Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley Promises to Recruit Doctors, Fund Vaccination If Elected
As the first day of the Alberta provincial election began with the drop of the writ, New Democrat Party leader Rachel Notley was on the campaign trail in Calgary, promising to protect Albertans’ pensions and end the health care crisis.
At a news conference on May 1, Notley said if elected on May 29, her party would “bring doctors back to Alberta” and “reduce the number of people waiting in pain.”
Notley said her party would cover more medications for seniors and fund vaccinations, adding, “We will not make women pay for reproductive health care, we’ll cover the cost of contraception for free.”
“We will fix the health care crisis of today by investing by investing in frontline workers and frontline services,” said Notley. She said it would mean “undertaking the largest health care recruitment and retention campaign ever seen because we support public health care.”
Notley reiterated an earlier promise to create family health clinics. “Within ten years, up to one million more Albertans will have access to a doctor within a day or two as part of family health clinics,” the Alberta NDP pledged in April as part of their campaign.
Notley, who was elected in 2015 and served one four-year term as premier of Alberta, said under an NDP government, “students will have a modern curriculum,” smaller class sizes, and more education assistants.
Notley committed to freezing car insurance, freezing university tuition, and introducing legislation to protect pensions.
Notley’s election promises on the first day of the campaign trail tended to be general, not specific. She said, “We look forward to rolling out our affordability measures very soon into the campaign. So that is a thing that you will see from us. And of course, they will be focused primarily on lower- and middle-income folks.”
The NDP leader said: “Our party has a plan. It has a plan to attract $20 billion in new private sector investment and to create more than 47,000 good-paying, sustainable industrial jobs all across this province.”
Notley spoke about supporting energy workers and “cutting the emissions that threaten our planet, and we will be creating jobs while we’re at it.” She said people should not be charged “just to enjoy a hike in Kananaskis country.”
“And when, by the way, when you go on that hike, you’ll be doing that near mountains that have absolutely no coal mining,” she added.
