Whoah.

I'm guessing oil prices brought them down. Alberta's economy seems to be on a perpetual cycle of boom, bust, repeat.

That is one of the big problems for petro states. Yes, oil and gas extraction does goose the economy but it also drives up prices making other industries unprofitable. This is why it is so difficult for economies to diversify away from oil and gas.

Texas seems to have managed.

Nope, quite the opposite. Party leader of the 'tea party' per se, resigned, jumped ship to the PC party and the PC leader, and Premier Prentice immediately called an election to eliminate his rival while they were going through a leadership election. You can do that in Westminster as there are no fixed election dates.

In classic Boehner style, Prentice managed to destroy the PC party, got the Rose in as official opposition, despite topping them in the popular vote and brought the NDP to power. Had nothing to do with the oil prices.

Worth noting, the NDP, even talking pretty much every leftist vote won't top 40 percent. The conservatives drew 55. So you have an epic failure of an election for Prentice.

Very similar to 1991 which devastated British Columbia, but this opens up the possibility that BC might be number one again.

Texas had a lot of defense contracts from WWII onwards and of course NASA. And the government isn't a basketcase like in, say, Detroit.

Texas also doesn't have dumbasses like Prentice running the show.

No, they have you otoh...

yes but ben doesn't run anything.

What's ridiculous is that the PCs DID pass a fixed election date law recently, every four years. The whole point was to prevent **** like they pulled this time - a snap election to catch opponents at inopportune times. They chose not to follow it. One of the many factors that ****ed them over.

The PCs got what they deserve. For many reasons. Decades of entitlement, ridiculous policies, disconnected from the mainstream voter, and elitist attitude. Prentice sealed his own fate with two PR ****ups of epic magnitude:
1. He blamed Albertans for the problems the provincial government has ("Look in the mirror")
2. In the debate, he got schooled by the NDP leader and responded "I know math is hard, but" as he was obviously misrepresenting their positions

My view of the political spectrum from left to right:
NDP - Liberal - Progressive Conservative - Wildrose

My $0.02 into why this happened:
1) The oilpatch stoked the looney Wildrose party as official opposition to put pressure on the PCs back when Stelmach was premier and was ****ing with oil royalty plans. This fractured the "right"...>50% of the province voted for a right-wing party, but the vote was split
2) Everyone abandoned the Liberals to focus on strategic voting to push the PCs out of power (http://1abvote.ca/ ), as the Liberals went from 10 seats to 1 and those seats bolstered the NDP instead
3) Prentice was a condescending ass to both his competition and to the electorate. He oozed politician douche and establishment when the public was irate with chronic mismanagement of the establishment
4) Redford. The PCs still haven't recovered from her ****ups with the infamous "sky palace" she was building in Edmonton, the flamboyant trips on the taxpayer dimes, etc.
5) New-generation Albertans. Younger Albertans aren't as staunchly conservative as their parents were. They're young, educated, and fair-minded. They're how a muslim lefty academic became beloved Mayor of Calgary (unexpectedly to the media and existing politicians). They're also how the NDP probably got in this time. My social media over the past week was absolutely lit up with voter activism, the likes of which I've not seen before in Canada. Everyone was telling everyone else to go out and vote, and vote strategically. People are motivated and educated, and fearmongering PCs don't help themselves with that demographic.

Do I think this is good? yes and no.

The PCs needed to be held accountable and shown that they aren't entitled to rule the province. I suspect after 4 years they'll come back in power, they are the "natural ruling party" in Alberta politics-wise. They just lost their way through entitlement. It's good they were turfed.

But the NDP is scary in many ways. $15 minimum wage (up from $10) is a massive change. No other province is above $11. And to do this at the same time of raising corporate taxes from 10% to 12%, and when oil prices have slumped, puts massive pressure on businesses that are already laying off to stay afloat.
The "oil royalty review" they plan is also going to cause a lot of consternation in an already cynical oilpatch that is struggling. Also combined with the corporate tax increase, could result in much more capital flight at the worst possible time.

I'm less concerned about the increase in income tax (personally I am going to pay many thousands of dollars more per year in income tax now), because it was a stupid flat rate and was too low.

I am encouraged that the NDP will finally help us manage the oil revenues properly, investing most of them rather than spending them as they come in frivolously. Albertans do need to pay more taxes to have a solid fiscal base - the resource revenues should be treated as gravy.

So, I'm split. I literally voted for "none of the above" at the booth because I see it as a no-win scenario. Either way I'm going to be happy in some aspects and livid in others. It is what it is.

At least it makes politics in Alberta interesting.

and that's why the moron got turfed. Nobody expected commodity prices to fluctuate? Nobody except most people who think. Oil went under $50 as recently as 2008...

Good riddance!

And no, the PC's are likely done for a good long time. People joined the party for access to power. It was a coalition of people with wildly different ideologies united because that's where you went if you wanted to be connected. The name'll be around since it's a brand, sort of like the 'Liberals' have been around provincially despite 100 years of futility.

It'll be an interesting 4 years, and maybe more if the Dippers don't break things.

I'm saving my party energy for this fall when we boot the creeps (the remaining AB Conservatives) out of Ottawa.

That will be a celebration.

Your guess would be wrong.

They lost because they earned it.