A wry smile passes across Brian Mason’s face at the mere mention of the idea.
When asked how the NDP leader will respond to a minority government the grin widens before he states his feelings plainly.
“With great enthusiasm.”
Quickly moving back to the election in front of him, Mason says the party isn’t spending too much time thinking about the scenarios.
“We are not spending a lot of time worrying about it now. We are focusing on electing as many New Democrats as possible to the legislature.”
He said his conditions for supporting a minority government are simple.
“We’ll see who is willing to work with us on the issues that are important to us.”
Mason and Edmonton Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley are currently the only NDP members in the legislature, but the party believes they can expand on that in this election, targeting several Edmonton ridings and others in the province.
With days to go in the campaign, Mason says people are taking a harder look at their choices and are coming to the NDP.
“People don’t think the Tories deserve another majority government and they don’t want to give one to the Wildrose either, I think that creates tremendous opportunity for our party.”
Mason has spent much of his time in the campaign attacking the Progressive Conservatives, despite polls showing the governing party is no longer in the lead. He said the campaign did surprise him, but that the Tories are the authors of their own demise.
“It is a little bit of a surprise, but I have always believed that campaigns matter and I think the Conservatives made a number of foolish mistakes that reminded people of their failures in government.”
He admits his party’s strength is not universal across the province, with several candidates being dropped in and having little local presence in their riding.
He said generally however, the party is stronger than it has ever been.
“We had some setbacks in the early ’90s and it has been a rebuilding process and it hasn’t been an even rebuilding process, but the party is better organized, has a complete slate of generally good candidates.”
He said weakness in parts of the province is a problem all political parties face.
“It is not evenly distributed and similarly, I don’t think either the Wildrose or the PCs are able to avoid those kind of issues.”
The prospect of a Wildrose victory has some left-of-centre political groups calling for voters to cast ballots strategically, even supporting the Conservatives to prevent the Wildrose from assuming power.
“I think some people are trying to use the fear card to try and get people to vote against their own interests and I think that is a concern,” says Mason to that approach.
Drawing from former federal NDP leader Jack Layton’s final letter to the country, Mason argues people should vote for what they want from Alberta.
“People shouldn’t vote out of fear, they should vote for what they want and what they believe in, they should vote for hope, not fear.”
Coming into the election Mason was hopeful the party’s national success could be translated into local success as well.
“In the last federal election 25 per cent of Albertans voted for the NDP. That is far more than has ever voted for the NDP in either a federal or provincial election before.”
He said the party has some appeal and it is up to the party to take advantage on Monday.
“Albertans are prepared to vote for the NDP, it is clear and we are working very hard to give them a reason to do that.”
