After the election: What different scenarios mean for Alberta

This is Alberta. Anything can happen.

UCP leader Danielle Smith with candidates Dale Nally (left) and Angela Wood (right) at a campaign event in St. Albert (source: Becca Polak / Twitter)

As we enter the final week of Alberta’s election campaign, the two main party leaders are criss-crossing the province to rally their supporters.

United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith made several campaign stops in and around Edmonton during the first two days of the May long-weekend, including in the Edmonton-Decore, Drayton Valley-Devon, Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville and St. Albert ridings. The NDP are expected to sweep the capital city but the suburban ridings surrounding the city currently held by the UCP are hotly contested by the two parties.

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley was in the same neck of the woods, attending events in south east Edmonton, Leduc-Beaumont and Sherwood Park before heading down the QEII for a rally in Red Deer and then on to Calgary. Notley is expected to spend most of the next week in battleground Calgary, where the NDP has set up its campaign HQ and has hopes of making major gains.

What happens in the next 7 days could determine the outcome of this closely fought election campaign. But what will happen on May 29?

NDP leader Rachel Notley with candidates Jaelene Tweedle and Michelle Baer at a campaign event in Red Deer (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)

In today’s guest commentary, Chris Henderson of Y Station Communications & Research takes a look at what might be in store for Alberta’s political parties and dynamic after the election through four scenarios. Chris’ analysis is spicy and I think many of you will enjoy it.

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Dave

PS. Advance voting is open from May 23 to 27. Vote early and vote once.

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After the election: What different scenarios mean for Alberta

By Chris Henderson

Before the collapse of the Progressive Conservative Party in 2015, being a PC Party member – or at least participating in PC Party events – was extremely normal. Normal to the point that it was barely political.

If you were a business or a non-profit that depended on government policy, you were a participator to some extent – you kind of had to be. As a decades-old political dynasty, it was the only game in town, and the political dynamic in Alberta showed it.

Even with the slow upstart rise of the Wildrose Party creeping up from behind, the three races for leader of the PC Party after Ralph Klein were seen as, in no uncertain terms, the real election in Alberta.