Ms. Smith said the UCP and its NDP rivals are ‘neck-and-neck’ in Calgary, as a provincial budget looms on Tuesday
, which she says is no longer the conservative stronghold it once was, ahead of the provincial election in May.
Some moderate and progressive conservatives are skeptical of Ms. Smith, who shifted the UCP further to the right after taking over from former leader Jason Kenney. The ideological chasm within the conservative family is most dangerous for the Premier in Calgary, where many voters – and successful politicians – have a progressive tint. Calgary conservatives are also accustomed to controlling power, but Ms. Smith hasThe UCP won 23 of Calgary’s 26 ridings in the last election.
Ms. Smith attended the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake meeting alongside Devin Dreeshen, the riding’s MLA. The CA had $250,000 in its bank account, the Premier said, making it the most successful fundraising operations in the conservative apparatus. Ms. Smith noted individual constituencies only need $50,000 to run an election campaign, owing to provincial financing rules.
”We are very comfortable with the direction the previous board took in transferring money to help other CAs in this next election,” she said in an interview on Friday. “The government is making a lot of policy choices that will probably lead to spending higher than whatever I would project” based on current policy, Mr. Tombe said. He noted Ms. Smith’s mandate letters to cabinet targeted operating spending growth at no more than inflation plus population of the previous year – adding that this translates into an 8.6-per-cent increase, which would allow the government to increase spending by over $3.5-billion without hitting the target ceiling.
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