Reader “Ward” in the comments;
Apparently “widespread” and “appetite for change” must mean something different than I have always thought they did. Maybe I’ve also been wrong about the definitions of “bias” and “sore losers” as well?
from the Globe and Mail reporting on the Conservatives capturing (at this time) 71 of 83 ridings.
“Liberals were never able to exploit widespread sentiment in the province that it was time for a new government.”
From the CBC at the same time (cons leading in 71 of 83)
“Despite an apparent appetite for change, voters in Alberta stuck with the tried-and-true, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government.”
I predict a flurry of opinion columns along a similar vein from other members of the Carnack the Magician set in the coming week. Because, you know – nobody they know voted for the Conservatives.
Those silly Albertan voters…
Didn’t they know what they wanted???
Conservatives gained 11 seats. Liberals lost 7.
Works for me, Alberta!
You almost hit it dead on – nobody they knew voted conservative. It’s actually; nobody they knew SAID they voted conservative. In certain circles, it’s not allowed. Say you’re a conservative, and you may as well say you’re a neo-nazi. I’m not exaggerating.
I think a lot of us in Alberta openly distrust and dislike polls, and especially the way they’re reported. I, for one, always lie when a pollster calls – especially a national one. I’m thinking of starting a “lie to the pollsters” movement. Any takers?
Yeah, the media apologists are going strong now. Should be interesting.
CBCpravda has their story titled “Follow the entrails of an Alberta Election”
entrails is usually associated with disembowelment , but the story isnt about the gutless libs.
I know, the election was stolen!
F.U Libs HaHA HA HA HA HA HA
The MSM are pretending it didn’t happen; they are reporting the facts, that the PC gained 11 seats; that the Liberals lost 7, but the analysis is that it’s ‘all a mistake’.
According to Reason (the MSM) the voters of Alberta were ‘ready for a change’ but were somehow, passive robots that they are, tripped up by mechanical failures of the opposition parties. Words used were that the Liberals were never able to ‘exploit widespread sentiment’ for change; but the electorate were ‘swayed by ‘Stelmach. And, of course, ‘irregularities’ at voting stations.
So, according to the MSM, it’s not really that Albertans made a decision last night; it’s a mechanical problem in getting their Real Desire to Go Liberal past those defective switches.
Nooooo…… remember, the Libs (both provincially and federally) are poised for a “breakthrough’ in AB.
LMAO… anyone who actually believed that is just plain disconnected.
It’s too bad I’m stuck with the only Con that lives in Ontario, but… that’s the way she goes. When faced with a choice of a Con that doesn’t live here vs. a Liberal… the Con won. What does THAT tell you?
I would LOVE to see this repeated at the federal level. I would LOVE to see the Lib leader lose his seat. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see the whole GTA split their vote Lib/NDP and end up shut out in Parliament. For like 30 years.
That’s how long its going to take to clean up their mess.
Looking at the data thusfar it seems the key difference from 2004 was turnout – 5% higher than in 2004.
Alberta’s reserve of centre-right support is like the tarsands – vast and much of it is untapped. Only 50% of eligible voters voted but that is up from 45% in 2004 and it looks as though they all voted PC. This also is evidence of something I and a lot of others can bear witness to – that people move to AB from places with much more leftist politics and within a very short time (6 months) become fire-breathing conservatives.
It seems that especially in the last few days there was a growing concern that the LP/NDP might get the balance of power. This fear of radical change – the electorate wanted change but not that much change – provided for the first time in the campaign motivation for some of the untapped centre-right to get to the polling station. When I get time I will look to see if the numbers for the other parties really fell or whether the PC simply were the only ones that increased.
It should go without saying that the LP in particular ran a dismal campaign with fiscally implausible platform and a boob as leader. One wonders what might have happened if Dave Bronconnier had been leader.
While I am no fan of Mr. Ed, I can take solace that the knobs in Eastern Canada who claim that AB is going to become left of centre because of all the in-migration have been repudiated. the Alberta advantage can be restored.
One last point: This election is a classic demonstration of why fixed election dates should be the law. Ed and co. timed it perfectly – the WRA was only 35 days old, the downturns in the O & G and real estate sectors have yet to really become evident (and will not until after spring break-up) and the inter-provincial wars have yet to heat-up (which will happen after it becomes official that Ont is a have-not province).
“I think a lot of us in Alberta openly distrust and dislike polls, and especially the way they’re reported.”
That is why I believe the national polls are not actually true, I believe many who will vote conservative in the next election are not reflected in the polls and the federal conservatives are actually higher than reported.
Oh rats, there is one other thing:
There were a very high number of sitting MLAs who retired this time – 15(?). And while this is usually a bad thing, in the case is seems to have been a shot in the arm in those districts as the newbies ran scared and worked much harder than their predecessors.
Case in point: the District just north of me had an MLA in 2004 who didn’t even open a campaign office and won by just 700 votes. His successor had a very sizable campaign team (bigger even than the federal candidate) and worked non-stop knocking doors and telephoning. He won by 2 to one over the LP candidate.
Only stilted elitist hubris questions a democratic mandate this decisive…and only a bruised limping intellect will attempt to deconstruct it into self serving partisan sophistry.
We will be able to play spot the “snot” in the coming weeks with our 4th estate “betters”. 😉
Stelmach’s mandate was pretty uncomplicated…Alberta wants the security of a caretaker government and they believe Stelmach provides that more so than the other political options…it’s that simple.
The Alberta Liberals made one BIG mistake in Alberta – the name “Liberal.” As soon as the name “Liberal” is mentioned almost all Alberta thinks about the “LIEberals under DeYawn.”
They will never have a chance in Alberta unless they change their name to: “NOT the LIEberal Party of Canada”
Perhaps this will tell the LIEberals what Alberta thinks of them and DeYawn – not a chance in Albeta. This is the future “have” Prov. while Ont and Que are finally realizing that they atre not the Center of the Universe. This is why DeYawn promised to bring back the CWB if elected – providing the Conservatives give the Western farmers a choice to remain part of the CWB.
The Alberta Liberals made one BIG mistake in Alberta – the name “Liberal.” As soon as the name “Liberal” is mentioned almost all Alberta thinks about the “LIEberals under DeYawn.”
They will never have a chance in Alberta unless they change their name to: “NOT the LIEberal Party of Canada”
Perhaps this will tell the LIEberals what Alberta thinks of them and DeYawn – not a chance in Albeta. This is the future “have” Prov. while Ont and Que are finally realizing that they atre not the Center of the Universe. This is why DeYawn promised to bring back the CWB if elected – providing the Conservatives give the Western farmers a choice to remain part of the CWB.
The Liberals campaigned on a platform of destroying the Alberta economy, although evidently they were too stupid to realize this is what they were doing. The NDP are widely seen as well-meaning idiots. The WRA was nearly invisible. What other voting choice was there?
For the Liberals to gain any traction in Alberta they will have to change their name, colours and disassociate themselves from their federal counterparts. Every time Daft stepped in front of a podium with the big red and white Lib signs behind him, he tied himself to the hated legacy of Trudeau, Chretien, Martin et al.
As a “Progressive” Conservative in Ontario (actually a closet neo-con), there are some surprising comments on this thread.
Ontario’s turnout was a dreadful 52% but Alberta’s was worse at 50% even though it was up from 45%. That really surprises me.
Jimbo “Say you’re a conservative, and you may as well say you’re a neo-nazi. I’m not exaggerating.”
Wow. Jimbo can you imagine what it’s like to say “conservative” in Toronto? I’d be safer wearing a baby seal fur coat in Paris.
WLMR is pretty much bang-on. Were there a better option than Ed things would have gone differently. (that is why the undecideds were so high in the run-up to the vote)
As usual, the whining on the G&M comment board is hilarious. The usual left wing lunatics are going apoplectic….you know, the usual drivel….”One party rule in Alberta is terrible, bla bla bla”. But what I find REALLY funny is that the comments come from the same brain dead morons who posted about how Castro has outlasted “numerous US Presidents and has been in glorious power for 49 years for the Revolution, bla bla bla”. So, the “logic” of the obviously demented leftist mind is that political power is okay if it is communist and held by virtue of the AK47, but it is not okay in a democracy and held by virtue of the ballot box. Go figure.
If you need a laugh, go over to the G&M comment section. What a bunch of clowns.
Mr. Ed made a bunch of promises. Let’s see what he does with them.
Health Care Premiums will be one item that should be gone come next election.
OTW, watch out for the Liberals! LOL
Well …. that’s the way the pundits crumble!
Good for Alberta voters .. that 50% or so of Albertans who have the integrity to go out and do their public duty.
As for the rest …. will they be shooting their mouths off about the results now?
Probably.
The NEP is still much too fresh in the minds of Albertans. Wait a hundred or so years and then maybe…… no… make that 200 or so years before Albertans get stupid enough to elect Liberals to lead them. Good job, Alberta!!!!!
Good for Alberta!
Now, where did I see that poll asking people how many FEWER seats Stelmach was going to win this time around? Seems most comments had him squeaking in with a bare majority, they were as wrong as the pollsters.
Albertans did the sensible thing and voted for the party that has overseen a prosperous Province for a long time. Alberta may not be perfect under the Conservatives, like Ontario is under the Liberals, but there’s nothing like having a steady job to soothe the pain. Many Ontarians are about to face that reality if the layoffs in the auto sector continue.
Perhaps Albertans also remember what happened to their B.C. neighbours, who opted for change in the 1990’s, which turned out to be an economic disaster.
Nice going, Alberta, your citizens have demonstrated more common sense than the citizens of many other Canadian Provinces. Congratulations! 🙂
Jimbo: “I’m thinking of starting a “lie to the pollsters” movement. Any takers?”
Don’t lie outright (100% support for the Greens would be too unbelievable), just answer ‘don’t know’ or ‘undecided’. Keep ’em guessing. 🙂
Actually, discussed this with some neighbors yesterday. Everyone said they voted conservative. None of us were too happy about it. The phrase “the lesser of two evils” was brought up a few times.
I was polled once during the election campaign, and I said I was undecided, even though I knew that in the end, I would support the conservatives. I think many people had the same attitude as I did.
I am still disappointed that Mr. Manning didn’t throw his hat in the ring for leadership of a party. I’m pretty certain he would be premier now if he had done that. The PC’s will be in power until a center/center-right party comes along that doesn’t promptly drag religion into politics, AND that has a dynamic leader.
How is it that all we heard about the Alberta election was how the Liberals were about to make huge gains and the Conservatives were about to fall from power? I can’t confess to having spent hours reading dozens of news reports, but all the coverage I read and heard never wavered from this line. Is the media really so dominated by liberals? Or is entire media just too lazy to do any leg work whatsoever? Some combination of both?
mecheng is right re the holding-noses and mrking an ‘X’ scenario. There is a great desire for change in AB – tighter fiscal policy with a ecological – conservation-minded – attitude – which is what PM has been talking-up for sometime now. However, this big a mandate has ended his (and Ted Morton’s and Jim Dinning’s) political leadership ambitions for good. The question going forward is – who will take up the cause?
The reason pcs keep winning, is this province naturally attracts people with this kind of a mind set. why would someone who likes the public teat want to come to this province. there are much easier marks in other parts of canada.
the NEP is still fresh on the minds of Alberta.
lets remind folks that 100s of thousands lost their jobs and houses in that period just because a liberal federal government decided they didnt like Alberta having wealth or power. Is 20 years. 30 years over even a century enough to forget the purposeful grab of provincial resources and purposeful trashing of a strong economy just for political gain. they forget there are still people living that remember the depression and use it to gauge their decisions.
“Liberals were never able to exploit widespread sentiment in the province that it was time for a new government.”
That’s rich!
After the La La’tario election I was saying the same thing…insert PC for Lib.But hey…I’m not MSM and so what would I know.
cal2:
this why this burgeoning development:
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=d1b2c809-e890-48ed-b421-e0274deb1671&k=42400
is going to be the biggest challenge Mr. Ed will face, and going on my personal contact with him as well as his public statements relating to inter-provincial affairs and equalization, I don’t think he is up to the task.
Let’s hope he appoints a inter-provincial affairs minister who has some starch in his jeans and doesn’t take a “can’t we all get along” approach. I’m not holding my breath, however.
Being an Ontarian, I turned on the CBC News this morning to find out who won the election and by how much. Imagine my surprise (not!) when the pretty but vacuous newscaster read out the news headlines…5 different headlines and NONE of them about the Alberta election. The TOP headline…the upcoming balloting in the Democratic race between Obama and Clinton!
The Alberta election wasn’t mentioned until about 7-10 minutes into the broadcast, almost as an afterthought.
An historic 11th straight majority, a landslide, where Liberals had been “poised” to make huge in-roads…and that just wasn’t important enough news to CBC to make it one of the 5 top headlines.
John Cruickshank, this is just another reason why we KNOW CBC is biased.
The silent majority has spoken and found a premier who is much like them … not too slick, but an honest God-fearing man.
Stelmach’s major appeal is that he is not some know-it-all academic or a pie-in-the-sky utopian.
His practicality apparently touched something in enough Alberta voters to ensure Alberta remains the only province east of Quebec to never elect a socialist government.
B.C. and Saskatchewan also have oil/natural gas resources, but Alberta led the way in encouraging the development of the resource.
Good for Saskatchewan for turning its back on the fellow travellers of Socialist Internations, but I’m becoming perplexed by B.C.’s direction, especially with their misguided carbon tax increase/income tax decrease dichotomy.
Alberta.
The entire eastern half of the country plus Ontario doubled bows down to your superior wisdom.
Remember the old saying, winners like winners, well all that influx of people to Alberta are winners, they leave the losers behind to whine and complain. Alberta is substance over symbolism not the other way around. It must really be a blow to these little media mind types that they can’t bully a strong and independent person. Back to the whine factory ants, follow the scent ahead of you now.
Ontarioooo??? Remember prosperity? The Big Blue Machine? 42 years of prosperity? See Alberta? Conservative.Prosperity. Remember?
Jim Flaherty does:
“”Mr. McGuinty, you may want to portray this as a personal attack or somehow ‘undermining’ the economy,” Mr. Flaherty wrote in his letter. “My comments are nothing less than a wake-up call.”
Ontario taxes manufacturers at 12 per cent, while other corporations pay 14 per cent. Among the 10 provinces, only P.E.I. and Nova Scotia have higher general corporate income tax rates.
Businesses in Ontario must also pay a capital tax, employer health tax on payroll and business education tax. Toronto Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond recently said Ontario’s tax rates stuck out “like a sore thumb” and predicted the province’s overall tax rate on new business would be 30.17 per cent by 2012, versus 18.8 per cent for Quebec.”
I think this was a bit of a “hold your nose and vote” election. It was for me. I suspect the timing may have had to do with the arrival of the WRA which had some pretty credible candidates, (as well as a few duds, given the short time frame). But there was certainly no appetite for the Liberals and a Dalton McGuinty repeat. Unfortunately there were a couple of NDPers elected so we’re still struggling on our claim of being a rat-free province. But we’ll work on it. Finally, it’s no surprise that the MSMers didn’t know anyone who voted conservative — they’d have to speak to someone outside the academic cocktail party set and that would mean showing solidarity with the workers down on the shop floor as opposed to up in the faculty lounge — shudder!
Big headline in daily rag the other day stated that over 280,000 people had migrated to Ab over the last few yrs and they had no connection to the PC party traditions.
How would they vote?
Well, I guess that’s been answered in spades.
Alberta does not attract whiners.
Alberta attracts ‘doers’, thanks to the vision of Peter Lougheed.
Most of the newcomers probably never knew that life could be so great, after having lived in the other doom and gloom parts of country.
In fact, some of these new Albertans have become the staunchest and most vocal supporters of the Alberta Advantage.
Perhaps the liberal brand is tarnished by Mr. Bean & Company???
Very happy that the Lieberals didn’t win. Even in leftard Saskatchewan the Liberals haven’t won a seat in two elections. The Sask Party I hope will have the legacy of the Alta PC’s for the future of sask is dependand on this.
Ya gotta love the Deer in the Headlights look that the leftard MSM had last night. I gotta kick out of how the CBC reporter sitting at her computer in the Leg, only was quoting the negative emails she was receiving. MSM is such a joke.
Good on you Alta, for doing what is right for the Province. I hope the future is bright for Sask. as well.
Cheers
DrD
“Unfortunately there were a couple of NDPers elected so we’re still struggling on our claim of being a rat-free province.”
I read that line ten minutes ago, and I’m still laughing.
I wish I could say the same about the Libs in Ontario. But there’s always hope.
I had a sign for PC incumbent Jack Hayden in my store window in Oyen. Not a single one of my customers complained or chastised me for having a PC sign up in the window.
Not. A. Single. One.
Now. I did have a few political discussions as a result of the sign being there, and many of us all agreed that it would be nice if the PC party was less progressive and more, y’know, conservative. Nobody that I’ve talked to (other than my wife who happens to be a teacher) thought much of the teacher’s pension buyout. Many of us were also horrified to turn on the TV and see Steady Eddie blathering on about daycare spaces. So, I’d say there was appetite for change, albeit not the kind of change the wonks at the CBC have wet dreams about.
Problem was, no one wanted a change that would be demonstrably worse. I don’t think the WRAP will get traction going until they eject Link Byfield. Too many people know about his shenanigans at the Citizen’s Centre for Democracy. I personally refuse to throw a vote their way until they toss the bum out. There’s also the other usual charcters involved with said party. WRAP is like the Oh Henry of Alberta politics and most Albertans have a nut allergy.
As to the rest: a vote for the SoCreds, Dippers, or Fibs? Gotta be kidding. I’m a small business owner who is somewhat averse to fiscal suicide.
So I voted PC. Again.
Bud, I think McSquinty’s response to Flaherty says all you need to know about the Liberals:
canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=913ecac0-dbe7-44fd-b3de-35f491b1853a
“Mr. McGuinty gave no indication he would heed Mr. Flaherty’s call in his upcoming budget. Instead, he acknowledged “philosophical differences” in the two governments’ approaches to economic growth.
“They champion corporate tax cuts above everything else, and I say you’ve got to invest in skills and education, you’ve got to invest in innovation and strategic partnerships and infrastructure and the like as well as tax cuts,” Mr. McGuinty said.”
The article ends,
“Ontario’s flagging manufacturing sector, which accounts for one-fifth of the province’s output, has shed 180,000 jobs since 2002.”
So now you know where those 200,000 odd new Albertans came from, eh? A province who’s official answer to a Canadian dollar at $1.02US and a manufacturing sector bleeding red ink into a looming US recession, which is off-shoring everything we’ve got to escape the obscene taxes, is to RAISE taxes and spend more money.
I live in the Steel City. Bigtime manufacturing is OVER in this burgh. Everything is small shop, custom work, mostly autoparts related. Car makers are on the skids.
The pay is crap, the jobs are shrinking in number every week. I see no new industrial construction around town, very little expansion. I see quite a few empty buildings down town.
Thank the Liberals. They didn’t do it alone, but they sure sped things along. Before you go “investing”, aka “spending”, aka “pissing away” billions on social programs you need to stop making it impossible to make a buck here legally.
Tax cut. Now please. Biiiiiig tax cut.
Eeyore, the mission of the CBC is to unite the country under utopianism. Hill-Bama meets that objective more than Conservatives getting elected in Alberta. So the CBC is simply living up to its mission.
We should not extend the CBC mission past 2009.
I’m just curious as to where the statistics here are coming from. Everything I’ve seen shows we had the lowest voter turnout in our history (~41%), yet several people here have said it was up from last election.
What am I missing?
Sitsonsix,
According to canada.com, there were 2,252,104 eligible voters and 951,451 votes cast per Elections Alberta, for a pathetic turnout of 42.24%.
I was not happy with the conservatives over a number of issues. My big problem – no reasonable alternative.
The liberal platform was to regulate everything in site. The Wild Rose candidate in my riding wasn’t a serious contender. He was just filling out the field. An “independent conservative” candidate was too socially conservative for my tastes. And don’t even get me started with the Greens and NDP.
Had there been a solid libertarian-conservative alternative, I would have voted it in a second. Maybe next time.
I considered not voting as a measure of protest against the options I faced. The Liberals, NDP and Green party essentialy proposed putting a sign on the lawn saying, “Alberta is Closed for Business” The Wildrose Alliance had no chance of forming a majority and little chance of gaining offical party status. So what to do?
In the end I voted Alliance, not that I thought my candidate would win (in fact I didn’t know he existed until I saw his name in the list of candidates at the voting booth) I thought by registering my vote with the Alliance the Conservative party would recognize that they have moved too close to the center-left instead of being the center-right.
By not voting my message would have been that I did not care, and that is not the case, but by voting I do earn the right to complain, and that is something, and who knows, maybe the Conservatives will tread more carefully on the path to the left.
Cardstonkid:
Huh?
After electing 72 members, I’m sure the Conservatives are running scared now.
I too voted for the Wildrose Alliance. My riding is a safe Tory seat, so I figured I’d throw a bone to the conservative alternative. I was hoping they’d gain a few rural ridings.