Alberta’s next General Election will take place on April 23, and we at ArtsVote Calgary sincerely hope you’ll take this opportunity to vote!
To help you along the way, we’ve compiled some important election information:
VOTING
You’re eligible to vote if you are:
• a Canadian citizen,
• at least eighteen years of age, and
• ordinarily resident in Alberta for six months prior to polling day.
You may have registered to vote before April 10; but even if you didn’t register, you can still vote on Election Day if you produce the proper identification.
Election Day is Monday, April 23, 2012, with polls open from 9 am to 8 pm. To find your polling station, click here.
If you’re unable to vote at your polling station on April 23, you have two options: you can vote in the Advance Polls on April 19, 20 or 21; or you can apply for a Special Ballot.
WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
On your ballot, you’ll be asked to make two decisions:
First, you’ll vote for a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to represent your electoral division. Most MLA candidates are affiliated with political parties, and the party with the most elected MLAs will form government.
Next, you’ll vote for Senate Nominees. On your ballot, you can select up to three nominees; the three nominees with the most votes will become Senators-in-Waiting to be appointed to the Senate of Canada by the Prime Minister.
(He is under no legal obligation to appoint the Senators-in-Waiting to Senate, but there’s a traditional precedent – three previous nominees have been appointed to Senate. Alberta is the only province to elect Senate Nominees.)
WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION?
Elections Alberta is a useful resource, with an abundance of information about the election, candidates, voting and more.
Each provincial party has an official website: Alberta Party ~ Communist Party ~ EverGreen Party ~ Liberal Party ~ New Democratic Party ~ Progressive Conservative Party ~ Social Credit Party ~ Wildrose Party
ArtsVote Calgary has distributed a survey to provincial parties, Calgary riding MLA candidates and senate candidates. We also held an election forum at the Calgary Public Library on March 30, and you can watch the video footage here.
Several groups in other parts of Alberta have also distributed art surveys, including the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton, Save Our Fine Arts (SOFA) and Allied Arts Council Lethbridge.
CBC’s Alberta Votes 2012 offers daily election coverage along with Vote Compass, a quiz that helps determine your party alignment (which, sadly, only includes 4 parties).
The Election Almanac is an interesting aggregate of election news, including historial context.
Cities Matter provides an urban perspective on the provincial election.
I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS!
Please feel free to e-mail us at artsvote@artsvotecalgary.ca or tweet us at @ArtsVoteYYC with any of your election-related questions. We may not know the answer, but we’ll do our darndest to find out!
