If Alberta elections were held today, the NDP will form government with about 44% of the votes to 40% for the UCP, matching a 47 seats majority to 40 seats for the UCP, according to a January 9, 2021, updates of the political website, 338canada.com
Another highlight from the political website is the complete oranging of Edmonton, with the only blue UCP seat held by the loyal Kenneynite, the Honourable Kaycee Madu, Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, is turning orange, while the seat held by MLA David Shepherd, Alberta NDP Health Critic, is projected to be safe.
In June 2019, Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney, was flying sky high with an approval rating of 61% according to pools from the Angus Reid Institute. By November 2020, the premier’s approval rating has collapsed to 40%, the second worst of all Canadian premiers. Most of Premier Kenney’s problems have been self-made. Alberta has lost jobs, contrary to what he promised in the last election, a horrible economy worst than the one he inherited from the NDP Government. Unfortunately for Premier Kenney, something he can’t control but vital to Alberta economy is falling oil prices. It appears he’s yet to appreciate diversification of Alberta’s oil and gas dependent economy. Well, so far, it’s fair to say that the magic wand that he promised to wave to transform Alberta is yet to be magical or has lost its magical power.
The premier has planted self-detonated political explosives which are not limited to wrestling with teachers, doctors, and nurses, handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly his refusal to mandate mask use in Alberta early enough, his racially charged comments regarding the culture and lifestyle of South Asians, his attack on Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, just for doing her job but also being of Chinese descent, treatment of frontline workers, no COVID-19 support for small businesses especially as all the multicultural businesses we spoke to who applied for the Alberta Government COVID-19 support did not even get a response.
To crown it all, most recently, Alberta’s version of VacationGate has exposed UCP COVID-19 elitism with the premier acting only under pressure.
On January 11, 2021, the new conservative Alberta based Wildrose Independence Party Interim Leader Paul Hinman, called on Premier Jason Kenney to resign. “Jason Kenney did not just make a mistake. He lied. Albertans know that he lied about his involvement to avoid accountability, and that is why so many Albertans – including half of UCP voters – have lost faith in his ability to lead.” Paul Hinman. He added, “If Premier Kenney refuses to do the right thing and step down, then he must at least do the bare-minimum and remove the MLAs from caucus who flaunted their own lockdown,” Paul Hinman.
The Alberta UCP Government has however made some moves with respect to issues of importance to multicultural communities such as recognition of foreign trained credentials, and tackling racism through the ban on carding, but these moves have been weak and ineffective, rather reflecting a form of race-washing just for a show approach to the multicultural communities with his government displaying horrible community engagement, ignoring questions and requests from community members, strong support for racist UCP elements, blunting of the Anti-racism Advisory Council, and trimming grants geared towards supporting multicultural communities and multiculturalism in Alberta.
It’s fair to say that the NDP on the other hand are gaining grounds in the Calgary battle ground, but their strategy to engage multicultural communities, recruit the best and brightest talents, or engage and involve them for the battle ahead is ineffective at best, or misdirected at worst, leaving room for the UCP to redeem themselves if they so wish with two years to go to the next election.
We will for sure keep you posted on all print, online, and TV platforms of Diversity Magazine, the largest multicultural publication in Alberta.
For more Alberta multicultural stories, please go to https://diversitymag.ca/staging/
