be dissolved and a provincial election campaign to commence.
Tory campaign manager Susan Elliott said Sunday she didn’t know definitively if the writ would be dropped, but is preparing for the 28-day campaign to start today, which would put the election on April 23.
For the provincial race, last-minute preparations involve prepping the leader’s bus, getting candidate websites up and putting the finishing touches on the opening stages of Redford’s tour, her first as Tory leader.
Across the province, candidates spent the weekend gearing up for what is expected to be the most competitive election in Alberta since Ralph Klein’s first victory in 1993.
“What they should be doing is door-knocking and talking to Albertans,” said Elliott. “We’re going to have ads and air-game stuff and so on, but this is a ground game. We’re going to win this on the ground.”
The PCs have been under fire in recent weeks over a string of controversies, and polls have shown the upstart, right-wing Wildrose party as their biggest threat.
Tory TV and radio ads will begin running today if the writ is dropped, but pre-campaign volleys between the parties have already struck a negative, critical tone.
Wildrose launched their own television attack ads aimed at Redford last week. Those followed negative PC radio ads on the government’s 0.05 impaired driving legislation blasting Wildrose.
A fundraising e-mail sent out under Redford’s name to Tory supporters Sunday asked for financial support to counteract what it called “misinformation” spread by the party’s opponents.
Elliott said the PCs will run more commercials taking aim at other parties’ positions, but their campaign will have an “upbeat and positive” message.
“Don’t listen to all the people who just tell you everything that’s wrong with this place. Because there’s not that much wrong with it. I think people will get tired of hearing all the things that are wrong with Alberta,” Elliott said.
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith, heading to Edmonton Sunday afternoon in preparation for the expected election launch, said her party’s platform, ads and candidates are in place and raring to go.
She said the Wildrose campaign will be mainly positive, but won’t hesitate to draw a contrast to the ruling PCs.
“It’s very important for Ms. Redford to run on her record and I think her record has already demonstrated she is not much different than the regime that was there before her. She talks a lot about change but what we’re seeing is the same-old, same old,” said Smith.
“People don’t have to give this government another majority. They sure don’t deserve it. We want them to know that there’s something positive they can vote for.”
Late Sunday, the Wildrose also released the list of Smith’s campaign donors from her successful 2009 leadership campaign, something the party had previously resisted making public due to what she had said was fear from donors of retribution from the governing Tories.
“Things have changed since I became Wildrose leader. I am the leader of a party that is now capable of defeating the Progressive Conservatives,” Smith said in the statement. “We are going to be running a campaign on transparency, accountability and better democracy, and it has to start with me.”
The party said Smith raised $488,000 from 2,666 donors, with 173 contributing more than $375, including 20 that reached $5,000 or higher. Among the largest contributors was Pirie Resource Management Ltd. giving $25,000, as well as $10,000 each from oilpatch giant Encana Corp. and Pacific Western Transportation.
The Liberals, who finished second in the 2008 election but have dropped in public support and gone through two leaders since then, believe recent well-publicized problems within the health system have helped the party gain ground since Christmas under Leader Raj Sherman.
Sherman, working his last shift Sunday as an emergency room doctor before the campaign, said the Liberals will differentiate themselves with a platform that calls for measures such as a boost to corporate income tax and personal income taxes for those that make more than $100,000 to help pay for social programs.
He expects the well-heeled Tories and Wildrose to blanket the province with advertising.
“They want to be able to buy an election but they’ve got no plan to govern.
“They can’t balance the books. I want to know from both of them, how are you going to fix health care and education, and where are they going to get the money from?” he said.
“We’ve got the plan to govern this province. We don’t need to spend millions on advertising,”
The Liberals are still getting candidates in place — there are slightly more than 70 nominated at this point — but campaign chair Cory Hogan said the party will have a full slate of 87. The party wants to ensure that anyone who wants to vote Liberal has the opportunity to do so.
NDP Leader Brian Mason was already in campaign mode with a full day of events in his party’s base of Edmonton on Sunday.
He said while Wildrose and the Tories are fighting a high-profile battle over the conservative vote, that leaves significant opportunities for the NDP.
“While some of the coverage may suggest it is a two-way fight between those two parties, what is actually happening is a split among conservative voters that will favour the NDP,” said Mason.
Mount Royal University political analyst David Taras said the timing of the election has not worked exactly in the Tories’s favour given the 41-year government’s recent problems.
The party ended up being “trapped” by the law passed under Redford requiring an election be held between March 1 and May 31.
“It took away their flexibility and they now have to go. It’s too late to turn back,” said Taras.
“The great thing that the Tories have now is the strong economy going for them.”
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