Sunday, March 24, 2019

News:

Rachel Notley held a rally in Edmonton that looked more like a New Year’s Eve Party than a political rally but it certainly does the trick.

Eva Kiryakos, UCP Candidate for Calgary South East resigned at around 9 PM on Sunday night after discovering statements she had deleted from social media were going to be published. Conservatives came to her defense to decry political correctness and “leftist agendas” but none congratulated her for having generally crappy views of marginalized human beings. Kenney did thank Kiryakos for her “selfless” decision to not become a distraction for the Party. Oddly enough, this was the same reason given by Caylan Ford, the former UCP candidate for Calgary-Mountain View, who stepped down last Tuesday. Selfless indeed.

Jason Kenney also says 50% of Albertans support separation. So… that was definitely news.

Policy

Alberta Liberals made some announcements about immigration policy. Better access to programs for language upgrading, education and skill upgrades were central.

Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel announced that an Alberta Party government would look at implementing digital identification. As someone who currently uses photos on my phone when I take children to wherever they need healthcare cards – I like it. Not everyone is sure about the idea but the younger generation will probably love it.

Further to the rock solid separatist movement Kenney started, he announced he would ask Ottawa to lower Alberta’s federal taxes to the amount of health and social transfers. It’s like asking the gas company to lower your bills to just the gas cost because there’s nothing else you need from them. It’s a nice thought, but that isn’t how it works, keeps working, and delivering your natural gas to your house. You know?

CBC is keeping track of policy promises by all parties so that should be helpful every day.

Don’t forget the Vote Compass!! For people who don’t want to wade through policy, websites, news clippings and so on, the parties all submitted a baseline for their answers and it can help you decide if the party you support actually supports what you do 🙂

Robbie Kreger-Smith and I recorded a podcast where we looked at our most and least favourite policies so far from all of the parties.

23 sleeps until Election Day…

Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean

Tips? [email protected]

Twitter: @Mitchell_AB, @thisweekinAB

Recap: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day5