After what felt like an interminable, unofficial election campaign, the writ has been dropped and the official campaign begins. .Commuters were greeted with a blight of campaign signs that erupted like weeds overnight and they can look forward to many interrupted dinners as corps of volunteers hit the doors over the next 28 days. .Every election is billed by pundits and contenders as being the most important of its time. This may or may not be the most important election ever, but it is a singular one. .Alberta has morphed into a true, two party state. The province hasn't entered a general election with only two parties represented in the legislature since 1997 under Premier Ralph Klein and even then, the NDP managed to get a toehold by winning two seats to make it a three party legislature. Today, while there are twelve registered political parties in Alberta, only the UCP and the NDP are in serious contention to win seats. .The Alberta Liberal Party was the founding party of the province. It lost its lone seat in the legislature in the 2019 election and wasn't even able to draw a contender for its attempted leadership race last year. .The Alberta Party had three seats at the dissolution of the last legislature as it provided a spot for disillusioned Progressive Conservative MLAs to land when the party merged to form the UCP. All of those seats were lost in 2019 and the party hasn't been able to make inroads since. They are the perennial party of nice guys offering a place in the mushy middle. In politics though, nice guys do finish last and the Alberta Party isn't poised to change that status this time around. .The Freedom Conservative Party (FCP) had one seat in the 2019 race and lost that. If a new contender from the right was to develop, it was from the FCP. The party has since changed its name to the Wildrose Independence Party under Paul Hinman's leadership, and then tore itself to shreds with infighting last year. They will field no more than a handful of candidates. .The remaining registered parties will have candidates here and there in the race. None have the profile, the resources or the organization to win a seat in this election. .The lack of third party contenders in this election allows the top two parties to focus their guns exclusively upon each other. The tone from both is heated as they each try to tell Albertans their opponent will surely destroy the province if they are elected. .The race is very personal. The election ads that have been barraging the eyes and ears of Albertans never fail to mention the leader of the other party by name. Rachel Notley is portrayed a socialist bent upon crushing the economy while Danielle Smith is framed as a fringe right wing extremist who will sell the healthcare system to the highest bidder. There isn't even a veneer of congeniality between them. .Things will only get worse over the course of the next four weeks I am afraid. .There is clear polarity between these parties. While Notley's NDP became pragmatic socialists while in power and Smith's UCP have been spending at levels lately which would make partisan Liberals blush, the parties still land distinctly on the left and right of the political spectrum. Voters are determining if Alberta is to go one way or the other in this election. There is no middle to choose from. .Polls indicate the race is tight with a large number of undecided voters in the mix. It won't be policy that may swing those undecided voters into one camp or another, it will be trust. Parties are selling their leaders and they will pull out all the stops to try and foster mistrust in their opponents. It's going to get ugly. .Hunker down folks. They have just crossed the starting line. It's going to be a long four weeks but we can still hope that out of this personal grudge match, an election campaign may emerge.
