The main contenders in Alberta’s provincial election campaign are headed in opposite directions during the final days before voting, with the United Conservatives looking to make inroads in Edmonton while the New Democrats focus on Calgary.
While polls in the final week of the campaign have shown the gap between the front-runners is narrowing, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party still enjoys a considerable lead and is widely expected to become the government after Tuesday’s election. NDP Leader Rachel Notley has said her campaign is in “good shape” headed into a final stretch where her party is single-digits behind its opponent.
The final pushes from both parties reflect much of their campaign strategies over the past month. Ms. Notley’s New Democrats have said the main battleground is Calgary, and they need to hold onto a smattering of downtown seats to retain government. Mr. Kenney has pointed to Edmonton and has vowed to win in the region, which Ms. Notley’s party swept in 2015.
“The support is there, the key battleground is Edmonton and I’m going up there to fight for every vote in the great capital city of Alberta,” Mr. Kenney told a rally of supporters in Red Deer. He said he wants Edmonton-area MLAs in his cabinet. The government town has often turned its back on Alberta’s conservative parties over the past two decades.
“The winds of change are blowing right here in Alberta,” Mr. Kenney said. He refused to take questions from reporters on Friday.
At an event in Calgary, Ms. Notley was upbeat, and said voters who previously supported Alberta’s conservative parties have said they are considering the New Democrats because they are concerned about the views of some UCP candidates.
“You may not agree with everything that we’ve done, but we share core values,” she said. “The trends are that the gap is tightening and more and more people are coming to consider our party and are starting to consider the issue of leadership. As long as that trend continues, then we are in good shape.”
A record 403,000 Albertans cast ballots in advance polls, more than a quarter of whom took advantage of a change in election rules that allowed them to do so outside of their home constituencies at any voting location in the province. The number of votes smashed the previous record for advance polls, which was 235,000 in 2015.
Alberta’s campaign has been a dark contest, with other parties putting the focus for much of the past month on racist, homophobic and other intolerant comments made by candidates running for the UCP. Mr. Kenney has dismissed many of the attacks as “smears,” and has repeatedly sought to link Ms. Notley to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“On this Tuesday, we are going to end the Trudeau-Notley alliance and stand up and fight for this province,” Mr. Kenney said on Friday in Red Deer, Alta. He added that if his party forms government, he’ll look to help the federal Conservatives defeat Mr. Trudeau in the federal election in October.
Ms. Notley has rejected the suggestion she’s been too close to the Liberal Prime Minister. Instead, she shot back that Mr. Kenney is “beholden to extreme fringes” in his party.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Kenney stood by candidate Mark Smith after a recording surfaced of a 2013 sermon he delivered in which he said television portrayals of LGBTQ relationships as “good love” are problematic. He then quickly added a similar concern about pedophilia.
The so-called vote-anywhere rule for advance polls could have an impact on election night because ballots cast outside home constituencies must be counted in Edmonton. Ballots from more isolated ridings, like around Fort McMurray, might not arrive there until after election night.