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“Edmonton is a horse race. It’s statistically a tie, so there will be some major battles there,” predicted Ellis.

In northern Alberta, however, the UCP are at 64.4 per cent support to the NDP’s 19.8 per cent, and in southern Alberta things look even worse for the NDP with just 13 per cent support, while the UCP has 64.2 per cent and the Liberal Party has 10.9 per cent.

In other words, in most of the province, it appears the UCP will win by landslides.

Ellis says the UCP support is broad and relatively deep, with the party leading the NDP among decided voters in every demographic group.

What’s most surprising is that young Albertans (60.4 per cent) “are just as likely to be planning to vote UCP as are other age groups, including seniors who, while still much more likely to vote UCP than for any other party (50.9 per cent), are less supportive of the UCP than are other age groups.

“What I find interesting is that the NDP is not the party of the youth that we used to think of in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” said Ellis.

“The youth today are not old-style socialists. They are worried about jobs. They know which side their toast is buttered on and they want policies that reflect that,” said Ellis.

That bodes well for Alberta’s future.

Statistics Canada’s latest jobs numbers released Friday aren’t likely to help the NDP over the next few weeks, either. The percentage of Albertans unemployed climbed again in February to 7.3 per cent — which is higher than Nova Scotia. The news is even worse in Calgary, where 7.6 per cent of workers are unemployed, the highest rate of any city in Canada. NDP policies of raising taxes and spooking businesses has been a disaster for Alberta.