Beyond the obviously stupid amount of public money that is going into this, here's the problem I see with this announcement and with the election looming:
This announcement was too early.
If Smith is banking on this being an election mandate, then she should have made this announcement much closer to the election winding up.
If there is significant cache on this piece of news, it's going to end up being pushed down the conveyor belt of 'things the electors forget or don't care about anymore' by the time the end of May rolls around.
They used one of their few ace cards early. Just like the endorsement from Stephen Harper.
Hardly anyone is going to remember - or care - about these things. We all have short memory and time-limiting brain spans, especially with the mountain of news media we are all subjected to on a daily basis.
And there is still a month left for a Premier who loves to put her foot in her mouth and look like a hypocritical fool on camera to say something politically damaging. She's quite good at it with the right time and space.
All Rachel Notley has to do is say "yep, Calgarians deserve a path forward and we'll take a look at the deal when the election is over".
Whoever is advising the Premier and her team lately is giving them terrible advice.
And in my opinion, it looks like they're panicking.
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