Final Count: A cheat sheet of all parties running in the Alberta election

With candidate nominations complete, we now have a clear picture of which political parties are running in the 2019 Alberta election, and how many candidates they're fielding.

There are 13 parties running candidates.

Of those, the NDP, United Conservative Party, Alberta Party, Liberal Party and Freedom Conservative Party had at least one seat in the legislature in the last session.

Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean, a political watcher who hosts the podcast This Week In Alberta Politics, says she can't see a scenario where other parties win a seat.

"It is very difficult to imagine how they would pick up seats," says Mitchell-MacLean. "People want change and they have already decided where to put their support. These smaller parties aren't really offering something amazingly different than what the UCP is to the NDP."

For upstart parties, getting traction outside of their original leader, and the geographic area, can be a challenge.

"The biggest issue is getting more support outside of where they began," said Mitchell-MacLean.

Here is a quick summary of all the active, registered parties vying for your vote on April 16:

Alberta Advantage Party

Motto: "Compassion, self reliance, integrity"

Number of Candidates: 28

A new contender in this election cycle, the Alberta Advantage Party was founded by former members of the Wildrose Party who were dissatisfied with the merger with the Progressive Conservatives.

The party wants to lower taxes, revise the education curriculum, and restructure the province's energy sector.

"By allowing small oil and gas companies to buy abandoned and stranded oil and gas wells and begin to extract that oil and gas, we could bring in an extra $2 billion a year," said Marilyn Burns, leader of the Alberta Advantage Party, adding she would also push for Alberta coal to be sold overseas.

Alberta Independence Party

Motto: "We accept all rights and freedoms at no threat, harm or expense to anybody else's rights and freedoms"

Number of Candidates: 63

Not to be confused with the Separation Party of Alberta, the Alberta Independence Party is witnessing a bit of a rebirth this year, with more candidates on the offer than even the Alberta Liberals.

"We are the only party that's running a separatist party platform," said interim leader Dave Bjorkman. "Derek Fildebrandt and Jason Kenney do not run anything close to what we're doing."

Alberta Liberal Party

Motto: "Bold ideas. Better tomorrow"

Number of Candidates: 51

With long-time MLA David Swann retiring, the Alberta Liberal Party has undergone some soul-searching with the election of a new leader and now a new vision for the province.

"It's the best place in the world to live right here in Alberta," said David Khan, an Indigenous rights lawyer who has been leading the party since mid-2017.

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"But we've got to focus on making that better and supporting Albertans in their lofty ambitions and their hopes and dreams," he said.

The Alberta Liberal Party wants to lower corporate taxes and eliminate personal income taxes for most Albertans, shifting instead to a revenue-neutral sales tax of eight per cent.

The party is running a notably diverse slate of candidates in this election cycle, with 22 women, 16 visible minorities and three with indigenous backgrounds.

Alberta New Democratic Party

Motto: "Fighting for Alberta"

Number of Candidates: 87

The Alberta NDP is fighting to stay in power, and so far has approached that challenge with a combination of policy announcements and pitting leader Rachel Notley against UCP rival Jason Kenney.

The party is running on its track record doubling down on a number of key positions, including GSA privacy, minimum wage, carbon tax, and the plan to move crude oil by rail.

"I think that we have made some progress on creating jobs since the depths of the recession in 2016," said Notley.

"If you compare us, say for instance, to Saskatchewan next door, you will see what it looks like if you take an austerity approach. You see massive sales tax being applied to the construction industry, where they had no sales tax ever before; you see services being rolled back; you see people from Saskatchewan moving to Alberta."

The NDP is proposing to expand $25-a-day childcare across the province, and provide full drug coverage for low- and middle-income seniors.

Alberta Party

Motto: "A party for all of us"

Number of Candidates: 87

For the first time in its history of morphing identities, the Alberta Party is fielding a full slate of candidates this year.

Stephen Mandel former three-term mayor of Edmonton and health minister under Jim Prentice won the leadership in early 2018, with his party benefiting from an exodus of former Progressive Conservative members who felt disaffected by the direction of the UCP.

"We are a party that has a balance in how we look at the importance of free enterprise, a party that looks at the importance of creating opportunities for business and investment of business, and a party that sees the government should be doing less not more in getting involved in our daily lives," said Mandel.

The self-styled "centrist" party includes candidates with diverse political leanings. It also has the highest number of candidates with indigenous or Mtis roots.

Communist Party Alberta

Motto: N/A

Number of Candidates: 4

The Communist Party Alberta has been running candidates in provincial elections since the 1930s, but has never won a single riding.

Even so, the party has put forth a 13-point plan, which includes a hike to energy royalty rates, hydrocarbons supply management, universal childcare and education, and human rights protection.

"We want to work with democratic organizations to develop an alternative progressive program, and this is one of the ways in which we put forward our ideas," said party leader Naomi Rankin.

Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta

Motto: "Equality or independence"

Number of Candidates: 24

Less than a year old, the Freedom Conservative Party has attracted considerable attention for itscritique of both the NDP and the UCP.

Former Wildrose-turned-UCP-turned-Independent MLA Derek Fildebrandt formed the party as a coalition of "grassroots conservatives, libertarians and Alberta patriots." He has said the party is only running candidates in places where the New Democrats are less likely to win.

"We want to be treated the same as Quebec to have control of our own immigration, our own tax collection, our own police force, our own pension and EI, and the complete end of equalization," Fildebrandt said.

Green Party of Alberta

Motto: "A vision beyond tomorrow"

Number of Candidates: 32

Like its federal counterpart, the Green Party of Alberta puts the environment first, but is by no means a single-issue party.

It is, however, the only party in this election to call for a suspension of new oilsands developments until the impacts of existing and approved projects are fully assessed.

"We need a Green voice in the legislature, because right now it's not there," said leader Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes, who is also the only Indigenous leader of any political party in Alberta.

"Our greatest resource is not our oil, it's our people," she said.

Pro-Life Alberta Political Association

Motto: "For Families. For Life. For Alberta."

Number of Candidates: 1

While this party now has a single focus, as its name suggests, it has an interesting history.

The party wasthe Alberta Social Credit Party until it changed its name in May 2017. Yes, that Alberta Social Credit Party, the one led by William Aberhart and then Ernest C. Manning (father to Preston Manning), which governed the province from 1935 to 1971.

While the Social Credit Party hasn't had much sway in Alberta since the late '70s, it has been active. In 2016, it elected an anti-abortion president and executive at its AGM. The result was its current name and focus change.

It is running a single candidate, Lucas C. Hernandez, in Calgary-Currie.

"Pro-life Alberta is a group of women and men who seek to advance pro-life public policy in Alberta. Pro-life Alberta is a voice for the many Albertans, including pre-born Albertans, who share the vision of a pro-life province," Hernandez said.

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta

Motto: N/A

Number of Candidates: 1

Yes, the PCs still exist, at least in name. And the party is listed as under the leadership of Jason Kenney on the Alberta Elections website.

Its single candidate, Gary Horan, is running in Edmonton-Strathcona, a riding that will almost certainly be won by an NDP incumbent named Rachel Notley. Horan is not running an active campaign.

Running a single candidate allows the party to remain registered with Alberta Elections. This allows the party to settle any debts and also prevents any other political group from using the PC name.

Reform Party of Alberta

Motto: "Alberta is a conservative province. Welcome home."

Number of Candidates: 1

This relatively new party, albeit with a recycled name, was created in 2016 by Randy Thorsteinson, who has been active in conservative politics in the Red Deer area since the 1980s. He led the Social Credit Party from 1993-1997 and was a founding member of the Alberta Alliance.

The Reform Party of Alberta promotes fiscal conservatism, less government intervention and has said "it is critical to strengthen the family and marriage as the foundations of a free society."

The party's single candidate, Lauren Thorsteinson, is Randy Thorsteinson's daughter. "My biggest reason for running is personal responsibility," she told the Innisfail Province newspaper. She also told the newspaper that she doesn't expect to win in the largely rural riding of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.

United Conservative Party

Motto: "Alberta Strong and Free"

Number of Candidates: 87

UCP Leader Jason Kenney wants to be the next premier of Alberta and hopes his party's platform, called Getting Albertans Back to Work, will get him there.

The UCP is selling itself as the common-sense party that will stand up for Alberta with its strong fiscal values.

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Kenney askedin his opening statement during the televised leaders' debate.

Kenney, and the UCP, are banking on the fact that Albertans will answer "no" to that question and see the UCP as the party to improve their fortunes.

"The only way to avoid digging into a $100-billion debt hole that risks our future and our public services, without reducing spending on key public services, is to grow the economy," Kenney said.

"That is what this debate and this election is all about getting people back to work."

This is the first test of the UCP, which formed in 2017 when the Wildrose Party and Progressive Conservatives merged.

Kenney became leader of the party in 2018, defeating his main rival, former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, in a leadership campaign that is still causing controversy.

Wildrose Party

Motto: N/A

Number of Candidates: 1

Much like the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, the Wildrose Party remains a party in name only, under the leadership of Jason Kenney. It has one candidate, Dale Doan, running in Edmonton-Strathcona. It is a riding where incumbent Rachel Notley will almost certainly win. Doan isn't running an active campaign.

Running a single candidate allows the Wildrose Party to retain its party status, protect its name and pay off any debts.