Voters will be called on twice in 2019 to decide who will lead Alberta and Canada forward over the next four years.
Who comes out on top during the spring provincial election and the summer/fall federal election remains to be seen.
What is known is that judging from the current political scene, both elections promise to be hard-fought and bitter campaigns.
In the federal election, the incumbent Justin Trudeau Liberals will again be facing their principal Conservative rival, this time under the leadership of Andrew Scheer.
Key election issues on the table at the federal level will likely include the economy and carbon taxation, with the Liberals and Conservatives already deeply divided on both files.
At the provincial level, the principal battle will likely be between the incumbent NDP under Rachel Notley and the Jason Kenney UCP.
Key election issues at the provincial level may include the economy, taxation, gay-straight alliances in schools, education, infrastructure and health-care funding.
For her part, Notley says her party, and not the UCP, can represent all Albertans.
“There are a very small minority of people in this province who have pretty extreme views, and I think we’ve known from Day 1 that Mr. Kenney has been very comfortable with inviting those people into his new party,” Notley reportedly said. “Going on Twitter to say the UCP is not racist, while important, is clearly not enough.”
For his part, Kenney says the NDP has failed to move the province forward and should be replaced after one term.
“Albertans desperately want a government that is focused on reigniting our economy and fighting for this province,” Kenney reportedly said. “This is a government that has lost massively the support of Albertans.”
While the outcome of both the provincial and federal 2019 election campaigns remains to be decided, the results of both votes will certainly impact residents here in many ways.
Here’s a 2019 election campaigns prediction, for what it’s worth: both the Justin Trudeau Liberals and the Jason Kenney UCP will win majorities.
Dan Singleton is the editor of the Mountain View Gazette.
