Contextualizing Racism

During the 2019 Alberta Election, a number of UCP candidates were tagged by opposition as having track records of peddling hate.  Several of these candidates ended up stepping aside during the election as a result.  One of these was Caylan Ford.  At the time, I pretty much shrugged and thought to myself "that's par for the course, so long to bad rubbish".  Usually when this happens, the candidate disappears for several years until the heat has gone off and they decide it's time to take another run at elected office. 

Then this week rolled around, and I started seeing Ms. Ford's name rolling around on Twitter as a result of the following National Post article:  Howard Anglin: The Smear Campaign That Took Down A Promising Politician. To be fair, Anglin is a conservative partisan, so I didn't expect him to do much more than bitch and moan about "cancel culture" (which is basically what he does).  

However, it did prompt me to go back and review what had happened, and in particular what she had allegedly written.  The Press Progress article about it "UCP Candidate Who Complained 'White Supremacist Terrorists' Are Treated Unfairly, Leaked Messages Show", as well as her post-resignation essay on the matter: "Apologia" (which is some 30 pages of extemporaneous recollection of the conversation that Press Progress referred to). 

Reflecting On Alberta's Democratic Deficit

Anyone who has paid attention to politics in Alberta for any length of time has to wonder aloud about how the province got into a state where it has effectively been one party rule for so long.

Today, it is virtually impossible to get elected without being some variety of Conservative, and even more depressingly, it seems as though the only alternatives that show up with any regularity are regularly even more extreme instances of right-wing politics than the current incumbents. Center and left-leaning political parties seem to be doomed to the political wilderness here - and nobody seems to really understand why this is the case.

In Alberta Views April issue, are some truly troubling letters-to-the-editor that should cause anyone living in a democracy pause.



There are two letters in particular I wish to draw your attention to:

First, is the leading letter, which discusses a movement to address some serious issues around a small, regional hospital in Beaverlodge. The author writes:

One of the organizers found a great deal of community reluctance to confront the local MLA on the issue, saying "I've encountered an immense fear within my community that sounds like this: If this debate takes place in the legislature or if we organize a grassrots movement to oppose these reforms we risk offending rural Conservative MLAs

Think about this for a moment. We are talking about MLAs - people who are duly elected to act as our representatives to the provincial government. Their duty is to their constituents first, not to the party, and certainly not to the aggrandizement of their egos. A citizen should never fear political debate in this way - the implication is that one has to curry favour with your MLA to get them to do their job? This is wrong on so many levels, and abusive to the interests of the population in general.

It tells us something of the attitude that has evolved within conservative Alberta - MLAs see themselves not as representatives to the government, but rather purveyors of the governing party's mood towards their respective ridings. A chilling thought indeed.

The second letter tells us something about the conservative attitude towards electoral democracy. It describes their experience as a scrutineer for one of the opposition parties during an election a few years ago, and I have heard anecdotally similar stories in recent years:

While I was expecting to be received by the Returning officer with professional indifference, what I wasn't prepared for was open hostility to the fact I had dared to be there in the first place. I was told to sit in a chair at the far side of the hall and not to move unless she said so. During the day, as voters trickled in and cast their votes, her partisanship was blatantly apparent ...

Considering that Alberta recently fired the man who proposed serious change to make our elections run better, one can only imagine the sense of entitlement that has permeated both our governing party and the degree to which they have taken control over the very levers of democracy.

It is little surprise indeed that Alberta's voters stay home in droves rather than making the trip out to the polls. Ironically, I can find very few people who claim to have voted for the current Stelmach government, yet it sits with a majority as large as any that Ralph Klein presided over - and Stelmach hardly has the personal charm that Klein seemed to possess.

One last thought - the key leadership of the federal Conservatives comes from Alberta as well, and under Harper, they exhibit the same aura of thin-skinned, unwillingness to think for themselves that their brethren in Alberta demonstrate. It is a sad state of affairs, indeed.

Dear Ed: About That Democratic Deficit In Alberta...

You aren't helping the matter at all.

This tells the electorate just how seriously you take democracy. Instead of starting to enact some of his recommendations following last year's election, you turf him. Why? Because he spoke and "embarrassed" the government?

Talk about a thin-skinned sense of entitlement.

Alberta - Compassionate Conservatism For The Wealthy

These two stories were brought to my attention over coffee this morning:

Alberta Increases Funding For Private Schools
Alberta Increases Fees For Nursing Homes

So, in short, who is hit hardest by this? Seniors who live on fixed incomes and need long term medical care. These are the people who are least able to fight back against the thick-witted malice of the Stelmach government.

Who benefits? Those parents who are wealthy enough to be able to afford the tuition costs of privately run, for profit schools. Students whose parents are of more modest means get to continue attending underfunded public schools which are in desperate need of repair, and whose teachers are rapidly finding that their salaries are so far behind the curve that they can't afford to live in the province.

Not only is Stelmach rolling these changes out using Ralph's playbook to squash debate, it's clear that they now believe themselves to be infallible, and infinitely re-electable.

Alberta's voters hold the bag for the colossal mess that Ed and the Boys are going to make of our province - the current government was elected by just over 20% of the eligible voters, and a total turnout of just over 40%. That means 60% of Albertans couldn't even be bothered to vote. Remember that as Stelmach bumbles through the next four years or so and blindly imposes his brand of "compassionate conservatism" on Albertans.

Fort McMurray Is All Upset

Apparently the PC riding association in Fort McMurray is all upset because Guy Boutellier was dropped from Cabinet.

On CBC this morning, they had the riding association president on, and after listening to this woman, I was actually quite annoyed by her assertions.

(1) Fort McMurray is experiencing _all_ of the pain that the current oil boom is creating.

This is so utterly absurd it's almost funny. Anyone who has tried looking for moderately priced housing in Calgary or Edmonton knows this. Fort McMurray certainly started experiencing that crunch well before Calgary or Edmonton.

(2) People in "The South"(™) have access to all the infrastructure in the world

No. Not even close. From where I live, the nearest hospital is close to a half hour drive; and as anyone who tried driving through Calgary's rush hour will attest to, our road system is badly overburdened. I'm not saying that Fort McMurray doesn't have these problems too, but when the claim is made that it's "all good" in Calgary, or that nobody except Fort McMurray feels this pain is made, it's a suspect claim at best.

(3) The 60% of Alberta Voters that didn't bother to vote endorsed the PC's

This couldn't be a more erroneous statement. If the PC's are going to govern as if 80% of the voters spoke in favor of them, we are in for a long, dark period in Alberta's history. Given the voter turnout last election, if I was the PC's I'd be looking at running as if it was a minority government. Just over 20% of voters spoke in favor of the PCs - nearly 60% couldn't be bothered to engage - think on it PCs, you have no idea what that 60% are really thinking.

Further Musings On Alberta's Election Results

I've been doing quite a bit of musing about last week's very disappointing election in Alberta.

Just over 40% of Albertans voted - and half of those voted for the status quo. This speaks volumes to me. It explains why after the previous election I couldn't find anyone who would admit to voting for the incumbent - they didn't, in fact, they didn't bother to vote period!

Similarly, I suspect I'll find the same thing in a year or so - nobody will remember voting for Ed Stelmach either. After all, if the PC's took 53% of the popular vote, and that "popular vote" number was based on 40% of the electorate, I've got better than a 75% chance that any random person didn't actually vote for the government.

Numbers are easy though, and I can bitch and whine about how brain dead it is that 53% of the popular vote translates into 86% of the seats all I want, but that doesn't address the real issue - that over half of Albertans can't even be bothered to take an hour out of their oil-boom addled day and actually put an "X" on a slip of paper. I think I'd be a lot less bothered by the results had 80% or more of the electorate actually turned out to vote.

In fact, tinkering with the system in small ways isn't going to address the fundamental problem - even something as dramatic as a Proportional Representation system isn't going to solve anything on its own.

Alberta's voters simply can't find a way to engage in the politics of the province. There's a good reason for this - after thirty some years of single party rule, and since Lougheed stepped down, steadily declining voter turnouts. It's completely understandable when votes for anything other than the PC's seldom result in a victory for anything other than a PC - only the hardiest are going to stick to their guns and continue to vote against the apparent tide.

Worse, as we have scraped away at the situation, we find that the riding distribution is borderline on what in the US would be called "gerrymandering", providing a disproportionate weight to votes in rural ridings. (The last re-evaluation of riding boundaries was done just before new census data was published, forcing the use of data that is now over a decade old. Then it comes out in the election that the Premier's office has been taking an overly active hand in selecting the Returning Officers. This latter issue should have caused more of an uproar than it did, as it calls into question the objectiveness of supposedly non-partisan people.

It seems to me that this issue needs to be addressed on multiple fronts.

Problem #1: Disengagement

Let's be honest with ourselves - Alberta's voters are seriously disengaged. In many ways to the point that they simply can't be bothered to either vote or even think about the issues.

Fair enough, I can get this - when day to day life is stressful enough - and Alberta's boom has made this one of the highest stress locations to live - there's precious little time to think about the "big picture". Far too many people I've talked to don't vote simply because they cannot see how the different levels of government affect their daily lives.

Problem #2: Peer Pressure

One thing that surprised the heck out of me this past election was the amazing amount of peer pressure to vote for the governing party. The reasoning went one of two ways - either voting "conservative" was just not done; or "why would you throw a vote away?".

This is a huge problem, as it says that we are not celebrating the diversity of opinion that makes the democratic process work.

Problem #3: Systemic Bias

As the riding boundaries and the selection of Returning Officers issues suggest, the PC's have become entrenched both politically and bureaucratically - and they don't see anything wrong with this. The perception of bias will tend to further yield to the "my vote doesn't matter" problem.

Problem #4: Lack of Understanding

I would venture to guess that "civic literacy" (understanding of electoral and government processes) is at an all time low in Alberta these days. I would imagine that serious understanding of how things are intended to work exists primarily in the hands of academics and political junkies like this writer. Most people simply can't be bothered to figure it out. (Granted, reading legalese isn't something most people do for fun, either!)

There are solutions, but they have to exist and function on multiple levels, and are not short term "quick fixes" that politicians like.

(1) Education

The politics of our country must become a central part of the educational system. We have steadily eroded the amount of time spent on the subject of government over the last thirty years, and today's high school graduates often have little or no understanding of the political environment we have or how it works.

If we make a conscious effort to make our government important for our youth, they will become active and engaged voters as adults.

(2) Electoral Reform

I don't think that this is strictly necessary per se - a higher level of voter engagement would produce a satisfactory result in the existing system. However, the education subject is one that will be a minimum of a decade in producing measurable changes in voter habits, and the level of disengagement in Alberta is such that the optics around the current model are so poor that a re-design is called for.

(2)a. Take The Politicians Out Of Riding Boundaries

I'm unimpressed (to say the least) with the mucking about that our politicians have done trying to manage riding boundaries. Anyone currently sitting as an MLA is going to be unwilling to change their riding boundaries much unless there are specific areas that are hostile to them. As far as I'm concerned, the riding boundaries must be established by a commission whose members are given a mandate to equitably define the riding boundaries on strict guidelines.

(2)b. Remove Elections Alberta From The Control of the Premier's Office

Whether or not the returning officers did anything wrong is immaterial here. The Returning Officer job has to become something that is seen to be non-partisan. If that means making the R/O jobs in each riding a random selection process similar to Jury duty, then so be it.

(2)c. Move to a Proportional Representation Model

This may mean redesigning the Legislature, or perhaps creating a "Senate-like" body that is run on a P/R basis. The whole point here is to dramatically change the dynamic that allows a party that gets ~20% of the available vote to take 80% of the seats available.

First Past The Post (FPTP) isn't necessarily that bad, but with a high level of voter disengagement, it develops serious problems where the government sitting in Edmonton does not in fact represent the broader will of Albertans.

I will argue that the optics in the current environment are so bad that a radical change is needed to convince the disengaged voter that it is in fact time to re-engage. Some form of P/R is dramatic enough to catch public attention.

In closing, I do not believe that any one of these will make a significant difference, but these are starting points in a long-range plan to re-energize our electoral system which is currently on the verge of collapsing (if it hasn't already) into the kind of pseudo-democracy that we accuse leaders in other countries of being. Some of this is "window dressing", intended to plant in the public mind the notion that change is happening; other parts are longer term, and will only start to have an impact as the generation that will be born to those now in high school comes of age.

What The Hell Was That?

Last night's election results are very disappointing. Rewarding a long-time incumbent party that has a relatively new leader at the helm with an increased majority is miles from what I would have expected, and even further from what this province needs.

The problem isn't a PC majority - far from it, I had expected that. However, no government works well when it has no opposition to speak of. Alberta is heading into a period in which it will be all the more critical for the government to act in a balanced and reasoned fashion. Without an effective opposition and a sense of balance in the legislature, we run a very high risk of damage worse than that which Don Getty visited upon us.

To judge from the numbers being bandied about, it appears that voter turnout was around 41% (give or take), meaning that 59% of Alberta voters didn't even bother to make their mark. To me that means that 53% of 41% decided to vote for the status quo. (If you do the math, that means just over 20% of Alberta's population actually voted PC)

Sadly, this kind of depressing number feeds into the apathy cycle, and to some extent self justifies the voter who says "nah, why bother?" when asked if they voted. In so many ways, the 'Fat, Dumb and Happy' state that the economic boom has created for many voters has resulted in a laissez-faire mentality that fails to engage in the issues.

This election was the first election in some years where it looked like Albertans might actually vote for something other than "Ralph, because he's such a regular guy". Unfortunately, none of the party leaders managed to find a "key issue" to play on, and that allowed the status quo to continue.

My guess, short term is this:

Stelmach gets to hang on for four years. (* sigh *)
Kevin Taft is likely gone within six months. (* Disappointing, I actually think Taft has some good ideas - and has been the strongest leader the Liberals have had for years *)
Brian Mason is history. ( No great loss - Mason was a good "second in command" to Pannu, but as leader didn't do so well )
The WrAP party will turn in on itself and we will see something else representing the rabid social right-wing in this province inside of two years.

Craig Chandler Campaign Literature

Chandler's campaign literature is an amazing collection of logical contradictions.

Of course, the contradictions stem from Chandler's blithe assumption that the only "kind" of voter that lives in Calgary Egmont is a "conservative voter".

Consider the following:

If you hire me as your MLA, I understand that I report to you and that your views will be represented

Followed a paragraph or so later:

As your MLA, my intention is to vote with the PCs when they act like conservatives, and when they act like Liberals, I will remind them of their roots

So...just how does this man think he's going to represent the moderate voters, which are fiscally moderate and socially quite liberal? Or perhaps he has forgotten that many in this province today are old enough to remember Peter Lougheed's government - and that represents the "roots" of the PC party far more than the absolutist conservatism of the federal Reform Party. I suspect that many of the points on his policy page are "code phrases" that only bear meaning for people that subscribe to Stephen Harper's dishonest social conservatism backed and defined by Charles McVety and his allies - meaning that there are quite likely a lot of issues which are not "open for consultation", unless I miss my guess. (Or conveniently, all he'll hear are opinions that match his own - not unlike )

Of course, he also likes to claim that he is the "trigger" of a "great exodus" from the Alberta PC party. If there's an exodus of any sort happening, it's likely got more to do with a lot of people turning away from the party after starting to realize that the leadership selection process was not what it was represented to be. I'm sure that for a few, Chandler's nomination was the "straw that broke the camel's back", but Chandler just isn't that significant a figure outside of Egmont - and only there because he's chosen to try and be a candidate there.

Last, and perhaps most telling is the bottom of the page - which contains not a picture of the Candidate, or any kind of slogans, but instead appears to have been sold off to supporters as paid advertising space. (One of the ads belongs to one Vicki Engel, who I suspected was a little to cozy with Chandler to be anything other than a puppet candidate. While some might applaud Chandler's "innovation" in selling advertising space on his campaign advertising, it also sends a rather worrisome message - namely that he is for sale to the highest bidder.

Straw Polling in Calgary Egmont and Fish Creek

I drove through the ridings of Calgary Egmont and Calgary Fish Creek this morning, and the "sign poll" was rather interesting.

Calgary Egmont is a riding which is going to be interesting on Monday night. It has an unusual number of candidates running in it - a total of six from various parties.

The real race here is between Jonathan Denis and Cathie Williams, with Craig Chandler doing his best to play spoiler - hoping to at the very least split the PC vote. It's obvious that Chandler's been running hard, and he certainly has a lot of lawn signs out there - if that translates into actual votes, Denis is in serious trouble, as it looks distinctly like Chandler may have taken quite a few of the PC votes away. (I'm sorry to say that I didn't see enough NDP or Green Party signs to suggest they are even factors in the vote this time around)

Of course, given that it's probably less than 10% of the homes that have signs in front of them, the undecided vote (estimated to be over 25% of voters still) is going to decide just what form change takes. Personally, my preference would be Cathie Williams in this race. Her leadership on the Calgary Catholic School Board was impressive, and she strikes me as being capable of being an even-handed, rational MLA.

Denis represents the status quo, and he seems to be a weak candidate in this race, with the PC party's organization having been well shook up by Chandler's machinations last year.

As for Chandler, he's demonstrated repeatedly by his actions that he represents nobody except himself. If you see things his way, great. If you dare differ with the man, don't expect to get much traction. His claims of "unifying" people are highly suspect when you recognize how quickly he switches his tune. Last fall, he was asking citizens to vote PC in the coming election; today, he's telling us to vote for him as an independent candidate? His past actions on a variety of fronts leaves me wondering just how well he's going to represent anyone other than himself.

Calgary Fish Creek is shaping up to be much more intriguing than I had expected. From the amount of signs on people's lawns, Heather Forsyth could be in serious trouble. Laura Shutiak has obviously been running a very aggressive campaign, and people are hearing it.

I personally lost a great deal of respect for Ms. Forsyth when I got her response to this letter I sent her - which more or less blew my concerns off as she had already decided to vote for Morton's bill to enshrine bigotry. Her response was essentially "piss off, I've already decided", instead of actually engaging the issues I raised about the legislation.

Sign wise, I'd say that Shutiak outnumbers Forsyth quite significantly, BUT, the number of signs overall is quite small - probably around 5% of homes at most. To me this suggests that there is a huge undecided vote in the area, and possibly a great deal of apathy as well.

Alberta Election: The Cause for Change

Much of the election campaign in Alberta has been dancing around the subject of change in our government. After 37 odd years of one party rule, the question has to be asked if Stelmach's PCs are even capable of the kind of change needed to rejuvenate a seemingly moribund government in Alberta.

Looking around a few choice Calgary ridings, we have some really interesting races.

In Calgary Shaw, we have John Roggeveen running against Cindy Ady - an MLA whose only claim to fame is undocumented committee work that she refuses to to be accountable for. While John Roggeveen might be a relative unknown, replacing Cindy Ady can't be anything other than an improvement.

Over in Calgary Fort, the Liberals have Carole Oliver and the NDP has Julie Hrdlicka running against long-time MLA Wayne Cao. Like now retired MLA Denis Herard, Cao is a long time bench warmer MLA for Ralph Klein. Cao's been around a long time, but like most long term MLAs, he has long ago forgotten the reasons why he stood for office in the first place. After dutifully obeying Ralph's orders for so many years, we have a choice between two women who are fresh, engaged and aware of the issues in this riding, or Wayne Cao who has been entrenched so long that he believes his interests _ARE_ the ridings.

That's just a small sampling of the choices in Calgary. As voters, we have options - we can choose to re-elect the incumbent party, and live with four years of mediocre representation and a continuation of the same myopic governance that has left the province gasping for air, or we can look at options from other parties that are energetic, interested and engaged - and willing to represent all of the citizens in a constituency, not just their cronies.

Voter Apathy and Alberta

Alberta is notorious for low voter turnout at the best of times. Thirty seven years of rule by one party has created an environment where many feel that their vote doesn't matter at all. Even leaders like Don Getty managed to get re-elected with sizable majorities. On the street, it seems like it's a rare thing to meet someone who is an active supporter of one of the other parties.

While I expect that the electoral boundaries for this election ensure that the PC's will win on the rural vote, I'm not at all sure that it will be a convincing win for Stelmach.

Albertans are tired - after 37 years of single party rule, many are simply sick of seeing the same thing year after year. Although apathy tends to favour the status quo, I think this election may in fact belong to whoever manages to get their vote out on Monday. The PCs are so used to winning, even when the apathy levels in their own party are high that they in fact face the greatest challenges to getting their voters out to the polls. Voters backing parties and candidates other than the PCs have already decided they want to see change, and will be out at the polls. The question is whether the PCs are able to get the 'habitual' voters out or not.

Well...That Was Unhelpful

Last night's Leader's Debate in Alberta was less than impressive.

If I were an undecided voter, what was in that "debate" didn't help make any decisions.

Frankly, the debate itself was no debate. The leaders were all so carefully scripted that they avoided saying anything of value at all. The entire event was more of an excuse to trot out and reiterate the broad, and relatively dull statements that one can find in any of the party's websites.

There was no point and counterpoint in that debate, it was almost exclusively talking points.

Worse, in my view, was the fact that all four of them were constantly trying to talk overtop of the others. If Albertans want to see grown men shouting at each other, we'll watch Question Period.

These aren't debates in any meaningful sense of the word, and I wonder if we wouldn't do just as well to have a set of speeches for that hour and a half instead of a four-way argument that's less coherent than you usually find at 2 am in the bars.

Rumours From The Alberta Campaign Trail

If I didn't already think that the PC's have been in power in Alberta far longer than they have any right to be, some of what I've been hearing indirectly coming in from various campaigns in Calgary would convince me.

It's fear. We aren't talking about candidates being afraid of anything, but rather individual voters and small business owners are reluctant to "piss off" some long-term MLAs who a running for re-election. By "piss off", I mean even doing something as simple as openly supporting another candidate.

Why the fear? Because there is a perception that the candidate will try to retaliate by acting in a hostile fashion towards those who backed their opponents in this election.

More germane is the amount of peer pressure that exists. There are a lot of people out there who won't allow a campaign sign to be put on their lawn because they are worried about how "others" will react - especially if it isn't "conservative enough".

The fact that there is a perception that retaliation could occur, or even that sign vandalism occurs more frequently for certain parties, is a sign of a serious problem in Alberta. A healthy democracy has a great deal of room in it for all sorts of viewpoints. When only one becomes "acceptable" in the public discourse, it is no longer a healthy democracy.

Driving Forward Looking Backwards

If that conjures up horrifying images of piling your car into a post, that's what it's supposed to provoke.

I was starting my analysis of the various party platforms for the Alberta Election tonight, and when I went to the Alberta PC's, I was rather, well stunned.

Stelmach's "policy statements" page is entirely backwards looking. It drones on endlessly about the miraculous spending that "Ed the Money Fairy" has been sprinkling about the province in the last few weeks, not so much on the question of just what his party will do for Albertans in the future.

Not an auspicious beginning to an election campaign - especially for an incumbent party.

*Sigh* I'll check back there later when (perhaps) they have actually bothered to try and provide some kind of forward looking vision.

Thump!

The writ has been dropped in Alberta. On March 3, we go to the polls to elect a new government in this province.

For the first time in my adult life, I see an electoral landscape that is ready to make a major change. I won't pretend that I've liked any of the premiers we've had since Peter Lougheed stepped aside.

Don Getty had been tackled once too often without his helmet on, and did a horrendous amount of damage to this province's education systems; Ralph Klein I endured - to be honest, I never could see what the population saw in the man; and Ed Stelmach just hasn't thrilled me either.

Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome in a few short weeks. My current estimate is (at the very least) a vastly reduced PC government - possibly even a minority if the Wildrose Alliance party manages to split a few rural seats. {I have no idea if they are that coherent yet, but who knows - Alberta's voters are strange beasts}

There's virtually no chance of Stelmach surviving the outcome, either. Even if he is the next premier, the party will be smarting from the lost seats, and the loss of their presumed "right to govern" and the next leadership review will be hotly contested. If he loses, or comes up with a minority, Stelmach will be history - almost overnight. Either way, I doubt that he'll be our Premier by the time 2012 rolls around.

On a more local level, I look forward to watching the show in Calgary Egmont.

Stelmach Has Trouble Brewing...

When party stalwarts like Don Braid are telling you "don't do it", you know it's got to be bad.

Granted, Stelmach's PC's have had little to smile about in recent months. A series of spending and policy announcements seem to be falling on deaf ears in the last couple of weeks. While I agree with Stelmach on some decisions he's made, I'm far from "won over" by his overall performance.

The all-too-recent debacles over party nominations in Calgary Egmont and Calgary Montrose do little to suggest to Albertans that the PC's have a clue what they are about, further reinforcing the perception that they are essentially rudderless right now.

Recent polling results in Calgary are hinting loudly at the prospect of major changes coming from the city, and Edmonton doesn't seem too far behind either. While that may not be enough to topple the PC's as the governing party, Stelmach is in the awkward position of leading the party into an election where they are sure to come away with a diminished standing in the Legislature.

Party leaders that lose seats tend not to be very long lived. I don't imagine that Stelmach will fare that well once the election has been concluded - the knives will come out, as the power mandarins in the party will not be pleased if they don't have an overwhelming majority like they got used to with Ralph Klein.

Of course, Albertans stand to gain the most from this situation. It will be healthy for us to have more than one party in the legislature, and the governing party (whoever it may be) held accountable by an opposition that is nearly the same size. That is the kind of environment where our style of democracy works best. Regardless of your opinions about Ralph Klein, his era was not good for the state of democracy in Alberta.