Provincial Polls and Perilous Predicaments: Pondering the Impending Political Landscape

For this upcoming provincial election, we will need two big things:

1. We need to hold the UCP members and ministers accountable for their extremism. That means forcing that extremism to the fringe by sharing it publicly and ensuring that they pay the political price for it.

2. The rest of us need to show up as fighters. We need to tell Albertans a clear and persuasive story about what it means to be an active citizen and refuse to fold up in the face of polling numbers and UCP extremist rhetoric.

This strategy means that every activist, every volunteer, every community member has a role to play, no matter where you live or who your MLA is currently.

EVERYWHERE – but especially in the high stakes ridings that the UCP may lose their seats or are only barely holding on:

Hello out there to (leaning or likely UCP):

· Banff – Kananaskis

· Brooks – Medicine Hat

· Calgary – Acadia

· Calgary – Beddington

· Calgary – Bow

· Calgary – Cross

· Calgary – East

· Calgary – Edgemont

· Calgary – Fish Creek

· Calgary – Glenmore

· Calgary – Hays

· Calgary – Lougheed

· Calgary – North East

· Calgary – Peigan

· Calgary – Shaw

· Calgary – West

· Fort McLeod – Lac La Biche

· Grande Prairie

· Lac Ste. Anne – Parkland

· Leduc – Beaumont

· Lethbridge – East

· Maskwacis – Wetaskiwin

· Red Deer - South

· Red Deer – North

· Spruce Grove – Stony Plain

or where a non-UCP candidate could take the seat

We see you out there:

· Calgary – Currie

· Calgary – Falconridge

· Calgary – Klein

· Calgary – Varsity

· Edmonton – McClung

· Edmonton – Southwest

· Edmonton – West Henday

· Edmonton. – South

· Lethbridge – West

· Sherwood Park

· St. Albert

- really, everywhere - we will need to work to defeat the UCP efforts to discourage voter turnout. We know these are going to be tough fights with many unique factors that are critical to each community (has your community lost doctors recently or are you having trouble finding space in a school for your children?). We also know the best foundation we can lay for winning these seats is to activate our local communities into fighting shape, continue to toxify UCP extremism and use both efforts to steadily build the power we’ll need.

We don’t need a crystal ball to predict what another UCP government will do in Alberta. We know what they will do because of what they have done, and because they have been publicizing their plans since Danielle Smith won the party leadership. The UCP will continue to defund, destabilize, and systematically destroy the public services that Alberta taxes pay for. In the wake of the destruction they cause, they will offer up private for-profit solutions; they will continue to use taxpayer money to provide kickbacks and opportunities for their corporate donors. The UCP will continue to demonize vulnerable communities by fear mongering about LGBTQ communities, about medically vulnerable populations, and women in the work force. They will stoke the anger and gather support for rallies against family events, against federal programs to assist in childcare, and opportunities to diversify our economy and fortify our future.

The UCP have had 4 years to fix what they keep telling us is broken in our province and the truth is, they still blame the NDP and the federal government for their short-sighted, profiteering.