Today is by-election day in three Alberta ridings

Vote suppression is a venerable part of any conservative party’s election-day strategy, but you have to admit that adding biological warfare to the mix puts a creative new spin on it!

Today is by-election day in Alberta. In addition, every day is Measles Day in Alberta nowadays. But the disease now seems to be getting a boost in the Edmonton area thanks to a recent visitor from the province’s north, Alberta Health Services says. Two out of the three by-elections are taking place in the Edmonton area. 

The timing is almost certainly coincidental, but both are the result of decisions made by Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party, or, as we prefer to think of it here at AlbertaPolitics.ca, the MAGA Party of Alberta (MAGAPA). 

Measles is spreading throughout Wild Rose Country at levels that vastly outpace any other jurisdiction in the developed world, even the United States of Amnesia, thanks to the UCP’s well-understood efforts to deny the effectiveness of vaccines generally, suppress information about their availability, and stigmatize and penalize those who wish to be immunized. 

The Edmonton-Strathcona by-election was delayed six months after former MLA and NDP leader Rachel Notley resigned and left politics mainly to keep Mr. Nenshi out of the Legislature. This is unproven, of course, but obvious. 

Now, to be clear, I’m not seriously suggesting the UCP put the infected visitor up to dropping into the Capital Region between June 4 and 6 to suppress opposition votes. After all, they’re just not that well organized. 

As previously observed in this space, today’s by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona is of significant importance to the future success of NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, but the one in Edmonton-Ellerslie may be even more important. 

Mr. Nenshi is expected to win in Edmonton-Strathcona, and NDP stronghold previously represented by former premier Notley and the late party leader Raj Pannu. But he needs a significant showing in Edmonton-Ellerslie to counter the narrative spun by a number of recent polls that the UCP is making gains in the solidly New Democrat Capital Region.

The significance Mr. Nenshi’s presence in the Alberta Legislature after today’s vote should not be overemphasized, however, as many are wont to do on social media. The Legislature is not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 27, week after the fall municipal elections in which the UCP has pressed its thumb on the scale to benefit conservative candidates. This is especially true in Alberta’s two biggest cities, where the municipal political parties that no one except the UCP wants will be active. 

Moreover, the Legislature will only sit until Nov. 27, which is not really much chance for Mr. Nenshi to test his debating skills against Premier Smith. And after that – who knows? – Alberta’s fixed election date law notwithstanding, that could very well be the last time the Legislature sits until after the next election. If Premier Smith does ask for an early election while her polls are still strong, remember where you heard it first. 

Meanwhile, the NDP doesn’t have a ghost of a chance in the third by-election, in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, but the openly separatist/51^st statist Republican Party of Alberta does, which is interesting in its own way. 

So if you happen to live in any of those electoral districts, check your vaccination status and get out and vote. If, as AHS points out, the best way to stay safe is to be born before 1970, you may want to work on that too! (Joke.)

AHS says the person confirmed to be infectious with measles showed up at 10 locations in the Edmonton area, seven of them in St. Albert, between June 4 and June 6. There are, of course, sure to be vastly many more unreported cases of the highly infectious disease all over the province. 

Polls will be open until 8 p.m.