Alberta General Election - May 5th, 2015

[Smid]

"welcome to the 36th century."
...
I actually don't really have a clue what that comment means, it just sounds like it probably is a rather sexist dismissal of the concept of gender equality.

36th Century is futuristic. He might possibly have been making a comment on the speed, or lack thereof, of achieving a gender balance in cabinets in other jurisdictions?

[DL]

For all we know Swann may have been offered the speaker job and turned it down since it would have deprived the Liberal party of its only voice...there really aren't other choices since almost the whole legislature is new...Wanner has a background as a professional mediator

[136or142]

"welcome to the 36th century."
...
I actually don't really have a clue what that comment means, it just sounds like it probably is a rather sexist dismissal of the concept of gender equality.

36th Century is futuristic. He might possibly have been making a comment on the speed, or lack thereof, of achieving a gender balance in cabinets in other jurisdictions?

I wondered this, but based on a couple other things he said about it, it sounded more like he was mocking the concept of gender equality.

[136or142]

For all we know Swann may have been offered the speaker job and turned it down since it would have deprived the Liberal party of its only voice...there really aren't other choices since almost the whole legislature is new...Wanner has a background as a professional mediator

1.Based on Swann's pro NDP speech on election night, I don't know that he cares all that much about the nearly dead Alberta Liberal Party.  He also is only the interim leader of the Liberal Party and I'd expect that won't run for the leadership (although my track record on predictions isn't very good), so he isn't exactly the future of the Liberal Party, if they have a future.

2.I believe I read in a couple places, though they may have just been rumors, that he was interested in the Speakership.

3.An incumbent P.C MLA probably would have been a better choice to be speaker even with Wanner's background in mediation. In an interview he says that he has an enormous amount to learn to be speaker which isn't exactly confidence inspiring.  Here in B.C, for some reason Mike Harcourt appointed a rookie MLA, Joan Sawicki to be Speaker in 1991 and she was a complete dud, although she was a hyper partisan where as Wanner sounds like he'll have no problem being non partisan.

[Boston Bread]

308 attempted to run a simulation of the election under a merged right party, using polling data on second preferences

NDP 49%, 55 seats
PC/WR 39%, 30 seats
ALP/AP, 2 seats

A non-insignificant chunk of WR supporters had NDP as their second choice.

[136or142]

These are the final results from the Elections Alberta website.  I didn't really like the Wikipedia breakdown of regions, so I came up with my own.  Feel free to tell me if you disagree with where I put any of the ridings.

Rural North: 7 ridings
Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, Bonnyville-Cold Lake, Dunvegan-Central Peace-Notley, Lac la Biche-St Paul-Two Hills, Lesser Slave Lake, Peace River
Total votes: 87,597
N.D.P: 30,807, 35.17%, 4 seats
P.C: 24,729 28.23%
W.R.P: 30,718 35.07%, 3
Lib: 0
Alb: 1,004 1.15%
Oth: 339

Rural Centre: 10 ridings
Battle River-Wainwright, Drayton Valley-Devon, Drumheller-Stettler, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, Lacombe-Ponoka, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Vermilion-Lloydminster, West Yellowhead, Whitecourt-Ste Anne
Total votes: 160,597
N.D.P: 39,437 24.56% 2 seats
P.C: 50,440 31.41% 1
W.R.P: 64,631 40.24% 7
Lib: 500 0.31%
Alb: 3442 2.14%
Oth: 2,147

Rural South: 5 Ridings
Cardston-Taber-Warner, Cypress-Medicine Hat, Little Bow, Livingtone-MacLeod, Strathmore-Brooks
Total votes: 76,438
N.D.P: 15,663 20.49%
P.C: 23,394 30.61%
W.R.P: 34,487 45.12% 5 seats
Lib: 1,569 2.05%
Alb: 682 0.89%
Oth: 643

City of Edmonton: 19 ridings
Total votes: 339,034
N.D.P: 219,110 64.63% 19 seats
P.C: 68,728 20.27%
W.R.P: 27,868 8.22%
Lib: 18,916 5.58%
Alb: 3,110 0.80%
Oth: 1,302

Edmonton Suburbs: 7 ridings
Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, Leduc-Beaumont, Sherwood-Park, Spruce Grove-St. Albert, St Albert Stony Plain, Strathcona-Sherwood Park (some of these ridings contain rural areas, but I believe in all cases they are majority suburban ridings.)
Total votes: 152,103
N.D.P: 69,079 45.42% 7 seats
P.C: 41,676 27.40%
W.R.P: 33,678 22.14%
Lib: 2,826 1.86%
Alb: 3,769 2.48%
Oth: 1,075

City of Calgary: 25 ridings
Total votes: 432,583
N.D.P:  147,162 34.02% 15 seats
P.C: 136,132 31.47% 8
W.R.P: 98,014 22.66%
Lib: 31,171 7.21% 1
Alb: 14,913 3.45% 1
Oth: 5,191

Calgary Suburbs: 3 ridings
Airdrie, Chestermere-Rocky View, Highwood (a majority of Highwood is comprised of the Calgary suburb of Okotoks)
Total votes: 62,811
N.D.P: 14,031 22.34%
P.C: 20,462 32.58%
W.R.P: 23,679 37.70% 3 seats
Lib: 0
Alb: 1,804 2.87%
Oth: 2,835

Smaller Cities: 11 ridings
Banff-Cochrane (Comprised of 3 cities/towns: Banff, Cochrane and Canmore), Fort McMurray-Conklin, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Grand Prairie-Smoky, Grand Prairie-Wapiti, Lethbridge East, Lethbridge West, Medicine Hat, Red Deer North, Red Deer South, Wetaskiwin-Camrose (some of these ridings may have rural components.)
Total votes: 177,085
N.D.P: 69,229 39.09% 7 seats
P.C: 48,049 27.13% 1
W.R.P: 47,436 26.79% 3
Lib: 7,171 4.05%
Alb: 4,497 2.54%
Oth: 703

Alberta vote totals excluding Edmonton and Edmonton suburbs: 61 ridings
Total Votes: 997,111
N.D.P: 316,329 31.72% 28 seats
P.C: 303,206 30.41% 10
W.R.P: 298,965 29.98% 21
Lib: 40,411 4.05% 1
Alb: 26,342 2.64%
Oth: 11,858