A trio of star endorsements with Calgary connections are hoping to sway voters in the battleground city in the final days of the provincial election.
How effective those endorsements will be remains to be seen.
On Thursday morning, Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre provided a prerecorded endorsement of UCP Leader Danielle Smith.
Poilievre repeated the United Conservatives lines of attack, including the so-called “NDP-Liberal coalition,” the Alberta NDP’s plans for corporate taxes and the UCP’s plan to “stand up for Alberta.”
“In other words, vote for Alberta, vote conservative, vote early, vote now,” Poilievre said, before an on screen graphic read “Bring it home.”
And late Friday morning, a video endorsement of Smith came from former prime minster Stephen Harper.
Harper repeated the UCP line that Notley was promising a “massive hike” in the corporate tax rate and that the Alberta NDP leader was “not running on her record.”
He also asserted that the “Trudeau Liberals are voting NDP in this election,” providing no proof.
Harper said Smith and the United Conservatives were the “one option” to protect economic livelihood in the province.
It was the second video endorsement from the former prime minister in six weeks.
In an April 18 video, Harper appeared in front of a blank wall urging Albertans to “vote for Alberta. Vote conservative,” without mentioning the UCP or Smith.
The United Conservative leader said she’s been “delighted” with the endorsements she’s received this election.
“I’m hoping that voters are persuaded by the endorsements I’ve gotten from Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre,” Smith said. “I guess we’ll see on Monday, what kind of impact that has.”
Friday morning, former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi penned a column saying despite a personal history of voting for a wide range of political parties, he was “lending” his vote to Notley.
He later joined Notley at a campaign rally in a Calgary-Foothills backyard to endorse her in person.
“I believe that Danielle Smith is an existential threat to the future of Alberta,” Nenshi said at the rally event. “And I believe that we don’t know which Danielle Smith is going to show up for work.”
The former mayor said this election was about leadership, competence and trust. Nenshi said while in office, he and Notley agreed on a lot of things and disagreed on a few things.
“We had, I think, three very big fights. But we were able to do that.”
Following conversations with citizens away from the glare of political office, Nenshi said he views “an enormous risk” in Smith getting another term.
“She is someone that cannot be trusted. And I hate saying that. I’ve known her for 30 years, we’ve been friends,” he said.
Notley told party faithful and assembled media she’s seen more people support the NDP’s cause.
“We have gathered up more and more folks who are willing to stand up and support us and who are stepping up to say, ‘You know what, I think this time, I’ve got to do this,’” she said.
Former PC MLAs Cathy Olesen and Doug Griffiths, former Liberal MLA David Swann, and Blake Pedersen, a former Wildrose MLA in Medicine Hat, all expressed their support to the NDP this election.
Nenshi is the latest politician with conservative roots who have come out to “lend their vote” to the NDP, a concept recently brought into the political discourse by former PC deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk.
“I hope they’ll listen to (Nenshi’s) message that there are a lot of reasonable, pragmatic, practical, conservative folks, center folks across Alberta, who were looking for a government that they can count on, and that this time, the way to secure that is to lend the Alberta NDP their vote,” Notley said.
“I don’t think Albertans need people from Ottawa to tell them how to vote. I think that Albertans are looking for their community leaders, who are focused on the issues of Alberta.”
One long-time political strategist said there’s not much shine to be had from the halo effect of endorsements.
“The thought process is we’re going to take ‘x’ person’s support and we’re going to migrate it to ‘y’ person,” Stephen Carter said.
“I don’t think you can transfer that back and forth. I think you have to earn these votes differently. And most of the endorsements that actually matter are the endorsements that are passed from individuals to other individuals. There’s no correlation between an endorsement and value. There’s not there’s absolutely nothing that indicates that in the literature.”
Carter, whose 25-year career includes the successful Alison Redford, Naheed Nenshi and Jyoti Gondek campaigns, said a late-election move to release endorsements comes from a place of “it couldn’t hurt.”
“This is happening because there are whiffs of desperation on both sides, and everybody’s just throwing everything against the wall and hoping something sticks – which is a feeling of panic and desperation I can certainly relate to,” he said, citing the very tight race between the two main parties.
“I don’t think you’re seeing these decisions being made from the heights of strategy.”
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