Alberta byelection: Can the NDP ride its polling popularity to a seat steal up north?
CTV
As voters go to the polls in northeastern Alberta Tuesday, there's much more on the line than who will represent Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche in the legislature.
As voters go to the polls in northeastern Alberta Tuesday, there's much more on the line than who will represent Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche in the legislature.
One of the candidates, Brian Jean of the United Conservative Party, has made it clear that his ultimate goal is to unseat Premier Jason Kenney and take the job for himself.
But Jean's most likely challenger Tuesday – the NDP's Ariana Mancini – is hoping to cut that quest short by flipping the seat from blue to orange.
The New Democrats also want a strong finish to solidify what polls have been predicting for months – that the UCP is poised to lose the provincial election slated for May 2023.
"There's no trust in the Jason Kenney UCP government. People feel forgotten, they feel left betrayed, they feel ignored. And then there's no trust with Brian Jean, based on his previous track record," Mancini told CTV News Edmonton Monday.
Jean resigned from his MP job in 2014, and from his MLA post in 2018 without completing either term.
But the Jean-Kenney rivalry is not the focus of Mancini's campaign. She says a lot of voters are tired of that drama and concerned about jobs and paying more for utilities and groceries, she said.
