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Local take on the provincial election debate

Apr 5, 2019 | 4:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Four party leaders faced off Thursday night in Alberta’s election leadership debate.

Much of the evening was consumed by NDP leader Rachel Notley and UCP leader Jason Kenney arguing and butting heads.

Also present was David Khan with the Alberta Liberal Party and Stephen Mandel with the Alberta Party.

Medicine Hat College political science instructor Jim Groom, gave his insight on the debate.

“Everybody handled themselves quite well, I found it was a good back and forth,” says Groom. “They were all enthusiastic, they did at some point talk all over each other which makes it a little difficult to get a good assessment at that point.”

Although it was a very lively debate, Groom says there wasn’t really any winners or losers. He says this could be bad news for Notley.

“Because of the ways the polls have been since the beginning, it was really incumbent on Rachel Notley to win that debate, and there was just no real clear knock-out punches,” says Groom. “I think as a result, she hasn’t made a lot of headway.”

Groom says the three candidates teamed up on Jason Kenney, because they know he’s the front runner in the election.

However, he says Kenney did a good job at presenting his ideas, despite some issues in his campaign.

“He held up pretty good, he was a little shaky on some of his ethical questions about his candidates which I think is to be understood,” says Groom. “It’s pretty hard to justify some of those positions, but he’s between a rock and a hard place because he’s got a candidate in place, we’re in the middle of an election and it makes it really difficult to change horses in the middle of a ride.”

Much of the debate was consumed by low blows between Kenney and Notley.

“One of the things Jason Kenney did a lot was link Notley to Justin Trudeau and I mean Trudeau’s gone through some bad bad weeks over the last little while and we have always had a distance between the Liberal’s position and Alberta,” says Groom. “He’s just milking that to the nth degree and I’m not sure if people got a little tired of that in the debate.”

Khan has been receiving online praise for his performance during the debate. He pushed his economic plan which would eliminate provincial income tax for almost all Albertans while bringing in a sales tax to stabilize revenues.

He also insulted the United Conservative plan to hold a referendum on Alberta’s equalization payments.

“He did hold himself up very well, and he was correct, Jason Kenney keeps talking about a referendum on the equalization payments but it’s right in the Constitution that equalization is a part of the principles of Canada,” says Groom. “The formula can be adapted and changed around, but it really can’t simply through a provincial referendum change anything’s that’s in the Constitution, that’s just not legally done.”

Overall, Groom doesn’t believe the debate will have much of an influence on votes in the election.

“It won’t sway much of the electorate I don’t think on that debate alone.”