Yes, I think we will see a minority government of some sort. Not very scientific, but from what I hear from local friends and acquaintances, that’s the way things are going to be. Nobody overwhelming agrees on any party getting a majority.
And even less scientific is the campaign literature that has been left in my mailbox: two pieces for the NDP candidate, one piece for the PC candidate, and nothing from the other candidates.
I guess we’ll see what happens on Tuesday.
Another poll released this morning, this from a pollster that’s had the WR in front the whole way - NDP at 44%, WR 26%, PC 21%. The bandwagon effect is full steam ahead, with a notable drop in undecideds, who are going en masse to the NDP.
It’s a split the right race, something we haven’t seen in Alberta in like forever. I predict an NDP majority.
I look forward to the coming 47 years of NDP government in Alberta. 
Now, now, don’t get cocky. The average term in office of an Alberta government is only 27.5 years. :dubious:
At the risk of inflating my Pjen-ratio in this thread, I thought I’d post about the most recent polls that have come out, suggesting that Alberta may be heading for a majority NDP government.
NDP continues to surge in Alberta, says poll
And in response, the leaders of Wildrose and teh PC parties are both urging Albertans to vote strategically solely for their own party, to provide a strong opposition to the NDP government:
Common enemy — Wildrose and Tories singing from the same songsheet about dangers of NDP
The fear and panic campaigns are out in full force and it’s rather sad. I mean, I didn’t vote NDP, but to hear the way the WR and PCs talk, it’s as if the Red Brigade is sitting in Ponoka waiting to spring into action. I don’t know how communism starts, but I don’t think it’s with a 2% increase in the corporate tax rate.
If I had had to pick one province that I should be willing to bet a million gazillion dollars that we wouldn’t ever even be discussing even a possibility of an NDP government, it would have been Alberta.
Prior to 3 weeks ago, I’d have agreed with you entirely. Whatever happens, it’s been a remarkable election.
When the Ancien Régime cracks, all bets are off: “Après moi, la déluge!”
I love how the Fed PCs are in a minor panic about the possibility of a NDP led Alberta. "Tis to laugh!
I voted in the advance polls and have to say it was the most painless process for an election I’ve ever had.
My theory about why the Feds (and conservatives in general) are in a major panic is:
The business cycle is currently down. It will eventually go up, no matter who is in power… this is the way it is. The conservatives are terrified that if the NDP are in powr when the business cycle naturally ramps up… They will look good.
And people might stop believing the myth that “NDP = BAD”
The last minute FEAR! campaign has been impressive. We’ve had:
-Federal Harper Party faithful claiming with no evidence that an NDP victory in Alberta would hurt the entire country.
Some CEO’s (who have donated $86,000 to the PC party) saying that if the NDP is elected, they will stop donating to a children’s hospital charity (classy guys, classy)
Rhetoric that an NDP victory would be the end of the world as we know it - mostly from people who bandy the word “socialism” around without the vaguest notion of what it means.
All 4 major newspapers in Alberta endorsing the Prentice PC’s - on direct orders from CEO Paul Godfrey of Postmedia, against the wishes of the local editorial boards.
Too little too late? Or will Albertans be scared enough to change their minds in the voting booth?
Well sure. Have you read the Regina Manifesto?
Just because that was written over 80 years ago and the NDP have long since eschewed the more blatantly Marxist portions of that document doesn’t mean anything. They’ve clearly just been waiting for the opportune moment to revert back to their roots, and what better moment to do so than after taking office in Alberta? 
I just have to say that to a sub-49ther, this question parses very oddly (though, yes, I understand what it means). Why would you be riding in the stable? And you ride on a swing, not in one.
More importantly, has anyone yet made any puns upon what Wild Rose might prove to be in the side of the PCs?
The NDP are one party that Harper can’t control. The other two have his boys at the helm. May we live in interesting times, indeed.
Methinks the papers do protest too much.
Albertans don’t want an NDP government. They want a government that isn’t the PCs.
What appears to be happening is that people want the bums kicked out, first and foremost. They’ll worry about the new bums later.
Just to be pedantic,
It’s largely a fallacy to think that like government in provincial and federal governments get along, or that unlike governments are enemies. There are links between provincial and federal politics because many of the players and their minions are linked up and they have to play nice in public, but when the business starts that basically matters to a provincial government is how much money the Feds give them, and what matters to the feds is how much the province cooperates with whatever the feds want to do. A Liberal government will cheerily cooperate with the Tories if they get lots of transfer money, and a PC government will cast the federal Tories as the devil incarnate if they don’t feel enough money is being given to them (as happened in Newfoundland quite recently.) Even at the local level provincial and federal counterparts might get along great or might despise each other. I have personal knowledge of a case in the NDP where nearly provincial and federal legislators each consider the other to be roughly equivalent to war criminals.
There is also, of course, the fact that provincial parties don’t always map to federal ones. Alberta has no significant Liberal Party, Quebec has no significant PC or Conservative Party, Saskatchewan has no sitting Liberal or PC members but does have the super-originally-named Saskatchewan Party, and so on.
That happens in Canada too?!