Highwood residents will officially have at least four names on their ballot when they head to the polls on May 5.
Highwood residents will officially have at least four names on their ballot when they head to the polls on May 5.
Premier Jim Prentice called the election on April 7, saying that his government required a new mandate to “implement the changes the province needs so badly,” that were put forward in the recent budget.
“We are putting out 10-year plan out for Albertan's to judge,” Prentice said at the announcement. “We will be taking our detailed plan to every single household in this province… We are asking Albertans to choose their future.”
The Wildrose Party, Alberta Party, and the New Democrat Party have all selected their candidates to run in Highwood, and the highly publicized PC nomination wrapped up on March 28, with newcomer Carrie Fischer knocking out current MLA Danielle Smith to hold down the PC seat.
Fischer said since winning the nomination, things have been a “little hectic” as many people, including herself, were taken by surprise by her win over Smith.
“I never ever take it for granted so when I say surprised it's just getting that response that I was successful is always a bit of surprise,” Fischer said. “I've been getting a lot of really positive response, congratulations, thank yous, people are happy that they had an opportunity to vote on this, and they're happy with the outcome.”
Fischer said the attention that the race received was somewhat overwhelming.
“That is a little surreal and I mean it wasn't completely unexpected because there was a lot of attention on this nomination race,” she said. “But, people across the province and across the country that are hearing this on their news channels, that's not what you expect out of a local nomination race.”
Wildrose candidate Wayne Anderson said while he knew there was a chance he would be going up against Smith, to him, it didn't matter who won the nomination battle.
“Either way we're not running against an individual, we're running against a party and it's the PC party and the Jim Prentice regime and that's who we're really running against,” he said.
Anderson has been out on the campaign trail for weeks already, and said he's feeling confident after talking to residents, garnering reaction on the newly released budget, and seeing recent poll results that have placed Wildrose neck and neck with the PCs.
“I'm feeling terrific, you really get a sense or pulse of the electorate when you're door knocking and we've been door knocking for three weeks and we've gotten terrific support,” he said. “A lot of folks have been making me sit down in their living rooms and just telling me how they really feel and most people are very upset about the current government.”
NDP candidate Leslie Mahoney said among other issues, she expects the budget to be a major discussion point once she begins knocking on doors in the constituency.
“I'm not overly impressed with it, I know that our current premier and his party have decided not to touch corporate tax again which I am firmly opposed to, I think corporate tax should be increased as well as oil and gas and other resource royalties should go up,” she said. “They say they're trying to get us out from being on the oil rollercoaster but unfortunately I don't see any strategies in place to actually do that other than taxing the working Albertan and asking ourselves to “look in the mirror' to get a sense of the mess they've created. I think they could have done a better job with this budget.”
Alberta Party candidate Joel Windsor agreed with Mahoney, arguing that the lack of corporate tax increases was a major flaw in the budget.
“I see it really hurting an awful lot of people who are already disadvantaged as it is… . there's plenty of spot opportunity to do a bit more with corporate tax and still keep Alberta as an extremely competitive – more competitive – province than all the others,” he said.
“I'm not really sure I fully understand the logic behind saying no to the corporate tax increases but yes to all kinds of other taxes that do hurt the lower and middle class Albertans.”
Windsor said he's looking forward to having that conversation not only with constituents but also with the other candidates now that the election has been called. He said with the spotlight that has been shone on Highwood over the last few months, it's drawn attention to the different options residents have when casting a vote.
“The cool thing about it is for Highwood there's four people who have never been in the public eye before, certainly not to the same extent as our previous MLA… The bonus to having the unique situation that Highwood is in right now is everybody is listening, and listening very clearly,” he said. “And, so they're hearing what's coming from each party and making some very informed decisions and the hope is that ends up providing them with a representative that is exactly representative of Highwood.”
