Alberta’s New Democratic Party is surging ahead in opinion polls, leading incumbent Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party by 15 points.

41% of Albertans were likely to vote for former Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP if an election were to be held today, while only 26% say they will vote for Kenney’s UCP, according to a Mainstreet Research Survey of Alberta commissioned by the Western Standard^[1]https://www.westernstandardonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Western-Standard-Mainstreet-Poll-Jan-2021-Alberta-Voter-intention.pdf.

The polls show that NDP would sweep the ridings in Alberta, where the opposition party enjoys a thumping 44 point lead at 57% to 13%.

Notley leads Kenney among all demographic groups, with the support for the former premier strongest among women and voters younger than 50.

Kenney has been hit especially hard by the “alohagate” pandemic travel scandal and allegations that his government had botched the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

News emerged over the holidays that many senior cabinet ministers and UCP MLAs had travelled to sunny destinations even as the premier urged Albertans to hunker down as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the province.

When CBC News revealed that the then-Municipal Affairs Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard was in Hawaii, Kenney initially refused to take action against her.

Before long, it was revealed that another five UCP MLAs had travelled to sunny destinations such as Las Vegas, Mexico and Arizona.

Even as Kenney was scrambling to contain the Alohagate fallout, Alberta doctors started expressing concern over the province’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Kenney has fired and demoted UCP members caught in Alohagate end promised to improve vaccine rollout in an effort to rescue his flagging approval ratings.

The next Alberta election is expected to take place in the spring of 2023.