# Alberta election 2019 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 15, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566 "2019-04-15T04:07:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/21 "2019-04-17T03:11:23Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > As of 9:00 PM MDT: > > UCP: Leading and elected in 62 ridings. > > NDP: Leading and elected in 24 ridings. > > Everybody else: Nothing. > > Total number of seats in the Legislature: 87. This is one of the things that concerns me. We’ve gone from multi-party representation to a more American-style two party system. Very polarized. That’s not going to be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/22 "2019-04-17T03:58:07Z")
At 9:55 PM MDT, Rachel Notley is conceding. Still a _very_ close race here in Lethbridge West–about 30-40 votes, with maybe a dozen polls to report. No idea what may happen once the advance poll votes are counted. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/23 "2019-04-17T04:08:49Z")
I was a polling clerk in Calgary Mountain View. If the unofficial count is anything to go by, the NDP has this riding. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/24 "2019-04-17T04:18:14Z")
Currently 10:17 MDT. Jason Kenney is speaking live on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/25 "2019-04-17T04:19:23Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Currently 10:17 MDT. Jason Kenney is speaking live on TV. The tyrant is born. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/26 "2019-04-17T04:30:23Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > This is one of the things that concerns me. We’ve gone from multi-party representation to a more American-style two party system. Very polarized. That’s not going to be a good thing. This is concerning me too. I saw David Khan’s (Alberta Liberal Party leader) concession speech, and it appears that this is the first time in Alberta’s history that a provincial Liberal has not had a seat in the Legislature. Heck, the Liberals ran the province, back in the day. Okay, now, Kenney is speaking to Quebec–in French. He’s repeating his remarks in English. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/27 "2019-04-17T04:54:25Z")
Just reported: a 70% voter turnout. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/28 "2019-04-17T05:11:40Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > This is concerning me too. I saw David Khan’s (Alberta Liberal Party leader) concession speech, and it appears that this is the first time in Alberta’s history that a provincial Liberal has not had a seat in the Legislature. Heck, the Liberals ran the province, back in the day. > > Okay, now, Kenney is speaking to Quebec–in French. He’s repeating his remarks in English. I didn’t quite understand the French segment. Did he forget where he was running? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/29 "2019-04-17T05:25:37Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > I didn’t quite understand the French segment. Did he forget where he was running? No, I think he knew where he was. His remarks in French were directed at Quebec, and he repeated them in English. Still, I’ll grant that it got a little confusing, mainly because he’d speak a few sentences in French, repeat them in English, speak a sentence in French, repeat it in English, ad-lib something in English, try to speak it in French, and so on. It was confusing, but I’m sure we’ll get a transcript of everything in tomorrow’s media. Alberta does have a small Francophone population–a friend and colleague is a Francophone from northern Ontario, and his wife is a Francophone from Montreal, and the town of Beaumont is majority Francophone, if I understand things correctly–but the Francophone community in Alberta is admittedly small. Regardless, Mr. Kenney made it very clear that his remarks in French were directed at Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/30 "2019-04-17T11:00:14Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > This is concerning me too. I saw David Khan’s (Alberta Liberal Party leader) concession speech, and it appears that this is the first time in Alberta’s history that a provincial Liberal has not had a seat in the Legislature. Heck, the Liberals ran the province, back in the day. Uh, what day was that? The 19th century? The Liberals only lost one seat in the election, unfortunately it was the only one they had. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/31 "2019-04-17T11:17:57Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Uh, what day was that? The 19th century? Alberta became a province in the 20th century. It was 1905, to be exact. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/32 "2019-04-17T12:04:18Z")
The point is the Liberals haven’t led Alberta for about a hundred years. Conservatives in charge since '71 and a different flavour of conservative from 1935-71. All majority governments. Saying “oh no, Alberta is going American style! We used to have a multiparty representation.” is pretty ridiculous considering. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/33 "2019-04-17T12:11:56Z")
It’s been almost a century since the Liberals formed a government in Alberta. They lost the 1921 election and haven’t been in power since then. Alberta has the oddest electoral pattern in Canada. Albertans like dynasties. Since 1905, they have only changed governments five times, counting the upcoming transition to the United Conservative Party 1921: Liberals defeated by United Farmers of Alberta. 1935: UFA defeated by Social Credit 1971: Social Credit defeated by Progressive Conservatives 2015: progressive Conservatives defeated by New Democratic Party 2019: NDP defeated by UCP Note that no party, once kicked out of office, has ever returned to power. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/34 "2019-04-17T12:24:48Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > This is concerning me too. I saw David Khan’s (Alberta Liberal Party leader) concession speech, and it appears that this is the first time in Alberta’s history that a provincial Liberal has not had a seat in the Legislature. They went 15 years without any seats in the 70s and 80s. (In 1982, the PCs won 75 seats and the only other party was the NDP with all of 2 seats.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/35 "2019-04-17T12:31:38Z")
And with regard to the multi-party comment, Alberta has never had a minority government. It’s always had majority governments, often very strong majorities, as in 1982. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/36 "2019-04-17T13:16:27Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Turning into a neck-and-neck horse race here in Lethbridge West. The NDP candidate has just a 30 vote lead over the UCP candidate, with less than half the polls reporting. Needed more flyers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/37 "2019-04-17T14:59:13Z")
It also looks that some tidings are not decided yet, because there was such a heavy turnout at the advance polls. Won’t change the overall outcome, but may affect the final seat tally: > **[‘Vote anywhere’ ballots could mean some ridings, final Alberta election...](https://globalnews.ca/news/5169461/alberta-election-vote-anywhere-ballot-counting/)** > > Of the record-breaking nearly 700,000 Albertans that cast advanced ballots in the 2019 provincial election, 223,000 were cast at a polling station that was out of the voter's riding. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/38 "2019-04-17T15:07:52Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > It also looks that some tidings are not decided yet, because there was such a heavy turnout at the advance polls. Won’t change the overall outcome, but may affect the final seat tally: > > [https://globalnews.ca/news/5169461/alberta-election-vote-anywhere-ballot-counting/](https://globalnews.ca/news/5169461/alberta-election-vote-anywhere-ballot-counting/) [![](https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190417/4590a8a69c747fec7e99b57f811913a0.jpg) ](https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190417/4590a8a69c747fec7e99b57f811913a0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/39 "2019-04-17T15:17:06Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > The tyrant is born. > [@Biffster](#): > > [https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190417/4590a8a69c747fec7e99b57f811913a0.jpg](https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190417/4590a8a69c747fec7e99b57f811913a0.jpg) Yeah, you’re real concerned about polarized American style politics. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566/40 "2019-04-17T16:34:09Z")
The tyrant? Oh come on, Alberta will wind up with a middle of the road conservative party with some sops to the socially conservative wing. If they’re lucky they wont get a booze focused student council Premier type like Ontario did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-election-2019/832566.md?page=3)