Jason Markusoff's Alberta politics insider for March 26: The NDP's childcare pitch, Kenney's rollback on gay-straight alliances, and more
Every day during Alberta’s election campaign, Maclean’s correspondent Jason Markusoff is tracking platform promises, bozo eruptions and any other notable news from the hustings. Sign up for the Maclean’s politics insider to get Markusoff’s inside track in your inbox every morning.
In each case, she’s promising nothing new—just more of what the NDP has already brought Alberta. Even the $25 day-care plan is a fuller realization of something Notley promised in the 2015 NDP platform. The NDP is also taking care not to distract from a bigger message it is pushing: attacks on Kenney’s character, his social conservatism and the rogue candidates he’s had to distance himself from. Notley’s side doesn’t want the ballot question to be about the economy and seems content not to wage a battle on whose policy book is most inspiring. They’d rather point to how scary and menacing their opponent appears. If Notley emerges as the kinda boring alternative? Fine by the NDP.
In his education platform, Kenney pledges to return to the Tory-era rules—not roll back GSA requirements altogether, but weaken them. This will cheer conservative parental groups that argued the NDP’s reforms were coercive, and give the NDP and LGTBQ rights defenders something to fight against.
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