NDP sets its sights on Calgary breakthrough
NDP Leader Rachel Notley came out swinging during her first campaign stop Tuesday in Calgary, accusing the Tories of squandering Alberta’s resource wealth while squeezing middle- class families.
“After 44 years of boom and bust with no long- term plan ... now working and middle- income families are being told by Mr. Prentice to pay more and get less,” she told reporters.
The Edmonton- Strathcona MLA, who took over the NDP last year, blasted the Progressive Conservatives over the recent budget that saw the government hike taxes and fees, but left corporate taxes untouched.
Outside McDougall Centre in downtown Calgary, NDP handlers corralled a small herd of supporters and candidates around Notley before she addressed the media — a display of unity in a city where the party has been shut out since 1993.
“Calgary is one place we know we have to do well if we’re going to be seen as capable of forming government,” she said.
The NDP heads into the May 5 election with wind in their sails, according to recent opinion polls.
In the 2012 general election, the party received less than five per cent of the popular vote in Calgary.
But with a new leader and polls showing a resurgence in Edmonton — and gains in other parts of the province — the party has set its sights on breaking through in Alberta’s most populous city.
Its star candidate, former city alderman Joe Ceci, is running for the NDP in Calgary- Fort, a riding which overlaps the ward where he served between 1995 and 2010.
Notley released few details about the NDP platform Tuesday, but said it was no secret the party supports higher corporate taxes and a progressive personal income tax regime.
“We’ve been fairly open about the fact that we think it’s unreasonable that Jim Prentice would focus his whole campaign on protecting large and profitable corporations,” she added.
Premier Jim Prentice and Finance Minister Robin Campbell refused to increase corporate taxes in this year’s budget, maintaining any hikes to the rate would lead to job losses.
While the NDP appear poised to hammer home its populist taxtherich message throughout the campaign, the idea may not sell outside Edmonton, said Faron Ellis, a political science professor at Lethbridge College.
“If taxing corporations was a winning message for the NDP, they wouldn’t be languishing in third or fourth place all these years,” Ellis said.
“That ‘ tax the corporations’ rhetoric sort of reinforces the traditional NDP image.”