Results
On election night the Progressive Conservatives were able to increase their majority by winning seats previously held by opposition parties. The Tories also increased their share of the popular vote, and even though the Tories' share of this vote was still significantly less than it was in 2001 they managed to win just two fewer seats than they won in that election. The reasons for this development include the fact that the Tories' continued to poll a significant share of the rural electorate and also because the Tories' support in the major cities was much more evenly divided between Calgary and Edmonton this time. The Conservative gains came mostly in and around Edmonton where the party recorded its best result since 1982.
The Alberta Liberals who held onto official opposition status sustained a net loss of seven of their 16 existing seats, especially in the Edmonton area where they were reduced to just three seats, but they were able to win five seats in Calgary (a net gain of one seat and the largest total won by that party in that city in the past 50 years). The Liberals also held their existing seat in Lethbridge for a total of nine seats.
The other parties that were represented in the legislature also suffered losses on election night. The Alberta New Democrats lost two of their four Edmonton seats, and the Wildrose Alliance Party was shut out of the legislature when their leader Paul Hinman was very narrowly defeated in his own constituency of Cardston-Taber-Warner.
For the first time in history, a majority of the Alberta Liberal caucus will be from Calgary and the number of combined Liberal and NDP MLAs from Edmonton will not exceed the number of these parties' legislators from Calgary.
Read more about this topic: Alberta General Election, 2008
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