Time Immortal

Not only did they retain power, I think they even increased their majority. And the Liberals and the NDP seem to both have lost seats, defying most peoples’ expectations.

The nice guy who had the pleasant demeanour of the 98-pound softie getting sand kicked in his face turned out to be the Incredible Hulk. It is a remarkable turn of events given how public opinion polls indicated Albertans were an unhappy lot.

They might have been cranky during the campaign, angry about affordable housing, worried about access to healthcare, concerned about the environment and muttering about the need for a change — but when they stepped into the voting booth they couldn’t bring themselves to change their vote.

Instead, they embraced the guy who promised change from within government — the “change that works for Albertans,” according to the Tories’ election slogan.

Well, it certainly worked for [Ed Stelmach] and the Tories on Monday night.

They won 73 seats. That’s not just impressive, it is stunning. It is almost as many as Klein got in his prime (74 seats) and is the largest landslide won by a Conservative premier in his first election. Ever.

Stelmach, Grace and I decided last night, seemed to be a bit of a paradox; an honest man who, by and large, gets things done, but who was really uncomfortable when caught out in public. He was the leader and, by extension, public face of a powerful party, but was himself not particularly skilled at public appearences. By contrast, when faced with a task, he seemed to be the sort to just throw himself at it until it was done — a mentality one might expect from a Ukrainian farmer. His campaign was nothing to write home about, and he has seemed to make a lot of gaffes (what few public statements he has made about, for example, freedom of expression issues in the province have been little more than politically correct pablum)…and yet one nevertheless gets the sense that he’s, generally speaking, a man of his word and a “doer.”

And evidently, Albertans felt that was worth getting behind.

Pity so many of us were lazy-arses and didn’t turn out to vote, though. But even then, Grace had a bit of an optimistic assessment as she looked around the polling station yesterday: the people who were there genuinely seemed like they cared about the direction Alberta was taking; they weren’t disinterested, but instead were animated, talking amongst themselves and debating the issues right up to the moment the ballots landed in their hand. That’s a hopeful sign, methinks.

“Another Tory majority in sight.”

I don’t doubt that the headline is accurate — support in this province for the Liberal Party rests at an abysmal 18%, with the NDP and Wildrose Alliance parties polling even lower than that — but I have to say this much: it will be an undeserved victory. That’s not to say that I think one of the other parties could do a better job, mind; the Conservatives seem, to me, to be the “least worst” choice a voter could make. I say that having not looked all that much into Wildrose, of course, but I’m also constraining my discussion here to parties that have an actual chance of forming the government in this province.