The Rural Alberta Disadvantage: Brian Jean's UCP Candidacy Focuses on Austerity
The Alberta NDP's historic 2015 victory was a direct result of a severely dysfunctional right wing political culture in the province. Despite a combined 51% of the vote, the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties won just 30 of the 86 seats in Edmonton\u2019s legislature.
But a merger of the two parties this summer has led to rapprochement and an ongoing leadership campaign to head the United Conservative Party.
Major candidates Brian Jean and Jason Kenney are currently running even in the polls and while the Kenney campaign has been light on substance, Brian Jean has released a detailed, extensive and very frightening platform outlining an extremist vision for Alberta.
In this conversation, Joel French of advocacy group Public Interest Alberta discusses the leadership race and explains why the proposals in Jean's platform would be a disaster for the province.