AB Today – Election Report April 12, 2019

Quotation of the day

“It might feel like winter today, but spring is just five days away for Alberta.”

UCP Leader Jason Kenney rallies the troops in blizzarding conditions in Calgary on Thursday.

Day 25: Today on the campaign trail

On the schedule Advance polls are open until Saturday; election day is next Tuesday.

Notley campaign During a morning stop at a Calgary cafe, NDP Leader Rachel Notley slammed Kenney’s “bringing back the Alberta advantage” tagline, saying, “Nostalgia is not an economic plan.”

The leader then headed south, making campaign stops in a barn in Nanton and at NDP MLA Shannon Phillips’ Lethbridge—West campaign office.

Notley plans to spend the bulk of her time during the last weekend of the campaign in Calgary, the region the NDP has called the election’s key battleground.

Notley will hold Friday stops at The Grand in Calgary and the Canmore Golf and Curling Club. In the afternoon she will hold a rally at NDP incumbent candidate Ricardo Miranda’s Calgary—Cross campaign office.

Kenney campaign UCP Leader Jason Kenney spent Thursday door knocking in Edmonton with Laurie Mozeson (Edmonton—McClung) and his hand-picked candidate Len Rhodes (Edmonton—Meadows).

Mozeson faces a tough race in Edmonton—McClung, the home riding of both Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel and NDP MLA Lorne Dach, as well as Alberta Advantage Party candidate Gordon Perrott.

In Edmonton—Meadows, Rhodes will square off against Alberta Party candidate Amrit Matharu, NDP candidate Jasvir Singh Deol, Alberta Advantage candidate Thomas Varghese and Liberal Party candidate Maria Omar.

On Thursday evening, Kenney was in Calgary for a rally with Conservative Party of Canada Leader Andrew Scheer. Standing atop Kenney’s blue “unity” pickup truck, Kenney and Scheer told the snow-covered crowd there is a “two part solution” that will end the “Trudeau-Notley alliance” — voting both leaders out.

“Everywhere I go in Canada, I meet all different kinds of conservatives, but in every community I meet Jason Kenney conservatives,” Scheer said ahead of Kenney’s speech.

Post-rally, the politicians donned their Calgary Flames jerseys, gave each other a fist bump and had a couple pints while watching a playoff game against the Avalanche.

Mandel campaign On Thursday, Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel was back in Edmonton for an education announcement; he pledged to create 60,000 new school spaces in “new” and “modernized” schools over the next four years.

Later in the day, Mandel did another round of door knocking in his Edmonton—McClung riding and participated in a candidate forum.

Khan campaign Alberta Liberal Party Leader David Khan announced his party’s environmental platform at Liberal Party HQ in Calgary. The four-pillar platform vows to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change, take care of nature and live more sustainably.

Khan also set aside some time for door knocking and media interviews.

Today’s events

April 12 at 10:30 a.m. – Calgary NDP Leader Rachel Notley will speak at The Grand.

April 12 at 12:45 p.m. – Canmore NDP Leader Rachel Notley will speak at a leader’s event at the Canmore Golf and Curling Club.

April 12 at 4:30 p.m. – Calgary Incumbent cabinet minister and candidate for Calgary—Cross Ricardo Miranda will host NDP Leader Rachel Notley at his campaign office.

April 12 at 6 p.m. – Edmonton UCP Leader Jason Kenney will hold a campaign rally at the Radisson Hotel in Edmonton South.

Weekend events

April 13 at 1 p.m. – Calgary NDP Leader Rachel Notley will hold an afternoon rally at Hudson, a venue in the historic Hudson’s Bay building.

Topics of conversation

● The United Conservative Party released a new 30-second television ad, this time slamming the “Trudeau—Notley alliance” which the UCP says has resulted in higher taxes, higher unemployment and zero pipelines. ○ The ad includes a clip of Premier Rachel Notley speaking at a news conference in the House of Commons where she refers to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “partner” who understands the economic and jobs situation in Alberta. It is followed by a clip of UCP Leader Jason Kenney saying it is only his team that will stand up against Trudeau’s policies that “attack Alberta.”

● Former energy executive Robert Hemstock has filed a new affidavit as part of a defamation suit, which was launched in July 2018, against the Alberta government, Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman and Premier Rachel Notley’s spokesperson Cheryl Oates, per the Financial Post. ○ Hemstock, who also launched a website explaining the lawsuit, alleges the NDP government made mistakes in 2015 and 2016 when it shifted costs associated with power purchase arrangements to the balancing pool line on electricity bills, costing taxpayers $2 billion. He says the government then “used their position of power and access to taxpayer funds to attempt to achieve their political objective of avoiding accountability” by blaming the company he then ran, Enmax, for opting out of its power purchase arrangement.

● Ex-federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair told CTV’s Power Play that “barring some very unforeseen circumstance” NDP Leader Rachel Notley will not get a second term as premier. ○ That sentiment was echoed by Ontario PC MPP Todd Smith, who said during his province’s Thursday question period that Notley is “about to go down in flames in the Alberta election next week.”

● Meanwhile, B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan played coy on his hopes for Alberta’s election results, saying he will work with whoever wins. In a nod to his contentious relationship with fellow New Democrat Rachel Notely, Horgan said sharing a party banner does not guarantee political parties in different provinces see eye-to-eye on issues. ○ “I’m concerned when other jurisdictions threaten other Canadians, absolutely,” Horgan said. “I’ve talked to the prime minister about this, and not just in the context of the Alberta election, but going back to the passage of the [turn-off-the-taps] bill by the Notley government. I am hopeful that whoever prevails in the Alberta election will focus on those issues that matter to people and fighting with neighbours, creating discontent between Albertans and British Columbians I don’t think is helpful to anyone.” ○ On how he plans to react to the potential proclamation of the turn-off-the-taps legislation, should a UCP government be elected, Horgan said he would cross that bridge when he comes to it.

● “Mary” from the United Conservative Party may have switched teams, according to the Alberta Party’s latest text message campaign. ○ Cellphones have been abuzz this election period with unsolicited texts from the UCP and NDP that try to gauge where voters stand (and gather their data).

● UCP candidate for Edmonton—South West Kaycee Madu called a post by his rival NDP candidate John Archer “racist” and condemned Archer’s “condescending attitude.” ○ Archer, a former press gallery journalist, shared a post that said “Vote as if: your skin is not white, your son is transgender, your mom needs cancer treatment, your house was flooded, your overtime pay feeds your family, your daughter’s class is bursting at the seams, your sister quit her job because she can’t afford child care, your hometown was burnt by a wildfire. Vote as if your family depends on it.” ○ Madu said, as an African-Canadian, she is “deeply offended by Mr. Archer’s derogatory comment about skin colour — which is designed solely to divide and offend.” She said Albertans should vote “based on ideas for a better future, not skin colour” and shouted out her volunteers and supporters “from a wide variety of racial backgrounds.” ○ Archer later deleted the post and apologized, saying it “was not in line with the message” she wants to share during this campaign.

● Election sign vandalism continues to be a problem, with all of the major parties reporting destruction or theft of their signs. Alberta Party candidate for Calgary—East Gar Gar posted a video to Twitter showing a landlord destroying a tenant’s election sign with Gar’s name on it. ○ Meanwhile, fake UCP signs have popped up with the phrases “Lake of Fire” and “Another Bozo” replacing candidate names and the word “bigot” replacing “elect.”

● The National Observer reports the province kept the Fort MacKay First Nation in the dark about a toxic plume in the aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfires of 2016. ○ Untreated petrochemicals were released from Syncrude’s Mildred Lake plant, but the company faced no consequences from the Alberta Energy Regulator. ○ The AER failed to warn the community about the toxic smoke until five hours after the chemicals were released.

● TransCanada Corp. CEO Hal Kvisle says the energy industry’s attempts to find a compromise on Ottawa’s Bill C-69, which overhauls the environmental assessment process for energy project approval, are a mistake. ○ “There’s a bit of an industry movement to try to find a compromise on Bill C-69 and, myself, I think that’s a mistake,” Hal Kvisle told BNN Bloomberg in a Wednesday interview. “I think Canada needs to step back and take a much more thorough look at all of the issues around pipeline approval and come up with a whole process that works better.”

● NDP Leader Rachel Notley sat down for a Q&A with Maclean’s reporter Jen Gerson to give her pitch for why the NDP should get a second chance.

Lobbyist registrations

If you are looking for further information on any lobbying registry, it is all public and easily searchable here.

Consultants who registered as lobbyists from April 5, 2019 – April 11, 2019

● Tyler Bjornson, Tyler McCann, T. Bjornson & Associates Consulting Inc o Clients: Canada Malting Company Ltd.; Global Ag Risk Solutions Corporation

● Zack Ziolkoski, Cam MacKay, Keith Pridgen, Jenelle Saskiw, Shayne Saskiw, Jonathon Wescott, Alberta Counsel o Clients: Cashco Financial Inc.

● Jonathan Wescott, Bronte Valk, Shayne Saskiw, Pascal Ryffel, Jenelle Saskiw, Zack Ziolkowski, Cam MacKay, Alberta Counsel o Clients: Calgary Hotel Association

● Zack Ziolkowski, Cam MacKay, Tim Gerwing, Jenelle Saskiw, Bronte Valk, Keith Pridgen, Pascal Ryffel, Jonathon Wescott, Shayne Saskiw, Alberta Counsel o Clients: Edmonton Destination Marketing Hotels Ltd.

● Lori Kent, Kent Comm Inc. o Clients: Resource Diversification Council

Organizations that registered in-house lobbyists from April 5, 2019 – April 11, 2019

● Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary ● Hoffman-La Roche ● Merck Canada Inc. ● CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC ● Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC) ● Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta ● Canadian Wind Energy Association ● Alberta Medical Association ● AstraZeneca Canada Inc. ● Lundbeck Canada Inc. ● Innovative Medicines Canada ● TransCanada PipeLines Limited ● Methanex Corporation ● Cashco Financial Inc.

AB Today is written by Catherine Griwkowsky, reporting from Alberta's legislative press gallery.

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