It’s official, the writ has been dropped, but it will be business as usual for the candidates in the Highwood constituency for the April 16 provincial election.
That business is getting their parties’ platforms out and talking to the public about the issues.
“We’ve been door-knocking for months now,” said UCP candidate RJ Sigurdson. “We have picked up the amount, but we are fully active, setting up signs, we’re fully rolling.”
The four Highwood candidates – so far — are Sigurdson, UCP; Erik Overland, NDP; Dan Irving of the Alberta Independence Party and Ron Kerr, Alberta Party.
NDP Premier Rachel Notley dropped the writ on March 19, while the UCP Party is embroiled in controversy in which the party is accused of running Jeff Callaway as a kamikaze candidate — tossing barbs at former Wildrose leader Brian Jean and running interference for Jason Kenney’s successful bid for the UCP leadership in 2017.
“People have expressed concerns about his trustworthiness, about his honesty, about the dark-horse campaign that he allegedly ran with Callaway,” Overland said.
“I think it goes to show that Jason Kenney is absolutely not trustworthy. I think it shows he is willing to go as far as he possibly can to win, even if that means backstabbing the people who agree with him. That also makes me wonder what will he do with average Albertans who disagree with him? What will he do when legislation begins to get what he wants passed?”
Sigurdson said it hasn’t been a concern as he talks to constituents.
“I haven’t heard of it being an issue,” Sigurdson said. “As it rolls out people are realizing this is not related to Jason Kenney, definitely as far as the RCMP investigation and the campaign contributions.”
Sigurdson’s own nomination in October 2018 was brought into question as incumbent UCP Wayne Anderson filed a complaint with Elections Alberta on Dec. 5.
Nothing has resulted from that complaint.
Sigurdson said the focus with constituents is on the economy.
“It’s incredible how many times we keep hearing it over and over again — no. 1 the carbon tax, no. 2 jobs and the economy,” Sigurdson said. “I have run into so many people in the area who have just recently lost their job or have been unemployed for months and are really concerned about their future in Alberta.
“Those are, by a landslide, the top issues I hear over and over again.”
He said the UCP will continue to advocate for pipelines. As well it will create the Job Creation Tax Cut among others.
“We have made a campaign promise that in the first four years we are going to reduce the regulatory burden of doing business in Alberta by a third and alleviate the issues small, medium and large companies are having in Alberta,” he said.
Overland said the NDP has a strong plan to create jobs.
He said the NDP announced a new initiative to create new jobs by spurring investment in the petrochemical sector and oil upgrading.
Irving is running for the Alberta Independence Party.
“We are a party that believes we should always listen to Albertans first and that Alberta would be better off as its own country,” he said.
Irving said when the Independence party gets in power it would hold a referendum to decide if Alberta should leave Canada.
He said the result would be no income tax on the first $45,000 a person makes, no GST, no carbon tax and the stop of transfer payments to Ottawa.
He said separation is realistic with many Albertans endorsing leaving Canada.
Ron Kerr is running for the Alberta Party but was not available for comment as of March 26.
The Highwood constituency has changed for the election, now consisting just east of Davisburg, Okotoks, Black Diamond and Turner Valley. South of Aldersyde is now Livingstone-Macleod.
