Don Braid: Harper cushions his campaign against Alberta-style surprise
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshPrime Minister Stephen Harper and Alberta’s NDP Premier Rachel Notley
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decreed an election period as long as Pinocchio’s nose. Besides handing the Conservatives a severe money advantage, this makes it easier for Harper to switch campaign tactics if Alberta politics start breaking out all over Canada.
Alberta has an NDP government partly because of timing. The four-week campaign that ended May 5 was just long enough for Albertans to work themselves into a fine fury at Premier Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservatives.
Prentice would surely have loved another two weeks to yank his wildly misguided campaign back into reality.