Alberta's United Conservatives secured a majority government in Monday's nail-biter of an election, while the NDP expanded its reach into the traditional conservative stronghold of Calgary.
Here are some memorable quotes from the campaign:
"(The NDP) devastated the Alberta economy. They created policies that drove investment out, drove jobs out, and we had to reverse all of that," UCP Leader Danielle Smith said on May 1, the day the writ was dropped. "The choice in this election couldn't be clearer. It's a choice between a UCP government that will cut your taxes and make life more affordable or an NDP government that will make you pay more across the board."
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"Over the past four years, our health care has been thrown into chaos by the UCP," NDP Leader Rachel Notley said during the first week of the campaign. "They'll tell you they fixed it, but Albertans aren't feeling it and they're not buying it ... our (emergency rooms) are still full, our ambulances are still delayed and many (patients) are waiting months and months for critical tests and surgeries."
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"I am satisfied Mr. Pawlowski intended to incite the audience to continue the blockade — intended to incite protesters to commit mischief,'' Justice Gordon Krinke said in Lethbridge, Alta., on May 2, when he found Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski guilty of charges related to his role in protests against COVID-19 public health measures. In a leaked phone call between Smith and Pawlowski, before his trial, Smith told Pawlowski the charges against him were politically motivated and she would make inquiries on his behalf and report back.
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"(Smith) has a policy of not speaking publicly on matters before the courts, except when she's talking to the person who's before the courts about how she's going to interfere with the matter before the courts,'' Notley said when asked to comment on Smith's no comment on the Pawlowski case. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard from her. OK, maybe it's not the most ridiculous, because there's a lot of ridiculous.''
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“COVID was a really difficult and frustrating time for everyone, including me, and I don't think that there is a single one of us that wasn't deeply impacted in some way,” Smith said on May 9, after past comments surfaced in which she equated those vaccinated against COVID-19 to Nazi supporters and said she would not wear a Remembrance Day poppy out of disgust for pandemic restrictions imposed by political leaders. “Sometimes I let my frustrations get to me during that time. I clearly shouldn't have.”
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"That little bit of poop is what wrecks it ... it does not matter that we're in the top three per cent in the world,'" said Jennifer Johnson, UCP candidate for Lacombe-Ponoka. In a tape from September, she said Alberta's high-ranking education system counts for little when set against the issue of transgender students and compared their presence to a batch of cookies laced with feces.
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"(Judicial independence) is a fundamental pillar of our democracy. The premier breached this principle by discussing the accused's case," ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler said in her report released May 18 into Smith's actions as premier when she called her justice minister about Pawlowski's case.
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"I've asked the ethics commissioner to give advice,'' Smith said May 19. "I am a non-lawyer. As premier, I do need to be able to get advice from my top official, my top legal adviser. If she has recommendations on how to do that better next time, I will absolutely accept them."
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"More and more conservatives are coming to me saying, 'I'm a lifelong conservative voter, but what I see in Danielle Smith and this new UCP is not my values,'" Notley said on May 23. "They often say that they're going to lend us their vote, and I say that's just great. Because, quite frankly, I think all Albertans should always only ever lend their vote because leadership has to earn it."
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"(The phone call) was always about the charges, from the very beginning. I had nothing really else to say,'' Pawlowski told reporters at the legislature in the final week of the campaign. "This phone call was always about the same thing: when are you going to introduce what you promised, the amnesty bill for people like me and thousands of other Albertans.''
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"I won't be perfect of course, we all know that. But when I make a mistake I will listen, correct course and learn from it, so that I can improve and become a better leader," Smith said on election night, May 29, after the UCP secured a majority government.
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“We will continue to speak up on behalf of Albertans who struggle to have their voice heard. We will fight for better health care, better education, better jobs. And my friends we will be unequivocal in our demand for respect for the rule of law and an unqualified belief in human rights and basic dignity," Notley said in her speech after conceding the election to the UCP.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2023.
The Canadian Press
