NDP leader Rachel Notley tried to soften her left-wing persona on Thursday with an appeal to moderate conservative voters, promising she would speak for all Albertans if elected May 29..With the race too tight to call, an Ipsos poll found about 16% of voters remain undecided..At an appearance in Calgary Thursday, Notley riffed on traditional conservative themes, including taxes, pipelines and the economy..To that end, she promised she wouldn’t raise taxes or run budget deficits over a four-year term and vowed to be a “practical and pragmatic” leader while accusing the UCP of “abandoning the values of conservatives.”.“Everywhere I’m hearing from former conservatives and current conservatives who are struggling, who can’t quite bring themselves to vote for Danielle Smith this time around,” she said at a press conference in Calgary..“They just don’t think she’s going to provide our province with the stability, the capability and the responsibility people are looking for.”.Although she didn’t mention him by name, it was reminiscent of a certain Progressive Conservative leader, Peter Lougheed, who swept the province in 1971, and who remains synonymous with conservativism in Alberta..An Ipsos poll released Thursday suggested more than half of Albertans consider affordability and healthcare the two top issues in the campaign. The poll found the cost of living is the number one issue for UCP voters (57%) followed by healthcare (47%). Those numbers were almost equally flipped for NDP supporters, at 62% for health and cost of living at 51%..Smith has a four point lead over Notley on cost of living, while Notley has an eight point advantage on healthcare. Similarly, Smith has a 10 point advantage on taxes and an even bigger 15% gap on energy issues. Notley has a 13 point advantage on environmental issues..Notley tried to assuage the concerns by vowing not to raise taxes or run deficits during a four-year term if elected “full stop.” She also pointed out it was her former government that got the TransMountain pipeline to the West Coast approved in cooperation with British Columbia and the federal Liberals and vowed to protect Alberta’s energy sector..Notley admitted her government “chose families” and ran up deficits when energy prices were low. She said oil and gas revenues were about $3-4 billion during her tenure but are projected to be about $17 billion in the current fiscal year..“I’ve learned from my successes and mistakes,” she said. “Maybe you’ve never voted for me but this election is different … you can trust me, you might not agree with me.”.When asked if asking conservatives to vote NDP was an ideological bridge too far, she promised to be “practical and pragmatic” in a “populist Prairie tradition” ala NDP premiers like Roy Rowmanow in Saskatchewan, Gary Doer in Manitoba and even her own father, Grant Notley..“That’s the way my dad led the NDP for many years and these are the people I look to for guidance and inspiration.”.As per her party’s policy, Notley refused to answer questions from the Western Standard.
