By Charles Lefebvre

Throne Speech announcement fuels election speculation

Jan 16, 2019 | 3:17 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Alberta is inching closer to a spring election.

However a local political scientist says he doesn’t believe an election will be called immediately when MLAs return to the legislature in March.

“I think it’s going to be as late as possible, I think it’s going to be in May,” said Jim Groom, political science instructor at Medicine Hat College. “The strategy they’ll look at is, are students still in school? Are the snowbirds coming back? Are there other contexts going on that they want to keep in mind?

By law, a provincial election must take place between March 1 and May 31.

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On Tuesday, the NDP announced they will be holding a Speech from the Throne in Edmonton on March 18, which has fuelled speculation the election call is imminent.

Groom says he expects a later election date for two reasons.

“The NDP still only has about half of their candidates confirmed,” he said. “They’re still nominating candidates, and they’re still doing that process, so I think they’re going to delay it as long as they can.

“The other thing is, if there is a federal court announcement about the consultation that went on with Trans Mountain, it might be good news before the next election, so the longer they can delay it, it may be beneficial to the NDP government at the time.”

Groom adds he doesn’t believe the NDP will table a budget before the provincial election.