NDP works to shore up support
Less than one week before the federal election, four Edmonton NDP candidates outlined Tuesday what their party can do for the city, rebuffing suggestions the Liberals are gaining ground locally as well as nationally at the expense of the New Democrats.
With leader Thomas Mulcair also scheduled to make another visit to Alberta’s capital on Friday — on his last visit Oct. 6 he spoke with indigenous leaders — the party wants to remind undecided voters that a vote for the New Democrats is not wasted, said Janet Brown, a Calgary pollster.
“The NDP is definitely fading in Alberta as a whole, probably not fading as fast as they are in Quebec and some other jurisdictions, but it’s definitely a downward trend,” Brown said.
But she said few polls have dug down to the local level, leaving anti-Conservative voters confused about where they should throw their support. The NDP hopes to shore up their support by parading out four strong local candidates: Edmonton-Strathcona incumbent Linda Duncan, Janis Irwin in Edmonton-Griesbach, Gil McGowan in Edmonton-Centre and Aaron Paquette in Edmonton-Manning.
“They really want that Anybody-But-Conservative vote to start to congeal around the NDP,” Brown said. “They still have confidence that those ridings are winnable, but they feel they need to shore them up. That’s what you do in the last week of the campaign, is you let go of the lost causes. You also let go of the sure things and you just zoom in on the swing ridings. The NDP hasn’t lost hope they’re going to win Edmonton or they’d be ignoring Edmonton.”
Duncan, Alberta’s sole NDP MP when Parliament was dissolved, said the polls on the doorsteps look good. “Yes, people are torn,” but Duncan said as soon as she explains the NDP platform — in- vesting $2 billion over 20 years on Edmonton transit infrastructure, creating 41,000 child-care spaces in the city at $15 per day, creating jobs and infrastructure projects with money saved from ending the Conservatives’ deep tax cuts for corporations — Duncan said they promise to vote for the New Democrats rather than the Liberals.
Janis Irwin, facing off against Conservative Kerry Diotte and Liberal Brian Gold, said her support is strong. “We’re the ones that are offering a concrete plan to address affordability, to address the issues with the economy,” Irwin said, noting her party will boost Canada’s pension plan and bring in a drug plan. “This election is really about change and people are telling us day in and day out that the Liberals don’t offer that change, that the Liberals have failed to distinguish themselves from the Conservatives on a number of issues.”
Gil McGowan, in a tight threeway race with Liberal Randy Boissonnault and Conservative James Cumming, said he’s heard from Albertans who remain pleased they voted New Democrat in the spring provincial election.
“They’ve seen with (Premier) Rachel (Notley) what New Democrats can do and they’re offering a new progressive kind of government that people are hungry for and which I’m afraid they’re not going to get with the Liberals,” McGowan said.
“I would point out that Ontario and the Maritimes are not Alberta. Alberta has its own unique political culture which Albertans are fiercely proud of. Just because people are giving Justin (Trudeau) a second look in Ontario does not mean the same is necessarily happening here.”