Alberta 2012

[minionofmidas]

Harper has green-lighted federal endorsements... but only in the MP's own riding. He'll be much happier with Smith.

http://www.canada.com/news/Conservative%2Bpick%2Bhome%2Bturf%2Bfavourites%2Bprovincial%2Belections/6388122/story.html

Isn't Smith to the right of Harper though?

Which version of Harper?

Elijah.

[minionofmidas]

Someone commented on my blog saying they werent going to vote WRP because Smith doesnt have children.

Lol. Sounds thirdworldy Christian to me.

[minionofmidas]

Someone commented on my blog saying they werent going to vote WRP because Smith doesnt have children.

Lol. Sounds thirdworldy Christian to me.

The number of people who would base their decision on that would have to be less than half a percent. Sounds like a partisan hack to me, trying to make an issue of it.

It's still telling that someone would think this a worthwhile avenue to pursue in Canada. Even as a long shot.
Now if she were four times divorced... like certain German politicians who did get a wee bit of bad press over it[/i]... sure. That could be a salient character issue anywhere in Teh Westrn World.

[minionofmidas]

Calgary is like one big suburb. There are a few areas that are more left leaning, but they will be drowned in roses.

What's with the Liberal strength in the city's northeast? Not where you'd expect it.

[minionofmidas]

So I guess the complete lack of red in the city centre is the only genuinely surprising bit.

[minionofmidas]

This election is probably somewhat hard to poll as it's a new alignment. I wouldn't read anything into minor swings.

[minionofmidas]

So Wildrose is the South Alberta Party.

[minionofmidas]

WRP did badly in seats for losing by "only" ten points. How many FPP elections won by similar margins have resulted in such lopsided numbers? Conversely, the Liberals and NDP did pretty well for parties that won less than 10% of the vote. Just look at Calgary and Edmonton - the WRP beat the Liberals in both cities (by a significant margin in the former), but still won less seats.

The only comparison I can think of recently would be Manitoba last year, where the PCs came within 2.5% of the NDP's overall vote share and gained absolutely nothing.

Last Jamaican election comes to mind. Blowout in the results map, semi-close in the vote shares.

[minionofmidas]

Texas seems like a fairly reasonable comparison, with Dallas taking the place of Calgary and Houston that of Edmonton.

Why because of the Houston Oilers are the Edmonton Oilers? Heh. Parts of Edmonton are more like Austin, really.

And Calgary is an overgrown Lubbock. (And so are the suburban parts of Edmonton, of course.)

But yeah, Alberta is basically Montana with cities. Heh, maybe East Washington works best as a parallel.