Alberta Party's Greg Clark says he is a 'strong local candidate' for Calgary-Elbow
CBC News | Posted: April 12, 2015 7:25 PM | Last Updated: April 12, 2015
Clark says the Alberta Party represents a next-generation leadership connected with modern Alberta
The Alberta Party kicked off its campaign in Calgary on Saturday with a pancake breakfast and promises of a better Alberta.
The party doesn't have a seat in the legislature but leader Greg Clark says he is optimistic about the party electing their first group of MLAs.
"There's a lot of dissatisfaction with Alberta politics right now, there's a lot of people who feel like 'I don't have anyone to vote for,' a lot of people saying 'I don't have a political home,'" he said.
The party's website has seen an 800 per cent increase in traffic lately due to a crafty ploy by the party. After discovering that the Progressive Conservatives had not registered a domain for their campaign slogan, the Alberta Party snapped it up.
Now, anyone who enters "Choose Alberta's Future" into their browser, followed by .com or .ca, is directed to the Alberta Party's website instead.
"It's a bit of fun. It's one of those things that happens in a campaign, but I think it says details are important," Clark said.
He said purchasing the domain has helped the party's "underdog" position.
"The PC Party literally has millions of dollars to spend, we've seen through their advertising, they are going to overwhelm everyone else."
"We need to use the resources at our disposal, and that's our brains and our ingenuity."
In an emailed statement, the PC Party said called the domain a "diversion tactic" and that their focus is on their campaign.
Clark focused on education
Clark may actually be a threat to the PCs in the riding of Calgary-Elbow. He said polls suggest there is a neck-and-neck race in the riding between Clark and the PC candidate Gordon Dirks, who is running for re-election.
Clark, who grew up in Calgary-Elbow, says he is a better candidate for the riding because he actually lives in the area he wants to represent, while his opponent does not.
As a father of two, Clark said feels strongly about fixing Alberta's education system. Seeing per-student funding drop over the past five years, he said, is unacceptable.
Clark said decreased funding has led to larger class sizes, fewer supports for special-needs kids and for English as a second language instruction.
"We want to make sure that the price of a barrel of oil does not decide how big your kid's class size is," he said.