CALGARY—With nearly three weeks down, the Alberta election campaign is careening toward the final, crucial days before it’s time to vote on April 16.

This past week saw some of the big election milestones fly by, including costed party platforms and the much-anticipated — but ultimately underwhelming — leaders’ debate.

Here’s what else you need to know about the week that was on the campaign trail.

The platform drop ... and some edits

The UCP and NDP both revealed their full platforms last weekend, with the parties touting very different plans to balance Alberta’s budget by 2023.

The United Conservative Party is proposing a wide-scale rollback of the NDP government’s environmental policies, including cancelling the carbon tax and removing the cap on oilsands emissions. The party says it’ll get to a small surplus in four years by freezing spending across the board and setting up a commission to specifically look for further government “efficiencies” once they’re in power.

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The UCP also had to answer questions about a platform proposal to change the way banked overtime works in Alberta.

On the other hand, the NDP’s route to a balanced budget relies on revenue from non-renewable resources doubling by 2023-24. The party is pushing the message that the UCP’s financial approach will devastate Alberta’s public services amid a big revenue hole with no carbon levy and lower corporate taxes. The UCP hit back saying all the new spending the NDP has proposed is unrealistic.

On Friday, the UCP quietly changed several parts of its platform document posted online. Among other tweaks, the party removed wording about its promise to “protect minority communities that are targeted by hate-inspired violence and vandalism,” cutting it down to just “protecting minority communities.” And the UCP adjusted its new spending commitments to be $5 million more per year over the next four years. The overall plan includes less than $1 billion of new spending between now and 2024.

“Bozo eruptions” persist

While UCP Leader Jason Kenney has been focused on a “jobs, economy, pipelines” message during the campaign, a week has yet to go by without that being derailed by new reports of UCP candidates expressing hateful views.

This week, the party’s Drayton Valley-Devon hopeful, Mark Smith, emerged as the latest problem. Audio from a 2013 sermon reveals Smith making homophobic statements, and a 2015 document also came to light that shows Smith, a former Wildrose Party MLA, supporting the possibility for religious schools to fire gay teachers.

Some political watchers drew comparisons between the latest UCP candidate issues and the homophobic “lake of fire” comments that contributed to the Wildrose Party’s loss in 2012. And with Kenney saying he condemns Smith’s comments but not taking steps to drop him as a UCP candidate, criticism was flying this week.

Well-known conservative talk radio host Charles Adler was among those pushing Kenney for answers. Adler pressed the party leader hard in an interview to explain why people with regressive views seem to be attracted to the UCP — and why Kenney wasn’t doing more to kick them out.

Debate doldrums

While the 2015 leaders’ debate is widely viewed as one of the key moments of that campaign, the 2019 faceoff didn’t offer the same.

Kenney and NDP Leader Rachel Notley both stuck to their expected scripts, while Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel and Alberta Liberal Party Leader David Khan made valiant efforts to promote their ideas as the small fish in a crowded political pond. At one point, Khan proudly pointed out that he was the only one among the leaders with real experience building a pipeline — saying he laid pipe one summer while he was in university.

There were some fiery moments as Kenney and Notley exchanged jabs on the carbon tax and social issues and Mandel wondered if Khan had been “smoking things” after an accusation of Mandel considering health-care privatization, but unlike four years ago, no decisive winner emerged.

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“Kamikaze” case goes to court

An Alberta judge denied a request several applicants, including Jeff Callaway — of the UCP leadership “kamikaze” campaign infamy — to pause an election commissioner probe into Callaway’s 2017 leadership run.

The ruling was another turn in a case that has plagued Kenney throughout the campaign, as documents obtained by The Star and others have revealed how the Kenney campaign controlled key aspects of Callaway’s run in the UCP leadership race.

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