The results are in. During the course of the Gazette’s live blogging of Monday’s provincial candidates’ forum, as opposed to a debate, followers were asked a number of questions concerning their political views.
According to that small and totally unscientific poll, Progressive Conservative candidate Stephen Khan in St. Albert was the most impressive. When asked which of the nine candidates from the two ridings – St. Albert and Spruce Grove-St. Albert – was most successful in winning over voters, 56 per cent of respondents named Khan.
St. Albert Wildrose candidate James Burrows was second with 33 per cent.
Perhaps the most interesting poll result was Wildrose candidate Travis Hughes in Spruce Grove-St. Albert being named by 60 per cent of respondents as the person they would vote for. That was double the 30 per cent who supported PC incumbent Doug Horner.
In St. Albert, 41 per cent said they would vote for Khan, 35 per cent for Burrows and 20 per cent for Alberta Party’s Tim Osborne.
The other two questions asked about party and leaders, with 44 per cent saying they support the PC party, 33 per cent favouring the Wildrose and 11 per cent the Alberta, with the Liberals and NDPs getting single-digit support.
As for the leaders, it was a draw with Conservative leader Alison Redford and Wildrose’s Danielle Smith both receiving 43 per cent support.
As we said, the results were from a small number following the forum on our live blog and Twitter account, so it’s hard to read too much into the results showing Hughes over Horner and a close race in St. Albert.
Still, with St. Albert often a swing riding – we’ve voted in non-government MLAs in three of the last six provincial elections – it is interesting that it looks like another relatively close race between the Conservatives, Wildrose and Alberta parties.
Which makes one wonder how much resources the Wildrose might put into St. Albert for the final days of the campaign, and whether Burrows would even welcome support given the controversy that has been dogging the party recently.
Smith has spent much of the last week trying to fend off strong criticism over her party’s stance on health care (she seems to favour a return to Ralph Klein’s Third Way philosophy of privatization), climate change (she says she’s not convinced it’s real and that human activities are partly to blame), pensions (she wants to opt out of the Canada Pension Plan and set up an Alberta-only plan) and her failure to distance herself and the party from Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger, an unabashed old-school homophobe who attacked the Edmonton public school board as “godless” and “wicked” and condemned the district’s recent measures to protect gay and lesbian students and staff from discrimination.
Those are the type of hot-button issues that could quickly sway voters away from the party and, by extension, the local candidate.
Still, the mood of St. Albert residents heading into the final days before Monday’s vote could best be summed up by one Monday evening follower who wrote: “I wonder if we are starting to see signs of Burrowsmania, or if after election night we will be like Captain Kirk, shaking our fist, yelling Khaaaann!”
