Alberta Votes: It’s going to turn ugly.

Published 2012/03/31

Today we saw another Progressive Conservative choose to throw Ms. Redford and the PC campaign under the bus: this time, for the opposite reason Ms. Kennedy-Glans did yesterday. A MLA of four terms wanted Ms. Redford to defend him and the MLAs of the PC caucus rather than flip flop on her earlier position, of which she had earlier changed her position on. This comes a day after Ms. Redford made a political gambit in hopes of a forgetful Albertan public that would forget about the No Meet committee: a gambit that may or may not pay dividends over the next three weeks of the election.

Ms. Redford is doing something very smart here: she’s banking that anger against the Tories will fade with the ongoing tumult of the election and that the Wildrose have peaked too early. Some polls have the Wildrose picking up some 58 seats, but, obviously, as quick a rise will inevitably meet as quick a fall. Such large jumps in support can only be seen as errant polling or flash in the pan support. Also, Ms. Smith, while having plenty of good coverage and positive spin around her for almost a year, has now to face a fully funded, fully organized natural governing party, with money oozing out of the campaign treasury. Ms. Smith also has to face the issue that she has not had to deal with the force of all her opinions she has ever written (like her support of legalized prostitution, which is anathema to her conservative base).

Ms. Smith is about to get hit with a giant campaign targeting her and her party. Which, for some, is justified seeing the very negative ads that Smith has sent out to vilify the Tories. Will Ms. Redford’s likely incoming tactics work? Probably. Everything is setting up for it to happen. Attack politics, as noted by Warren Kinsella, is like watching a roadside accident: everyone goes slowly by watching it for the gory details: And this will be a very, very gory election with a desperate Tory government and an equally animosity filled Wildrose.