With Premier Danielle Smith and NDP Opposition leader Rachel Notley gearing up their respective parties for Alberta's spring 2023 provincial election, what promises to be a very bitter campaign is already underway.
A recent TV address by Smith, in which she outlined some of her party's plans and goals, and Notley’s response to Smith’s declarations, highlights the differences in the two leaders’ approach to guiding the province forward.
For her part, Smith reiterated that one of her main goals in the coming months will be remaking Alberta’s relationship with the federal government. It's a strategy that has garnered the UCP a slight uptick in popularity, according to polls, since she won leadership of the party.
“The federal government’s treatment of all provinces, most especially Alberta, is unacceptable,” she said.
“The government in Ottawa is intentionally and systematically attempting to control and regulate all aspects of our province’s economy, resources and social programs. Through equalizations and transfers, they funnel billions of dollars away from you and into a black hole of federal bureaucracy and vote-buying arrangements in other parts of the county.”
Shortly afterward, Smith's Alberta Sovereignty Within A United Canada Act was passed in the legislature, creating what she calls a “constitutional shield for Albertans.”
For her part, Notley says Albertans should welcome the opportunity to kick the one-term UCP government out of office next spring.
“Smith and the UCP have been sowing chaos in our hospitals, ambulances, and doctors’ offices,” the NDP leader said. “In recent months, Danielle Smith has argued with deep conviction that she believes Albertans should have to pay out of pocket for even the most basic health care like visiting your family doctor. That is wrong.
“We’ll take action on the things you don’t have a choice about paying for, like groceries, utilities, insurance, gasoline, tuition, and housing.”
Although it will be a few months yet before individual candidates hit the campaign trails in Rocky View County's five ridings, the leaders of the two main parties are already staking their positions and starting to prepare for battle.
