Advance polls opened in Alberta on May 23, and by 8 p.m. local time, over 161,000 voters had marked their ballots in what one political analyst says is the closest race the province has seen in 50 years.
“It’s extremely competitive and it’s a close race,” Michael Solberg, a partner at Calgary-based New West Public Affairs, a national public affairs firm, told The Epoch Times on May 23. Solberg is the son of former federal cabinet minister Monte Solberg—both men worked in Ottawa with former prime minister Stephen Harper on his campaign in the 2000s.
This election is the first time in years where Albertans have a choice between two major political parties that both have governing records and want to be re-elected to lead the province for a second term, Solberg notes. The choice is Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party (UCP) or Rachel Notley and the New Democrat Party (NDP)….