CALGARY—As Alberta’s election campaign officially launched this week, controversy continues to trail the United Conservative Party about an alleged “kamikaze” leadership campaign.

Tuesday’s election call came a few days after the Star and other outlets obtained a document leak that showed UCP Leader Jason Kenney’s staff oversaw critical aspects of Jeff Callaway’s opposing campaign in the 2017 party leadership race, such as his communications strategy, attack ads, and when he’d drop out of the race. The RCMP and Alberta’s election commissioner are currently investigating allegations related to the 2017 leadership race.

The ongoing probe has experts wondering how much it will affect voters’ decisions at the ballot box on April 16.

Early polls favoured the UCP and experts aren’t sure to what extent the “kamikaze” candidate story will affect the party’s chances. Star Calgary spoke to Calgarians on their lunch breaks Wednesday and Thursday to see whether it’ll play a part in their decision.

For many voters who were already planning on supporting the NDP, this latest story only confirms the feelings they said they already had about Kenney.

Karen Chu said she doesn’t trust Kenney, but added that has more to do with her concerns around alleged white supremacist and racist views in his party.

“I was talking to a friend this morning about how Alberta is a conservative province. I know that. But if a conservative party was elected, I’ve never had concerns about whether the leader would do a good job, would be a professional. But now I’m actually concerned and worried,” Chu said.

Chu’s friend, Matt Leadbeater agreed, having only just heard about the kamikaze story. Leadbeater said he thinks if he was on the fence about who to vote for April 16, this would push him away from the UCP. He also said Kenney’s long political career makes him trust the conservative leader less than other candidates coming to politics from other lines of work.

“He’s a politician, that’s his job. So it would not surprise me that he’s a little bit sneaky or anything,” Leadbeater said.

Maria Calder said that while following Alberta’s parties leading up to this week, she’s felt irritated and distrustful of Kenney to the point she’s fed up hearing about him and seeing him in the media.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for him and the party, so it was just one more thing that annoyed me,” Calder said. “It almost makes me change the channel when I hear him or when they start talking about the (kamikaze campaign) story. I don’t want to hear about it.”

But to some voters, it’s less important than Alberta’s other election issues.

Terry Coltart said this story will have “no impact whatsoever” on how he votes. He said he suspects this is a practice that could be found to have happened in any political party.

“I think it’s a common thing that happens in politics all the time,” said Coltart, who voted for the Progressive Conservatives in 2015 and plans to vote for the UCP, a party he believes will do more to aid the province’s oil and gas industry.

“There’s definitely more important issues. Like pipelines and getting the oil industry back on track in Canada. There’s a million different things that we should be talking about. Like health care, definitely. I know the NDP promised a million different things with health care and those didn’t come to fruition.”

Some conservative voters felt unsure about continuing to support the UCP, but hadn’t decided if it was enough to make them vote for any other party. Others, like Ryan Faulkner, said even after learning of this story, he figures he’ll continue to vote conservative this election, as he always has.

“It kind of is just typical politics, at the end of the day, if they want to kamikaze their own campaign,” Faulkner said.

Seare Gurmu takes a less partisan approach to Alberta politics. He said he believes Kenney and NDP Leader Rachel Notley are both good people. Gurmu said he leans conservative, but thinks Notley and the NDP government have done a good job.

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He only just learned about the kamikaze leadership campaign story earlier this week, but Gurmu said his vote will hinge partially on how the investigation into Kenney’s ties to the Callaway campaign continues in the next month.

“We might not come to the bottom of the controversy until April 16,” Gurmu said.

“If it’s true, I wouldn’t trust (Kenney) at all. But if it’s a lie and the media is going to give us an image that this guy is evil, that people are trying to taint (Kenney) with this thing, then I wouldn’t mind electing him.”

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