2008 Alberta general election

Notes:

• ¹ Liberal Chris Kibermanis originally had a five-vote margin over Progressive Conservative Thomas Lukaszuk. A judicial recount on January 24, 2005, determined Thomas Lukaszuk the winner.
• ² Results change is compared to the Alberta Alliance in 2004.

Wikinews has related news:

• Conservatives in Alberta, Canada re-elected 11th consecutive time

Map of election results

• Immediate elimination of health care premiums
• Increasing per capita spending on policy in Calgary from $16 to $20
• Re-legislation of tuition policy so it is made in open session
• Implementation of a public pharmacare program
• Using tobacco taxes, spend approximately $200 million to create a Community Wellness Fund which will seek to expand Family & Community Support Services and fund healthy living and lifestyle programs
• Redirect the $250 million Natural Gas Rebate Program towards incentives for energy efficiency
• Triple funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
• Increase the number of health care workers
• Investment of 30% of all natural resource revenues in:

1. investment in the Heritage Fund so that income taxes can remain permanently low
2. elimination of the infrastructure deficit by 2014
3. establishment of an uncapped endowment for post-secondary education
4. establishment of a $500 million endowment fund for arts, social sciences, and humanities

• Elimination of the education section of the property tax for seniors (approx. $700 a year)
• Increasing the tax credit for seniors' caregivers to $9,355 from $4,355.
• Making both Calgary and Edmonton into independent cities via a "Big Cities" Charter
• Hiring 300 more police officers for Calgary and Edmonton
• Fixed election dates

Cost: Net costs are zero as a result of re-allocating existing dollars and increased royalty revenues.

• Making life affordable
  • Create 4,000 new child care spaces.
  • Cap rates of $25/day ($500/month) for infant care and $9/day ($180/month) for after school care.
  • Regulate after-school care for children.
  • Increase start-up grants for daycare centres and day homes.
  • Provide additional sustainable grants to day cares to increase wages for childcare workers.
  • Introduce rent controls.
  • Introduce limits on condominium conversions.
• Full value royalties
  • Follow example set by Alaska and replace the royalty system.
  • Create an all-party, special committee of the legislature to investigate royalties and report back in three months.
  • Add a variable royalty structure that would increase the royalty revenues when oil prices pass a peak threshold.
  • Increase royalties on other non-renewable resources such as coal.
• Green energy plan
  • Create a green energy fund that will receive $2 billion a year primarily through enhanced royalties. Use that money to fund energy efficient retro-fitting and alternative energy production systems for individual houses and building.
  • Fund alternative power generation projects such as solar and wind farms.
  • Place hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions with penalties for companies that exceed targets — details to be worked out later.
  • Slow down the pace of development
• Big dollar signs out of politics
  • End campaign contributions from unions and corporations.
  • Table legislation binding all leadership and nomination contests to the same disclosure rules and donation limits of political parties.
• Immediately end health-care premiums.
• Create a new pharmaceutical agency to purchase drugs in bulk, negotiate prices with drug companies and find less costly options to brand-name drugs.
• Roll back tuition levels to 1999–2000 levels.
• Cap interest for student loans at prime.
• Invest $100 million in student housing immediately.
• Eliminate fees and fund-raising for learning essentials.
• Phase out funding for private schools.
• Hire 800 additional police officers
• Mandate basic value-added and upgrading for all bitumen mined in Alberta to be done in the province.
• Add an interim per barrel tax on all bitumen exported outside the province.
• Establish a bitumen pricing system.
• Start a public automobile insurance system.
• Provide stable funding for non-profit First Nation and Metis agencies.
• Tie AISH and social assistance rates to a market basket measure.
• Introduce $30 million in new funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Cost: $477 million surplus, based on increased royalty rates, bitumen royalty premium and reverse corporate tax cuts.

• Elimination of health care premiums over four years
• Increase the number of health care workers
• Construct 18 new schools in Calgary and Edmonton, including health focused schools
• $6 billion a year to build and improve urban transit, highways, schools, parks and seniors facilities
• Tax credits to businesses and homeowners who renovate to utilize energy efficient appliances
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 200 megatons by 2050
• Increase oil and gas revenue by $2 billion
• Introduce royalty that would increase with the price of oil
• Create a secretariat for action on homelessness
• Create a new cultural policy that includes recreation and sport along with arts and performance
• Double the tax credit for those supporting dependent family members

Cost: Total commitments represent 4.2 per cent of the budget for 2008–09 or $1.5 billion.

• Immediately eliminate health care premiums
• Raise the basic personal income tax exemption to $20,000
• Cut the provincial corporate tax rate from 10% to 8%
• Allow income splitting for taxpayers who care for dependents in times of medical or other crisis
• Direct savings from slowing spending growth to the Heritage Fund so that personal income taxes can eventually be eliminated
• Allow governance and service delivery at the municipal and community levels as much as possible
• As part of the party's universal health care plan, implement a pilot program in one of the smaller health regions that will be modelled after funding following the patients rather than the per capita funding currently in place today. Similarly, establish a school choice voucher pilot.
• Provide significant debt relief to Alberta-trained medical professionals who commit to practising in the province at least five years
• Establish fixed election dates, allow for citizen initiatives via referendums, and enact the right to recall elected officials

Costs: Cost of promises not released.

George Read, Leader of the Alberta Greens during the 2008 general election

• Green tax shift (i.e. lower income and business taxes in exchange for higher resource taxes)
• Community-based development
• Balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility
• Recovery of waste energy through co-generation
• Assessing royalty waste on a reservoir by reservoir basis
• Provide low interest loans to businesses for energy retrofits
• Provide no interest loans to homes for energy conservation
• Ban the use of cosmetic pesticides
• Increase spending in the Child Welfare Department
• Pass a Protected Lands Act that will clarify different land uses. The act will include:

1. Increase land designated as protected
2. Protect the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) corridor
3. Authority and resources to enforce the legislation for protected areas officers

• Increasing the supply of affordable housing

1. More housing cooperatives and co-housing type developments
2. Ensuring units are maintained by organizations that have a vested interest in sustaining them

• Working with the municipalities to make urban development plans that preserve farmland
• Investing in public transit
• Ensuring a continued supply of fresh water

Leader's statement

• Early 07' Vote predicted, Calgary Sun June 11, 2006
• Raj Pannu not running again, and predicts spring 2007 vote CBC news June 14, 2006
• Alberta Votes 2008: Promise tracker, cbc.ca, accessed February 22, 2008

• Chief Electoral Officer (2008). The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-Seventh Legislative Assembly (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. Retrieved April 7, 2021.