CITIZEN'S PANEL
After a week dominated by the televised leaders’ debate, we asked our panel of citizens: which leader do you think would make the best premier? It’s our last panel before election day, so we also asked them how they plan to vote.
Janelle Morin, University academic staff
Past voting history: Previously Conservative, lately NDP Rachel Notley comes across as principled yet pragmatic, highly capable, and ironclad in her integrity, not to mention that her party got to first place in the polls with a fraction of the war chest funds of other parties. She’s articulate and smart, and she matches the energy and vitality of contemporary Alberta. She would be my pick for premier.
Jim Prentice was sold to the PCs as a seasoned manager, but he’s mishandled several sensitive files, such as Bill 10. In his “math is difficult” leadership debate comment to Notley, not only did he come off as condescending, but he had his facts wrong. His early election call violated his own party’s election laws. And, if current polls are to be believed, it was also just plain bad strategy.
David Swann seems to be a truly decent person and a dedicated public servant, but he and his party have been effectively edged out of this election. Brian Jean hasn’t articulated a clear direction for Alberta beyond low taxes, no corruption. I’ve decided I will be voting NDP.
Peter Koziol, Business owner
Past voting history: Progressive Conservative Jim Prentice has not articulated any real vision for the province’s future except for grim news and taxes to cover the forecast budget shortfall. Brian Jean has been too much of a one-trick pony on cutting taxes instead of creating new revenue sources tapping into the potential of 100,000 university graduates that will be coming on stream in the next five years.
Thus my choice for Premier is going to Rachel Notley. She is articulate, visionary and deserves a chance to try to add some excitement for the future in Alberta, which has way more going for it than the oil and gas industry.
It’s long over due to have someone sell the future of Alberta and the potential of its 4.1 million people with its rich agricultural, high-tech, manufacturing and medical and educational leading edge facilities. This will be my first time ever voting for the NDP and it has everything to do with her leadership and vision for the future of Alberta.
Brian Welling, Psychotherapist and university instructor
Past voting history: NDP or Green party We all know from history what kind of premier Jim Prentice is. I think he’s one that would rather cut services than listen to people and make corporations pay their fair share. That’s not the kind of premier I want. If the leaders debate is any clue, Brian Jean would make a very wooden premier. He seems only capable of repeating the same answer again and again.
Rachel Notley impressed me the most. She seemed to be able to handle anything that was thrown at her. She answered questions reasonably and she did it with panache as well. Prentice actually looked intimidated by her skill. Even Danielle Smith acknowledged Rachel won the debate handily.
David Swann looked shaky, but unfortunately we have even less to go on about the other leaders since they weren’t even invited to the debate.
I’m much more certain of my vote now. There’s a chance for change in the province and I definitely don’t want it to go further right. There’s a big chance for the NDP to make a difference and not for the Greens so it’s definitely NDP.
Manoj Mathew, Business analyst
Past voting history: Mixed but leaning right Rachel Notley really impressed me. She seems extremely capable, not that the others are not, but she’s got the right balance. Jim Prentice, he’s certainly knowledgeable but almost too polished. He’s a career politician. That’s what it boils down to. Especially when you consider the PCs time in power, we don’t need career politicians in Alberta right now.
After the debate, I was pretty close to sure I was voting NDP. But some of the information that’s come out over the weekend has put my decision in doubt yet again. It’s the NDP stance toward the Northern Gateway Pipeline. It raised some alarm bells in terms of how they would approach our long-term energy policy.
That being said, I know they’re in support of the eastern pipeline. I need to take a closer look to what their approach is. It’s going to come down to the wire. At some point or other, we need to take a chance on a different party. If the province goes in that direction, well, we’ve got four years to deal with it. The NDP has really come forward with some significant ideas.