Too early to tell if Albertans will take drastic measures at 2019 polls: Notley

There has been a lot of reaction to the political status quo so far in 2016, from Brexit to the U.S. presidential election.

With all of the seeming political unrest, some may wonder if the trend of voting for the unexpected, sometimes extreme option, is to be expected in Alberta.
The province’s premier, Rachel Notley, doesn’t think so.

“I think the vast majority of Albertans do not share some of the values that are, shall we say, more on the fringes, with respect to what we’ve seen demonstrated (elsewhere),” Notley said.

But the premier also said she can understand why people sometimes make drastic decisions at the polls.

“There’s no question that when people are worried about the economy, they’re worried about their jobs, they’re worried about their security, that they look around to a whole bunch of different places. And that’s democracy,” she said.

“It’s our job, for any government, whether right or left, in government or out of government, to give them meaningful reasons to be hopeful and optimistic that the situation’s going to get better and they can count on the security of their family.”

As for what she believes will happen in the 2019 provincial election, Notley admitted the world economy is experiencing difficult times, which has led to situations like Brexit, but she said it’s still too early to make generalizations about what will happen here in the future.

In June, 52 per cent of more than 30 million United Kingdom voters chose to leave the European Union, a decision that led to a brief drop in markets, and put the value of the British Pound at a 30-year low.

Then on November 8, Americans shocked the world by electing businessman and controversial Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead their country as the 45th president. This also caused markets worldwide to crash due to uncertainty, but most have since recovered.