Klein drops 13 seats on way to majority win (Canada)

[TrogL]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/11/23/alberta-election-041123.html

Ralph Klein led the Progressive Conservatives to a fourth majority government in Alberta in Monday's provincial election, but lost 13 seats in the process.

...

The Conservatives won 61 of the legislature's 83 seats, chalking up the party's 10th consecutive victory since 1971. The Liberals held onto the seven seats they'd won in 2001, and added 10. The NDP doubled their seats to four, while the Alberta Alliance won its first.

...

The Alberta Alliance won one seat, taking Cardston-Taber-Warner in the heart of cattle country. The two-year-old party got just over nine per cent of the popular vote, slightly less than the NDP.

Ok, now that's just plain strange. NDP is a radical left-wing party (a bit to the right of the Greens), the Alliance is a radical right-wing party (to the right of the KKK). I suppose it fits within the bell curve (yes, I'm being ironic) and shows the rural/urban divide on the issues.

The overall results came as little surprise. Ralph's popularity has been fading. His claim to fame was eliminating Alberta's deficit, then debt. They "tore up the mortgage" last year. Since then all he's managed to do is put his foot in his mouth (again? as usual?) over funding for the handicapped.

[Feathered Fish]

1. Yay!

It's a start.

[daleo]

2. Cardston is a heavily Mormon area

It looks like they swung their vote to this new Alberta Alliance party. The Conservatives will have an interesting challenge - they have a nascent right wing religious party on the one hand that can peel off some votes and seats in the rural areas, and a resurgent liberal vote in the cities which can peel off some votes and seats there.

It will be interesting to see how they try to thread this needle. There will be a temptation to respond on the right with some "moral issue", like de-listing abortion from medicare. However, this could endanger support from centrist voters in Calgary (their support was never strong in Edmonton anyway).

I predict they will just throw a lot of money at farmers, and hope that keeps them happy.

[Brundle_Fly]

3. any opposition here is a good thing

maybe we'll get a hospital or two now.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. The NDP is well to the left of the Greens.

You say "NDP is a radical left-wing party (a bit to the right of the Greens)."

But, from the website of the Green Party leader (who is a former Progressive Conservative):

The largest differences between the GPC and the NDP are:

1. Greens are fiscally conservative

2. Green economics focuses on full cost accounting, the green tax shift and community economic development.... The NDP prefers interventionist, micro-managing legislation;

3. Greens are not beholden to union interests

...

Some people believe the Greens should build a coalition with the NDP -this is especially true at the provincial level in BC. The people arguing for this are mostly NDP members. NDPers don't understand that many Greens are former conservatives. NDPers refuse to believe that a significant amount of our support comes from voters who think of themselves as being from the right.

http://www.votejimharris.com/votejim/ndp.html

[Az_lefty]

5. Progressive Conservative????? I'm totally confused......n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

6. It's a Canadian thing.

The federal party was eaten earlier this year by the neocon Canadian Alliance, but Progressive Conservative parties still exist provincially.

Home to what's known as "Red Tories" - socially progressive and fiscally conservative.

[Canuckistanian]

8. The "progressive" part left the party LONG ago.

They should be the "Retrogressive Conservatives"

[TrogL]

9. it doesn't get any better

We've got conservative Liberals, liberal Conservatives, right-wing Greens, small-government Communists (regular and born-again) and party that tried to levitate the House of Commons.

On most days, a coherent reaction to Canadian politics is :wtf:.

[Minstrel Boy]

11. And seperatists who want to remain associated.

I'll never understand the people who find Canadian politics boring, though I understand those who find it confusing.

[Canuckistanian]

7. It was a "Kleinfeld Campaign"

It was a Conservative Campaign about nothing. No policy, no promises, no substance.

It's as if Klein was blessed with godlike powers to control the economy effortlessly, according to the conservative and rural voters.

Of course, billions of barrels of oil and a record high oil price had NOTHING to do with it.

A monkey with an abacus could run Alberta's economy and not screw it up.

[MrsCheaplaugh]

12. Or a drunk n/t

[sonicx]

10. "Progressive Conservatives": are they similar to US Republicans?

[daleo]

13. The new Alberta Alliance Party had paid Republican advisers

Amusingly, they had to work from Washington, as they couldn't get a work permit in time for the election.

But normally Progressive Conservatives would be seen as representing a similar part of the political spectrum as Republicans. There are differences - for example, public health care is sufficiently entrenched in Canada that even the Conservatives don't overtly try to get rid of it.