Spring vote reveals dramatic shifts in political landscape

The provincial election in spring 2012 looked likely to be a tighter than usual Alberta race.

Three of the major parties, the Conservatives, Wildrose and Liberals, were going to the polls with new leaders: Alison Redford, Danielle Smith and Raj Sherman, respectively.

Two-thirds of the way through the campaign, pollsters and pundits were predicting the end of the 40-year Conservative governing dynasty. It looked like the right-of-centre Wildrose party was poised to sweep at least rural Alberta and likely most of Calgary.

The Tories were shaky at the beginning of the campaign, with Redford having to admit she had been wrong about not getting MLAs to repay their stipend from the infamous “no meet” committee, and a campaign volunteer sending an ill-advised tweet about Smith’s childless status.

But then some dramatic revelations started eroding the Wildrose’s progress. Leader Danielle Smith waffled on whether there really is man-made climate change. A blog post from 2011 emerged in which Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger said gays would be condemned to a lake of fire in the afterlife. A Calgary Wildroser was recorded making remarks about the electability of white candidates.

The Conservatives capitalized on the gaffes, drawing on their proven strength to pull together support from the political centre.

And by late evening on April 23, an election expected to be a nail-biting, edge-of-seat, down-to-the-wire contest ended with the Conservatives holding 61 seats.

But despite the majority status for the Tories, many individual constituency races were very tight.

The Wildrose made convincing inroads to become the official opposition.

The 2012 election produced the most significant change in the political dynamics of the province in decades, widening the political spectrum on the right.