Last Monday night, there was an earthquake felt in Calgary-Shaw. Voters in this provincial riding did something Alberta hasn’t seen in 60 years. Calgary-Shaw was one of the safest conservative seats in the province and it has flipped to the Alberta NDP.
In a historic byelection result, Calgary-Shaw voters chose Kyle Campbell to represent a riding that the UCP had taken for granted. Danielle Smith wants to pretend this was a fluke. It wasn’t.
This byelection wasn’t just about separatism. People in Calgary-Shaw were concerned about their power bills, their auto insurance, schools, and not being able to see a doctor. And voters are tired of the chaos Smith and the UCP are causing instead of addressing their concerns.
In October 2022, Smith promised to fix health care in 90 days. It has been nearly four years, and Alberta’s health-care challenges have only grown worse. There is a massive gap between people’s lived experiences and the announcements and promises the UCP makes.
The Alberta NDP is taking a reasonable approach with researched and reliable plans to cut surgical, diagnostic and specialist wait times by 30% within three years and get Albertans access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. There are eleven unbuilt schools in the riding of Calgary-Shaw. The UCP has announced and re-announced plans-to-plan the construction of those schools over and over again since it became government.
When I learned that, it made me think of this government’s empty promises surrounding the expansion of the Strathcona Hospital in Sherwood Park and the Stollery Children’s Hospital. In 1992, Alberta had approximately 11,700 hospital beds. Today, with nearly double the population and a much older demographic, we have roughly 8,800.
The problems in Alberta’s health care system, schools, and social services networks are NOT the fault of immigrants, or Ottawa. The UCP did this to us, and they are still doing it: they cancelled the planned and much needed new hospital for South Edmonton upon taking office and haven’t lifted a finger to correct that error since.
Albertans are done being distracted. The By-election in Calgary-Shaw is proof. They want a government that shows up for them.
They want a government that works on the mandate that voters give them. They want reasonable people steering our provincial government with reasonable policies and legislation. Nobody voted for the UCP to work on separating Alberta from Canada.
Nobody elected this government to claw back federal benefits from disabled Albertans and kick them off of the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped(AISH). Nobody elected a provincial government to waste over $200 million on a referendum.. Kyle Kasawski is the MLA for Sherwood Park.
If you have questions about this column or any provincial issues, he would like to hear from you. Find his contact information at kylekasawski.ca