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A provincial election without a budget is like a chuckwagon without a driver — it’s likely to run off in crazy directions.

But that scenario could occur this spring. NDP sources confirm the possibility of a budget-free campaign.

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By provincial law (which by the way is bogus and non-binding), the election is supposed to come between March 1 and May 31 this year. The NDP pledges to honour that three-month window.

On Tuesday, the NDP said the legislature will open for a Throne Speech March 18.

That does not guarantee either a session or a budget. The government could drop the writ immediately, bringing an election in April, well within the three-month period.

In 2015, PC Premier Jim Prentice famously went to the polls a year early, thus defying the law, with a tough budget that raised 58 different fees and taxes for Albertans.

The result was unrivalled political calamity — a loss to the NDP and virtual decimation of the Progressive Conservative party, which now exists only as a legal shell within Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party.