Electoral misery loves company
For Alberta’s PCs, as bad as the rout was, it could have been much worse, writes the National Post’s Tristin Hopper.
Leader: Ujjal Dosanjh Seats before election: 39 Seats after: 2 In B.C.’s most recent election, the Liberals held on to power in part by vigorously reminding British Columbians of the time, 11 years before, when they hated the NDP so much that they tried their best to kill them. The government of then-premier Glen Clark racked up a hefty trail of scandals, not the least of which was an abortive plan to build high-tech ferries to Vancouver Island. Dosanjh was handed the reins just over a year before zero hour and, for the next five years after the 2001 defeat, the NDP would not technically be the official Opposition since it was still two seats short of qualifying as an official political party.
PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA, 1993
Leader: Kim Campbell Seats before election: 156 Seats after: 2 History will proudly record that Canada had a woman leader before the U.S. History will also record that Kim Campbell attained this honour by being handed the unenviable task of shouldering Brian Mulroney’s sins and leading one of Canada’s oldest political parties into utter, humiliating oblivion. And in the poetic coup de grace that usually accompanies these kinds of defeats in Canada, Campbell ended election night by losing her own seat in Vancouver Centre.
SASKATCHEWAN PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES, 1991
Leader: Grant Devine Seats before election: 38 Seats after: 10 The Saskatchewan Tories did not lose as dramatically in 1991 as anyone else on this list, but it’s somewhat similar to what just happened in Alberta. After nine years in power, the Tories lost three-quarters of their seats in the legislature, and the NDP, lead by Ray Romanow, swept in to retool. Naturally, in the first hours of her stunning victory in Alberta, NDP Leader Rachel Notley called up Romanow for advice.
NEW BRUNSWICK PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES, 1987
Leader: Richard Hatfield Seats before election: 39 Seats after: 0 First elected in 1970, Hatfield was premier for so long that New Brunswickers who had been babies at the time of his ascension were old enough to cast ballots at the time of his downfall. And what a downfall: Hatfield had been caught with marijuana while the Queen was visiting, he’d allegedly done cocaine in Montreal, and he was responsible for the Bricklin SV-1, a misguided attempt to diversify New Brunswick’s economy by funding a gull-winged sports car. Frank McKenna’s Liberals knew they’d win the 1987 election, but even they were surprised at how thoroughly they won.
P.E.I. PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES, 1935
Leader: William J. P. MacMillan Seats before election: 18 Seats after: 0 There were strange things done in Depression-era P.E.I., not the least of which is that they became the first people in the history of the British Commonwealth to effectively inaugurate a one-party state. But Islanders are a forgiving people. William J. P. MacMillan was not only allowed to return to the legislature four years later, but they even named him lieutenantgovernor in 1957.