Alberta's election race is on! Or it's strangely slow. Or it's all just one long slog

It might be a fallacy to call this week Alberta's election campaign kick-off, except in technical terms.

With the May 29 fixed election date known long in advance, the governing party and its chief opposition have been campaigning full-out for most of 2023, at least.

The election's formal call may be better considered the marker of the final 28 days of this long contest. That, plus we now get blue and orange lawn signs.

The strange pace of things on Tuesday gave an indication of how little the campaign's official Day 2 means when so many de-facto campaign days have preceded it.

One campaign did nothing, another did nothing particularly new, and the most dramatic part of the day came at a Lethbridge courthouse, and featured Artur Pawlowski, who has become a character in Alberta's ongoing drama about COVID and politics, justice and leadership.

UCP Leader Danielle Smith stayed out of the public eye altogether. Private campaigning, a tweet or two, nothing to announce or remark about where she wishes to take Alberta (though one can assume the answer is "forward," as per her slogan). 

All that back-and-forth about her taking one question from each journalist and no follow-ups? It's begun to appear likely that on many or most campaign days, there will be no media questions and no follow-ups.

The strategy in this is plain: limit the amount of slip-ups or errors from a party leader who's had to backtrack on many utterances before. Many UCP supporters worry the biggest risk to the campaign is what Danielle Smith might say.

There's a model for this: Ontario's 2018 election. Doug Ford, the provincial Tories' then-new and  highly unpredictable leader conducted much of his leader's tour shielded from public scrutiny. It worked, and he's currently enjoying his second majority mandate.

This isn't to say this strategy isn't cynical, that it doesn't prevent voters from getting to see the ideas and principles of a would-be premier stress-tested in uncontrolled environments, or see how she responds to various challenges or questions, or learn more about the leader than the precise dollops of information the campaign wants us to know.

This is only to say it has worked before.

And Tuesday was a most conspicuous day to have Smith adhere to the Doug Ford playbook. Pawlowski, the long-controversial Calgary preacher that Smith had spoken to about his legal troubles in January, was found guilty of three charges connected to his fiery speech urging truckers to maintain their blockade at the Coutts border crossing last year. 

A prison sentence may follow. This now criminally convicted individual was told by Alberta's premier that she was speaking about charges like his "almost weekly" with top Alberta Justice officials, and was frustrated there "can't be a political decision to end it" — like a premier granting amnesty.

With no opportunity to ask her about her former phone correspondent's conviction, media instead had to request a campaign statement. "As the Premier has made clear, she will not be commenting on this matter as it is the subject of an ongoing ethics commissioner review and that process must be respected."