The United Conservatives and Alberta NDP have controlled most of the discussion in the early days of Alberta’s provincial election campaign, but other parties are also lobbying for support.
“Let’s get a message out there and hopefully people will show up to vote,” said Alberta Liberal Party candidate Pat Chizek.
Chizek is returning as the Liberal candidate in Lethbridge-West, where she finished fourth in the 2019 provincial election.
She says she wants to give voters another option.
“With only two parties in our legislature, we have many, many people who don’t even have a voice at the table. So we have to try and get other parties elected,” Chizek said.
Meanwhile, the Alberta Party is putting forward Braham Luddu in Lethbridge-West.
According to Luddu, to earn support his party needs to connect with people.
“We can go door-to-door and we will try to use social media. Social media is more of a factor these days,” Luddu said.
When it comes to choices in Lethbridge-East, it’s a different story, as the NDP and UCP remain the only two parties with confirmed candidates in the riding.
The Alberta Party tells Global News it’s unsure if it will have anyone on the ballot.
Meanwhile, the Liberals say they don’t expect to have a candidate in Lethbridge-East, a riding the party held for nearly 20 years until 2011. They finished with just 512 votes out of more than 22,500 cast in 2019.
“I think in a fairly polarized election, what we’re seeing is a lot of other smaller parties are saying they can’t find candidates and they realize some of these are not easily-won fights,” said political sociologist Trevor Harrison.
Harrison believes the erosion of options could keep some voters on the sidelines come election night.
“In the rural areas and in some of the major centres, a lot of conservative voters will probably sit out this election, because they’re kind of stranded voters and they don’t see any party they want to vote for,” Harrison said.
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