Edmonton on UCP’s 2019 radar

Alberta’s capital is firmly in the sights of the United Conservative Party for the 2019 election.

In an interview Tuesday, party leader Jason Kenney pointed to recent polls indicating solid UCP support in every part of the province except for Edmonton, where his party is in a close race with the governing NDP.

As such, he said, the party will focus its energies and resources on the capital. The entire Edmonton region, running up into the province’s northwest, is a solid NDP stronghold, but Kenney doesn’t think that makes it a sure thing for the NDP in 2019.

“I don’t accept that the 2015 results in the provincial election mean Edmonton is uncompetitive. The polling and the federal elections suggest otherwise,” he said.

NDP CONCENTRATES ON GOVERNING

But the election is still at least a year away. In the meantime, Premier Rachel Notley said she will concentrate on governing.

“Honestly, at this point what is on my mind is continuing to do the job I was elected to do,” she said Tuesday in Camrose.

“That is going to be our focus.” The 2015 orange wave swept across parts of rural Alberta, but Notley wouldn’t say just how much attention her party will focus on those regions.

Instead, she said her party will work hard to capture every riding once the campaign begins.

“Where we already have sitting MLAs, I like to think we’ll be off to a good start,” she said.

POLICY RESOLUTIONS COMING IN FOR UCP

The UCP will need to get a platform sorted by the time the election rolls around, work on which will begin in May at the party’s founding convention.

Kenney said members have already submitted around 1,300 policy resolutions. They’re currently being whittled down at regional policy conferences that began last weekend in Red Deer.

Kenney said Albertans can expect a specific UCP platform — including a fully costed fiscal plan — in a year.