Photo: Facebook / Elections Alberta

By Shaun Penner

Provincial Election

No guarantees in local ridings as provincial election nears

Mar 27, 2019 | 5:30 AM

The race for the Grande Prairie and GP-Wapiti seats in the provincial election should go right down to the wire.

There are many reasons why that could be the case, as pointed out by GPRC Political Studies Instructor Dawn Moffatt McMaster.

“It’s interesting because, generally, for both ridings, we don’t have an incumbent,” said Moffatt McMaster. “That’s partly because of the shift in electoral riding districts and because Wayne Drysdale has stepped down. Generally, that means, as a statistical fact, it’s more likely to be competitive.”

Currently, there are six candidates running in the Grande Prairie riding. Those include:

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• Grant Berg – Alberta Party
• Ray Robertson – Alberta Independence Party
• Bernard Hancock – Freedom Conservative Party
• Rony Rajput – Independent
• Todd Russell – New Democratic Party
• Tracy Allard – United Conservative Party

While in the GP-Wapiti riding, there are four candidates:

• Travis Toews – United Conservative Party
• Shannon Dunfield – New Democratic Party
• Terry Dueck – Independent
• Jason Jones – Alberta Party

Among the names on that list, Moffatt McMaster sees quite a few highly qualified ones.

“They’re well spoken, they have a strong background in the community, and they’re known to the public,” said Moffatt McMaster. “These are actually quite high-quality candidates when you look across that slate, so it is going to be really interesting to see what that looks like because that has not always been the case.”

Due to the quick election call by Premier Rachel Notley, local candidates are going to be put further under pressure during what is only a 28-day campaign. Which, especially for a rural and sprawling riding like GP-Wapiti, makes for a tough task for candidates to get out and campaign in their area.

After 44 years of Progressive Conservative rule, many people in Alberta and across Canada were surprised by an NDP victory in 2015. Moffatt McMaster is convinced that no assumptions are going to be made by the general public this time around.

“It’s definitely seen as a more open field and a place where at least change is a potential possibility.”

One of the biggest (if not the biggest) issue on the minds of Peace Country residents is the economy and bolstering the energy sector. Moffatt McMaster doesn’t see pipelines as much of a deciding factor in that regard though, as most parties have stood to support the building of more pipelines and repealing of Federal Bill C-69. The bigger factor could be where voters stand on the carbon tax though, notably as the NDP has said they will stand behind keeping the carbon tax, while Jason Kenney and the conservatives have promised to repeal it as their first act if elected to power.

Aside from the issues, another influence on how the election turns out could be voter turnout, especially amongst young and first-time voters.

“In the last federal election, we had an increase in voter turnout, quite a substantial increase, and from what we can tell, a lot of that increase was (first time) voters” said Moffatt McMaster. “That support, really is what I think gave us the Liberal government that we have.”

Political conversation is something she is hearing more of around the college, something Moffatt McMaster attributes to the U.S. political environment and the amount of media coverage (both traditional and social media) it gets.

An all-candidates forum will be held on April 9 at the Douglas J. Cardinal Performing Arts Centre at Grande Prairie Regional College for both Grande Prairie and GP-Wapiti candidates. The evening will start at 5:30 with a meet and greet in the foyer of the theatre. The forum will then start at 6:30.