City Notebook: It has begun…
By COLLIN GALLANT on March 23, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant This week marked the beginning of the Alberta election period and the end to speculation of when, exactly, the election would be called. It’s easy to over analyze when and how election dates are decided, but beyond watching major trends or polls, there is some minutia involved. The current election period is prescribed bylaw, but sitting governments in democracies all over the world spend a lot of time staring at the calendar looking for the tiniest of edges. One consideration is whether university students are in their home ridings, or at their places of study, but there are others. The 2011 Federal election was held May 2, the business day following the income tax filing deadline – and set there by the federal Conservatives who probably wanted folks thinking about their tax exposure when they headed to the polls. Stephen Harper’s conservatives moved from minority to majority that time around. In Alberta, this time around, homeowners just happen to be opening their utility bills after the coldest February in memory across much of the province. From it, the UCP, which is vowing to end carbon levies, will probably get a bigger boost than the NDP, which capped power bills and is promoting programs to cut bills in the long run. Trading spaces Elections also lead to real estate booms of sorts. The Alberta Party office has set up shop on Second Street downtown in the space people of a certain vintage remember as the former Tramps’ location. The storefront, next to the Monarch Theatre at the corner of Sixth Avenue, is right next to where Rachel Notley held a frenzied afternoon rally ahead of the 2015 vote. The current NDP candidates are sharing space in the Carry Drive Plaza (across the back alley from the News offices), where in 2012 Len Mitzel mounted his re-election campaign as a PC MLA. UCP member Drew Barnes is set up again in a bay near the corner of Dunmore Road and Ross Glen Drive, and his party’s counterpart in Brooks-Medicine Hat, Michaela Glasgo has a base in the 20th Street Strip Mall in Northeast Crescent Heights. Switching ballots In an election of another sort, members of South Country Co-op will gather Monday for their annual general meeting and elect four directors of the expanding retailer. Two long-serving but retired government representatives are seeking election among 11 names on the ballot that includes some other notable names. We’ll leave you guessing in the interest of fairness considering that we can’t name them all here. You’ll have to get out an see for yourself, or watch this space next week. A look ahead After a big start to the provincial election, it’ll be another week on the campaign trail. The city’s committee meetings show no public proceedings. 100 years ago The Princess Patricia’s Regiment was greeted by 40,000 residents of Ottawa on a two-mile parade route as they marched through the national capital, the News reported in March 1919. Had Bolsheviks infiltrated the Canadian Labour Movement, was the question from authorities after a potential vote by all unions on the creation of “One Big Union” was proposed at a Calgary convention. The Great War Veterans Association national congress petitioned the dominion government to deport any Mennonites who arrived in Canada from the United States during the war in Europe. Locally, the Easter school break was reduced to a four-day weekend rather than the traditional week by the public school board. Collin Gallant covers city politics for the News and a variety of topics. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com 24-23
