Rural, urban Albertans united in anger over taxes, accountability

Rancher Travis Olson saunters to the open tailgate of a pickup truck at a farm equipmentauction near Thorhild, Alta.

There he finds farmers gathered aroundhaving a beer, enjoying one of the first warm, sunny days of thespring.

"Like paying taxes?" he asks the men and women who appear genuinely interested in what he has to say. "$2,500 increase?"

"It's all bullshit," answers one of the farmers, followed by laughter all around.

The young rancher is running for the second time as the Wildrose candidate in the Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater riding north of Edmonton.

In 2012, he lost to Progressive ConservativeJeff Johnson by a little more than2,000votes, but this time he's convinced things are different.

In the last provincial election, the auction crowd would have been 95 per cent Toryvoters, guaranteed, Olson says.

Now the tide has turned, he says.

'They're not voting PC'

"I have so many people at the door tell me they're undecided, but they decided they're not voting PC."

Like many rural Alberta seats, this one has been held by the Tories for severalelections.

But on the doorsteps,Olsonsays he's hearing about everything from Premier Jim Prentice's reluctance to raisecorporate taxes, to hispurchase of a classic1956 Thunderbird, purchased for $71,000at a car auction in Arizona in January, while at the same time preaching austerity to Albertans.

That doesn't surpriseClifton van der Linden, with Vox Pop Research, the company behindCBC Vote Compass.

Surprisingly, rural and urbanAlbertansare taking similarpositions oncrucial issues, he says.

On corporate taxes, almost three of four rural Albertans saycompanies should paymore.

Traditionally, "there's a resistance in rural Canada to corporate tax increases, because it's linked to potential job losses in the manufacturing or resource industry,"van der Linden says.

"This dynamic is surprising," says van der Linden, "in that you don't get that same reticence."

It's not the only issue where the gap between rural and urban voters hasnarrowedsince 2012, he says.

'Government accountability'top priority

"In thiselection race, there seems to be a lot of unity between rural and urbanAlbertans," he says. "Certainly you can see how issues like government accountabilityare really top of mind, whether you're from the city or the country."

Some differences do remain, he says.

While most voters in Alberta put government accountability at the top of the list, rural voters place "government spending" as number two, ahead of healthcare and education, he says.

The reverse is true for city voters, he says.

After meeting with farmers at the auction, Olson fails to wina firm commitment that he's won them over, but he does hear about the last time some voted for a candidate other than the Conservative.

After the election, the riding ended up withan opposition MLA; one-time Liberal leader Nick Taylor, in fact.

"We got nothin'," one farmer says, ominously, adding "that's the only concern with shit like that."