Alberta finally gets a race
Wildrose party off to strong start as PCS stumble, perhaps forgetting what real competition is like
A busty paint job on the Wildrose party’s campaign bus, a public revelation of a private sorrow and then a cheeky April Fool’s plan for Alberta to merge with Saskatchewan.
All the focus in the first week of the Alberta election campaign went to Danielle Smith, whose Wildrose party has gained steam in the race against Premier Alison Redford and the Progressive Conservatives — the party that has dominated provincial politics for four decades. Recent polls show a dead heat.
Redford and Smith are both running their first campaigns as party leaders and the first week saw Redford on the defensive, dogged by an insensitive tweet sent by a staffer and an embarrassing order for her MLAS to repay money received for being members on a committee that hadn’t met for three years.
Over the weekend, Amanda Wilkie, a Conservative staffer, sent a tweet questioning Smith’s commit- ment to families because she doesn’t have children of her own.
“If @elect Danielle likes young and growing families so much, why doesn’t she have children of her own? #wrp family pack = insincere #abvote,” Wilkie tweeted on her account. Wilkie said she was sorry after her comments sparked outrage: “Fine, I apologize.”
Wilkie resigned, with Redford calling the incident “hurtful.”
“It does not reflect my values nor those of my campaign in any way,” added Redford, who called Smith personally to offer her apologies.
Smith, who has taken Wildrose from a non-starter in the last election to four MLAS in the legislature, accepted the apology. The revelation that she and her husband had sought fertility treatments in a Calgary clinic won her public sympathy.
“In the end, we were not successful,” Smith said in a release. “Family is very important to me and I consider this to be a very personal mat- ter. I will not be commenting on it further.” The outpouring of sympathy capped off an upbeat start for the Wildrose, with its campaign bus garnering national attention after two wheels were salaciously placed under an image of a smiling Smith. Not only did that gain her image exposure with thousands of retweets, but it also got her attention on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. An April Fool’s Day platform call to merge Alberta and Saskatchewan into “Saskberta” also gave her a boost of attention on what was an otherwise quiet day. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall even responded to the proposed merger via Twitter when he noted that the Northwest Territories’ first premier, Frederick Haultain, had originally suggested such a merger back in 1897. Bruce Foster, a political science professor at Mount Royal University, said Sunday that Smith’s rise is a sign that for the first time in almost two decades, the Progressive Conservatives are being challenged by a strong opposition. “The PCS are making mistakes and miscues because they haven’t had to engage in a competitive election campaign in decades. They’re not good at campaigning because they don’t have the experience in dealing with a viable competitor so they’re shooting off their mouth for the simple reason they’re running somewhat scared,” said Foster. “The Wildrose and Danielle Smith have been very effective in using humour to dispel the myth they’re Canada’s version of the American Tea Party.” Foster said questioning Smith over her ability to have a family is akin to the federal Conservative ads in 1993 that mocked Jean Chrétien for his facial deformity. Chaldeans Mensah, chair of anthropology, economics and political science at Grant Macewan University in Edmonton, said Smith’s only misstep so far in the campaign has been questioning if Redford truly loves Alberta. “Right now, the Wildrose and its popularity is completely centred around the personality of Danielle Smith. She’s the strength of the party and also its major potential weakness.” The election will be held April 23.