INNISFAIL - The 2019 provincial election race is on.
On Tuesday morning (March 19) in Calgary, Premier Rachel Notley announced Albertans will go to the polls on April 16 for the province's 30th general election. Notley's election announcement came one day after the governing NDP delivered its throne speech in the legislature.
The election call also comes as the official Opposition United Conservative Party (UCP) fends off its most challenging crisis since it was officially created nearly two years ago after the merger between the once powerful Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party.
The UCP has been dogged by ongoing news stories based from leaked documents that state party leader Jason Kenney's campaign team was allegedly involved in an unscrupulous plan to defeat former party leadership rival Brian Jean during the 2017 UPC leadership race.
Despite the challenges facing Kenney and the UCP, Devin Dreeshen, the UCP's current MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, said his party's caucus is solidly behind its leader.
"Our leader is great. He has united two conservative parties here in Alberta. It has been a three-year project, and it has been great," said Dreeshen, who was in Edmonton on March 19 when Notley dropped the writ for the spring election. "When it comes to the NDP's leadership, yes we as conservatives respect the office of the premier of Alberta, but when it comes to her leadership we have seen her make alliances with Justin Trudeau, brought in a carbon tax (and) assuming that was going to get pipelines approved, seen three major pipelines get cancelled or pushed off indefinitely by them.
"I think Albertans when it comes down to leadership they are going to see what the leadership by the NDP and the premier have done over the last four years, and that Alberta has not been better off because of that leadership," he added.
Dreeshen said the election will come down to a vote on economic policies, "whether it is the carbon tax or the oilpatch and what has happened to our energy sector.
"Albertans are going to finally get their say in their vote on what has happened to Alberta's economy over the last four years," he said.
Robyn O'Brien, 33, a non-profit arts director from Sylvan Lake, is carrying the NDP's hopes for the Innisfail - Sylvan Lake riding, which has been staunchly conservative for decades. Within a few hours of Notley dropping the writ O'Brien was heading to Red Deer to pick up election signs and work with members of her campaign team. O'Brien said she is hoping to visit Innisfail on Wednesday, March 20 and meet with citizens at Autumn Glen Lodge.
"There are more people turning to orange in Central Alberta then I have ever seen," said O'Brien, who is confident her party will have a far stronger result than in last year's byelection when candidate Nicole Mooney finished a distant second to Dreeshen with just 9.23 per cent of the total vote.
"The NDP has done a lot of amazing things in Sylvan Lake, Innisfail and Delburne in the past four years," she emphasized, specifically pointing to the Advanced Ambulatory Care Centre in Sylvan Lake. "That has made a significant difference in that community. There is also a clinic in Delburne that just recently opened, and that has also made a big difference in peoples' lives."
On the party leadership issue, O'Brien said the UCP's current troubles will show many people - including party supporters - the current opposition party is one that is not ready to take over the reins of running the province.
"If they are not angry about this they should be because the members of the UCP and the people that support the UCP deserve better," said O'Brien. "They deserve honesty and they deserve integrity. If they are not getting it with their current leader they should be asking for it. They deserve to be represented adequately and they are not."
As for the Alberta Liberal Party, leader David Khan told the Province through an email that "several strong candidates" are currently being looked at for the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake riding and one will be finalized and announced by the end of the month.
Clayton Knutson, 36, a petroleum systems engineer from Red Deer, is running in the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake riding for the Freedom Conservative Party.
Knutson, a former Wildrose supporter and UCP member, said he is running because he wants a return to the promise of having a a political party that will listen to the wants and needs of its grassroots membership. He said he left the UCP because he was unhappy with the "ethics" of the party.
"I have seen the ethics unfold. They promised a whole bill of goods, the whole grassroots guarantee. That wasn't something that occurred," said Knutson. "That is why I am with a free speech party. It is one thing to be conservative, and another thing to lose all your liberties. I call him out (Jason Kenney) as being an anti-free speech conservative."
