Enough results are in that it is clear that Alberta has another PC majority. I think that makes this the longest dynasty in provincial history by a landslide. Am I surprised by the result? No. I am a bit disappointed but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad result.
There was a lot of credible talk about a Wildrose victory (minority probably) or even knocking the PCs back to a minority. I don’t think a Wildrose victory would have been necessarily a good result (full disclosure: I did vote for Wildrose). I don’t think they’ve had enough experience in the legislature. At least with the PCs, whatever you think of Redford, they have experienced MLAs. There is, after all, a great deal more to governing than passing laws. A great deal more goes on than what the public sees.
What we will have this time is a Wildrose opposition. That will give the party and their leader experience because it will give them the spotlight. Further, the results which show substantial support for Wildrose, should give the PCs pause. After all, it wouldn’t take much come the next election to have the results flip flop.
Now, why did the result go the way they did? Some probably voted PC “because their vote wouldn’t count” otherwise. Others might have voted “strategically”. Those two actions are the two worst things one can do next to casting an uninformed vote. If you do not vote true, the results are skewed and if enough people do that, change doesn’t happen! But I think the majority of the issue is that of all the calls I received during the election, 95% of them were from or on behalf of the Wildrose. Quite frankly, it pisses me off when any political party or candidate calls to drum up my support. I did not let it sway my vote but most people would. I think this, more than even biased news coverage swayed the results. So, political types, take this to heart: if it pissed me off and I’m whining about it, you can be sure you’re pissing off a great many more people with your annoying and intrusive telephone calls.
To sum up, I’m not complaining about the result. I might have preferred a different one but I will take the PCs over the Liberals or NDP any day. The latter two have consistently shown, at varying times, a complete disconnect with reality or at least a disconnect with the people of Alberta. Whatever you want to say, Wildrose is a conservative party and these results basically show that Alberta is still overwhelmingly conservative. Today we just chose which particular flavour of the conservative koolaid we wanted to drink for the next four years or so.