The leader of the Alberta Party is optimistic that his party will score some seats in the Legislature when the next provincial election is held.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” said Greg Clark during an interview on Wednesday.
Clark was in St. Albert for some meetings as his party prepares for a possible early election call.
“We are in a pretty active candidate recruitment mode,” Clark said. “We’re looking to get people on board who are great local candidates.”
He said they’ve been attracting support from disillusioned moderate Wildrose supporters and people who no longer think the Progressive Conservative party represents their interests.
Clark himself surprised people by placing second in the October byelection held in Calgary-Elbow, beating out the Wildrose and NDP candidates.
The next election isn’t really about who forms government, Clark said, so he thinks the ballot question will be who forms the next official opposition.
In the 2012 provincial election, the Alberta Party ran 38 candidates with no success, receiving 1.31 per cent of the total votes cast. So Clark isn’t proposing his party will suddenly storm the legislature.
“I think it’s one step at a time,” he said, adding his party’s goal for the next election is to elect some MLAs.
They hope to run candidates in all 87 ridings, but will place an emphasis on the quality of candidates over quantity, he said.
In the last election, Tim Osborne ran for the Alberta Party in the St. Albert riding. He’s since successfully run for city council.
There was no Alberta party candidate in the Spruce Grove-St. Albert riding.
Clark said he hears a surprising pessimism from the premier and other parties – whereas he feels optimistic about Alberta’s future, adding the current drop in oil prices is an opportunity to build needed infrastructure.
“The simple fact is we need schools, we need health facilities, we need roads,” Clark said. He’d consider going into debt to help fund infrastructure, noting “money has never been cheaper.”
Alberta should look to focus on environmental issues, not only to help gain market access for oil but also to help grow the green technology sector here, as well as seek diversification in other markets, Clark said.
He favours a progressive income tax over a provincial sales tax, and would look to cut small business taxes and maintain the level of other corporate taxes.
They’re hoping to have all their candidates in place by March 15. Constituency associations have until Feb. 15 to let the party know if they plan to hold a nomination contest in their riding.
Trevor Love, a St. Albert member of the Alberta Party, said the party’s got his support because he sees it as the “only electable opposition to the current regime.”
Support in the region is definitely growing, Love says. Just how much will become evident in the next election.
“The feeling is it’s growing quite quickly,” Love said.
