UCP launches TV ads with slogan ‘strong and free’
EDMONTON The UCP launched two television ads Monday that feature female candidates using the tag line “Alberta strong and free.”
The party has announced 79 of its 87 candidates, with a total of 25 women running under the UCP banner so far.
“If you look at these women who are running ... most of them run in ridings where they have a really good shot at winning, and they will make up a significant proportion of caucus,” said senior campaign strategist Dimitri Pantazopoulos in an interview.
“If you want more women in government, if you want more women in cabinet, elect them,” he added.
The ads mark the party’s first campaign television spots ahead of the 2019 election, which is expected to take place between March 1 and May 31 in accordance with legislation.
Currently three of the 26 UCP MLAs in the Alberta legislature are women — Leela Aheer, Angela Pitt and Laila Goodridge. They are running for Chestermere- Strathmore, Airdrie-East and Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, respectively.
The 30-second ads show “some of the fresh new faces” in the party, tweeted UCP Leader Jason Kenney Monday.
The first ad, dubbed Alberta Strong and Free, features Calgary-Peigan candidate Tanya Fir and Calgary- South East candidate Eva Kiryakos.
“Jason Kenney inspired me to join the United Conservative team,” Fir says in the ad. “He has a clear sense of direction that our province needs right now.”
A second ad, titled Taking Alberta Forward, includes Calgary-Mountain View candidate Caylan Ford, Calgary-North West candidate Sonya Savage, Edmonton-City Centre candidate Lily Le and Calgary North East candidate Rajan Sawhney as well as Kiryakos.
Male candidates for EdmontonSouth West and Grande Prairie Wapiti — Kaycee Madu, who is originally from Nigeria, and Travis Toews — also appear in the second ad.
“There’s been an effort by the leader, and he’s mentioned it elsewhere ... he’s been encouraging women to run,” Pantazopoulos said.
Kenney ends both ads with the slogan “Let’s renew the Alberta Advantage, and build an Alberta that’s strong and free.”
The line is a reference to the provincial motto “Fortis et liber,” said the party.
Premier Rachel Notley said the Alberta Advantage is what “got us behind.
“What we know is when people claim we were getting rid of the deficit and the debt, we were doing it by not moving forward on projects like this, by keeping places like the Tom Baker Cancer Centre over capacity from 2003 to when this is built in 2023,” she told reporters in Calgary Monday.
“That kind of Alberta Advantage is not frankly what Albertans want to see continue or maintained over the long term because it doesn’t build Alberta, it doesn’t support communities, it doesn’t support families, it doesn’t support people.”
“There were a number of slogans that we tested,” Pantazopoulos said. “It resonated well with voters, it resonated well with candidates.”
Edmonton-West Henday candidate Nicole Williams said it’s excellent that 25 of 79 UCP candidates are women.
“Our party has had a really robust nomination process and we were focused on recruiting the best candidates in each constituency,” she said in an interview.
UCP officials declined to disclose the cost of the ad campaign.