Alberta Dopers - How could the PCs lose?

[Sam_Stone]

@RickJay

You keep saying this, but never explain quite how you come to this conclusion. What’s your yardstick for conservatism? “Conservative” could mean any one of a thousand things.

I could quite reasonably argue that Ontario is the most conservative of all provinces. It is certainly the most resistant to political change at the federal level. I could argue that George W. Bush is the least conservative President of my lifetime.

Of course the definitions are slippery. However, Alberta not only has the lowest taxes in Canada, it has among the lowest taxes in North America. The Fraser Institute’s index of economic freedom, which ranks all Canadian provinces together with American states, has all Canadian provinces dead last - except for Alberta. Alberta is actually higher on the list than more than half of American states. The index measures taxes and regulatory burdens.

When the Iraq war was starting, popular opinion in Canada was dead set against it - except in Alberta, where the war was more popular than it was in the U.S. overall.

When measuring attitudes against America, and against Republican presidents, Alberta has always been a pretty big outlier - by far more pro-American and pro-Republican than any other province.

In yesterday’s election, the Alberta PCs won 86% of the vote, and all the other parties combined got 14% of the vote.

Of course, Albertans support public health care, so it’s not exactly a libertarian oasis, but still… on balance I’d say that the record shows we are very conservative.

[Raygun99]

@Sam Stone

In yesterday’s election, the Alberta PCs won 86% of the vote, and all the other parties combined got 14% of the vote.

Of the seats. 86% of the vote would be quite the story.

[Sam_Stone]

Sorry, seats. About 53% of the vote.

[RickJay]

@Leaffan

I watched most of the debate tonight and Ed Stelmach and the Conservatives would get my vote hands down. The rest weren’t even close in policy, vision and direction.

Unsurprisingly, the Conservatives won easily.

I really did not understand the pundits who predicted the opposition would make gains. There was no reason for the electorate to change things.

[Raygun99]

The biggest “reason”, as it was, was that for a time, the PCs looked like the proverbial donkey with a spinning wheel. That was a criticism mostly of Klein’s run, and Stelmach managed to change that perception in the last few months. It also didn’t hurt that Kevin Taft and Brian Mason ran entirely incompetent campaigns.