So what do Bob Hartley and Jim Prentice have in common?
Both faced an onslaught of left-wingers Tuesday night, but that’s where the similarity ends — Hartley didn’t quit.
Who’d of thunk it?
NDP in a province wide sweep, and even Banff-Cochrane is now sipping the orange crush.
Tuesday’s results will be analyzed to death, but in hindsight there were indications huge change was coming.
The provincial Tories more and more during the campaign proved they were more interested in power rather than people. Retaining government was more important than representing people.
There should be a mass exodus of long foreheads from the inner ranks of the provincial Tory party because of the decisions made.
It started when Prentice was elected leader and he appointed a couple of backroom heavyweights to cabinet posts.
The tradition of electing people to serve and then appointing the right ones to cabinet didn’t seem to bother either the Tories or Prentice.
So outsiders were running two of the largest departments in the provincial government and neither received a single vote.
There’s a very fine line between confidence and arrogance and the voting public obviously thought Tories crossed the line.
And would it have been different if Prentice and the Tories had the courage to tell floor-crossing Wildrosers they were not welcome?
Obviously many thought that treachery was unforgivable.
Again, it was politics ahead of people and the Tories paid a price.
Some would suggest the results would have been different if the palace coup for the Tories to completely take over the Wildrose had been successful, and they’re right — such a move no doubt would’ve resulted in even more NDP seats.
Then we had the nomination circus in Chestermere-Rocky View, where the Tories ruled that a competitor of incumbent floor-crossing Tory Bruce McAllister was suddenly ruled unacceptable.
Which, if nothing else, was convenient, but it stuck in the craw of many voters.
So what was it? A resounding NDP victory to be sure, but is it more of a Rachel Notley victory? Again, it’s a resounding Tory loss to be sure, but was it more of a Jim Prentice loss?
By quitting, Prentice showed he was obviously more interested in power rather than people.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that many voters felt more comfortable with the NDP leader than they do with NDP policies.
I don’t expect the sky to fall with the election results.
I don’t expect the oil and gas industry will pack up and move to Moose Jaw. Or even Virden.
This is not the end of the world and you can’t even see it from here.
The oil and gas industry is much more at the beck and call of international cartels than any provincial government, and besides, where’s the product?
In Alberta, so that’s where they will stay.
The NDP aren’t dumb.
They would very much like to get re-elected in four years time and they realize the only way to achieve that goal is to fairly and honestly serve the people.
That’s a lesson the Tories obviously forgot.
It’s an interesting chapter in Alberta’s history and we all know it had to come sooner or later.
The surprise was it’s this much sooner, but with 20-20 hindsight, one realizes the tip of the iceberg was visible in the 2012 election — we just didn’t realize it. And the Tory brass certainly didn’t.
I think the polls in 2012 were close to being right, but things changed drastically in the last few days when Tories used the fear-mongering card.
It worked then and the Tory long foreheads couldn’t bring themselves to believe it wouldn’t work again, but it didn’t.
So what do the Tories do now?
Well, first they contemplate their respective navels, then they have a leadership convention.
This is not a renewal, it’s much more challenging than that.
It’s basically getting rid of the old and building anew and time will tell of the Tories can achieve that.
I suggest they ask the Wildrose for help on that .
And what does the NDP do? Well, of course it forms government, but the gene pool for cabinet material is quite shallow, so that will be a challenge.
Besides, the NDP have absolutely no experience in forming government so the challenge is even greater. But Premier Notley could become creative. Like why not ask David Swann to be health minister. He knows the portfolio better than most, is a doctor and even though he was elected as a Liberal, there’s no reason he couldn’t serve Albertans in that capacity.
And it would tell Albertans that Premier Notley is more interested in doing what’s best for Albertans rather than what’s best for a political party.
It’s been said that even the Balzac Ladies Aid could run Alberta because of all its oil revenues.
And now the Banff-Cochrane riding...let’s go back to the beginning — who’d have thunk it.
Our MLA lives in Bragg Creek, which could be a good thing, so let the games begin.
