So where do we go from here? Two days after giving Alison Redford and the Progressive Conservatives yet another majority government, Albertans are probably still trying to figure out just what happened.
There have been a multitude of reasons put forth as to what happened to the Wildrose, which was projected to be forming that majority. Just as Danielle Smith and the Wildrose are wondering what happened provincially, so too must Tim Osborne be wondering what happened in St. Albert. The Alberta Party candidate ran a highly-visible campaign in the city yet he finished dead last … a microcosm, it turns out, for the provincial results.
The same brush that once again painted Alberta blue carried PC candidates to victory in St. Albert (Stephen Khan) and Spruce Grove-St. Albert (Doug Horner). Khan is probably right when he says the key wasn’t just the provincial mood, it was that his team got the message through to the people of St. Albert and it was a hopeful message.
“It is a message of vision,” he said.
And it was a party message delivered locally by a somewhat uneasy partnership of left-leading conservatives and Liberal thinkers. Khan and Horner faced the same issues as the PCs did provincially – how to stem the Wildrose momentum that appeared to have them headed for government.
Turns out it was probably a combination of the old “the devil you know versus the devil you don’t” and the question of who do you trust?
Travis Olson, a disappointed Wildrose candidate in Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, said it was an election based on trust and the “negative campaign” run by the PCs in the final two weeks was enough to sway the voters.
“They instilled enough doubt in people’s minds about the Wildrose, which is unfortunate,” he said.
Khan and Horner ran campaigns mirroring the party provincially, one designed to keep them firmly left of the far-right Wildrose, but still far enough towards the centre they could attract the Liberal voters without them having to hold their noses too long.
To say it worked is an understatement, of course. The veteran Horner collected 10,722 votes and the rookie Khan polled 10,481, the third and fourth highest totals in the province. And both got more votes than all their rivals collectively.
So now that the local candidates have helped deliver the PCs their majority, how will Redford deal with all the elements that split the party and still exist to a certain degree provincially and locally?
There’s little doubt Khan and Horner benefitted from many Liberals and New Democrats who parked their votes with them, for fear of a Wildrose victory. Now they, and Redford, have to find ways to appease both staunch right-wing Conservatives along with left-of-centre ideologues who helped them win. It will make for most interesting debates in the house, behind the caucus doors and in the local PC offices.
It’s interesting that Khan held his victory party at the St. Albert rugby club, a spot where a number of the local teachers gather Friday afternoon for their end-of-the-week drink. It was teachers who undoubtedly helped the PCs win, after Redford promised during her leadership campaign last fall to restore $100 million in education cuts and during the election offered teachers a $500 tax credit for out-of-pocket expenses. No wonder ATA president Carol Henderson was quick to send a congratulatory message to Redford Tuesday morning – a sentiment not likely shared by those who occupy the right side of the PC tent.
The teachers will be just one more factor to be appeased. Winning the election may have been the easy part.
