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Alberta Votes

All eyes on Edmonton for leaders debate

Apr 4, 2019 | 9:45 AM

EDMONTON- Leaders of four Alberta political parties are facing off tonight in a televised debate.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley, the United Conservatives’ Jason Kenney, the Alberta Party’s Stephen Mandel and the Alberta Liberals’ David Khan are battling it out in Edmonton.

The 90-minute televised debate will get underway starting at 5:30 p.m. MT. The debate is being hosted by a consortium including CTV, CBC, Rogers and Postmedia.

Notley has focused the fight to keep her job as premier on attacking Kenney’s character and his record on social issues like LGBTQ rights.

Kenney, her chief rival, has slammed the NDP’s economic record, failure to build new market-opening pipelines and its alliance with Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The April 16 election is the first for the UCP and Kenney, a federal cabinet minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper.

The UCP formed in 2017 after a merger between the former Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party.

Former UCP member Derek Fildebrandt, who leads the upstart Freedom Conservative Party, will not be participating.

(The Canadian Press)