By Sam Jabri-Pickett
Canada's oil hub of Alberta will hold an election on May 29, which is expected to be a tight race between incumbent United Conservative Party (UCP) leader and premier, Danielle Smith, and former premier and leader of the New Democratic Party, Rachel Notley.
Here are the profiles of the two leading candidates and their main campaign promises.
DANIELLE SMITH
Succeeding Jason Kenney, Smith comes from roots in the socially conservative Wildrose Party. She has been premier since October 2022 after she won the UCP's leadership race.
Smith, 52, who holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Calgary with a major in English and a minor in economics, started her career in media. First as an extra in the Vancouver film and television industry and then as a journalist on radio, television and in print. While working as a radio broadcaster in March 2020, Smith tweeted and later deleted claims that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine is a cure for COVID-19.
As premier, Smith fired Alberta Health Services’ governing board for what she called “freedom-busting health restrictions” implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. She later walked back her plans to pursue pardons for violations of COVID-19 health and safety restrictions.
Smith was a lobbyist for the Alberta Enterprise Group (AEG), encouraging capital investment and big business in Alberta. She introduced the Alberta Sovereignty Act to prevent the enforcement of “federal rules deemed harmful to Alberta’s interests." The act passed but only with significant changes to remove the legislation-rewriting powers the original measure would have given Smith and her cabinet.
Since 2017, Smith and her husband, David Moretta, have owned and operated the Dining Car at High River station, a converted rail car in High River.
RACHEL NOTLEY
Notley, 59, became premier of Alberta in 2015, ending 44 years of Progressive Conservative Party rule in the Western Canadian province. She lost re-election in 2019 to Kenney.
The daughter of former Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Grant Notley, Rachel Notley was a labour advocate and lawyer before entering politics. She specialised in workers’ rights and health and safety. She advocated for the rights of special-needs children with the organisation Moms on the Move.
Notley credits her mother, an anti-war activist, for getting her involved in activism, taking Notley to an anti-war demonstration before she was ten years old.
While premier, Notley gave Canada its first C$15 ($11) minimum wage, stabilised funding for healthcare, restricted money in elections and increased taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Her government introduced harm-reduction measures targeting the opioid and fentanyl epidemic.
Her husband, Lou Arab, is a communications representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and a campaign strategist for the NDP. Notley and Arab live with their two children in the historic Old Strathcona district in Edmonton.
(Reporting by Sam Jabri-Pickett in Toronto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Matthew Lewis)
