2015 Alberta general election


The 2015 Alberta general election, took place on May 5, 2015, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on April 7, 2015. This election elected members to the 29th Alberta Legislature. It was only the fourth time in provincial history that saw a change of government, and was the last provincial election for both the Alberta Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties, which would merge in 2017 to form the United Conservative Party.
The provincial Election Act fixed the election date to a three-month period between March 1 and May 31 in the fourth calendar year after the preceding election day – in this case, April 23, 2012. However, the Act does not affect the powers of the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the Legislature before this period.
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta had a majority in the outgoing Assembly. As a result of the election, the Alberta New Democratic Party were elected to a majority government under leader Rachel Notley. The NDP formed Government for the first time in Alberta history, ousting the PCs, who were reduced to third place in seats. Prentice resigned as PC leader and MLA for Calgary-Foothills on election night. The Progressive Conservatives had won every provincial election since the 1971 election, making them the longest-serving provincial government in Canadian history—being in office for 44 years. This was only the fourth change of government in Alberta since Alberta became a province in 1905, and one of the worst defeats a provincial government has suffered in Canada. It also marked the first time a left-of-centre political party had formed government in Alberta since the defeat of the United Farmers of Alberta in 1935 and the Depression-era radical monetary reform policies of William Aberhart's Social Credit government.
The Wildrose Party under leader Brian Jean remained the Official Opposition, gaining four seats since 2012 despite winning 81,814 fewer votes and a 10.1% lower share of the popular vote than in the previous election. The Alberta Liberal Party and Alberta Party each won a single seat with Alberta Party leader Greg Clark becoming the party's first MLA. The Alberta Liberal Party lost four seats, only returning interim leader David Swann to the Legislative Assembly.
The election is sometimes called the "Orange Chinook", a reference to the province's dramatic swing to the NDP, the NDP's orange colour and the weather shifts occasioned by strong "winds of change" that southern Alberta commonly experiences.
Following the election, Notley and her cabinet were sworn in on May 24, 2015.

Background

In the 2012 general election the PCs lost a portion of their caucus, but were able to continue as majority government, despite their share of the popular vote decreasing to under 50%. The Wildrose Party formed the official opposition for the first time, while the other two parties in the Assembly, the Alberta Liberal Party and Alberta New Democratic Party, both held official party status with five and four seats respectively. On September 4, 2014, the PCs became the longest serving political dynasty in Canadian history, at 43 years, 5 days.
Prentice, who succeeded former premier and interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives Dave Hancock in September 2014, was not obligated to call an election until 2016. However, seeking a new mandate to pass his budget, he asked Lieutenant Governor Donald Ethell to dissolve the legislature on April 7. In accordance with Canadian constitutional practice, Ethell granted the request, beginning a month long campaign. The early election call was criticized by some as unethical, as it violated the fixed election dates specified in the Elections Act, but it was constitutionally valid and followed the general practice of the reserve powers of the Crown, specifically the constitutional convention of following the advice of the premier.

Results

The NDP received the most votes, receiving 40.6 percent of the vote and capturing 62 percent of the seats.
NDP candidates received over 50% of the votes in all Edmonton ridings as well as the ridings of Sherwood Park, St. Albert and Lethbridge-West. All opposition candidates won with less than half the votes in the riding where they ran, except for
the Wildrose candidates in Cypress-Medicine Hat, Strathmore-Brooks and Olds-Disbury, each of whom captured over a majority of its respective votes.
The election produced some very close races and small leads for some winning candidates. In Calgary Glenmore the winning candidate won with a lead of six votes over her leading contender. In Calgary McCall an NDP candidate won with less than 30 percent of the vote; in Calgary Shaw an NDP candidate won with but 31 percent of the vote; in Calgary South-East a PC won with only 32.5 percent of the votes cast.
In many ridings the combined votes of the Progressive Conservative and the Wildrose candidates surpassed that of the NDP.
In some ridings such as Red Deer North, Spruce Grove-St. Albert, Calgary-Buffalo, Calgary-Varsity, Lethbridge East and Lethbridge West, the combined vote of the NDP and the Liberal candidates totalled more than 50 percent of the district's votes, thus overwhelming the combined vote of the Conservative and Wild Rose candidate. This also held true for Calgary Mountain View where a Liberal was elected.
In many ridings no Liberal ran, which probably aided the NDP victory in those ridings. These included Lesser Slave Lake, Peace River, Edmonton-McClung, Sherwood Park, West Yellowhead and Whitecourt.
Summary of the May 5, 2015 Legislative Assembly of Alberta election results
!rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Party
!rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Party leader
!rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Number of
candidates
!colspan="4" style="text-align:center;" |Seats
!colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |Popular vote*
!400 !!87 !!87 !!87 !!100.0% !!1,488,248 !!100.00% !!

Results by riding

Bold indicates cabinet members, and party leaders are italicized. Candidate names appear as they appeared on the ballot.
Colour band in gulley indictes winner of the election.
All results are sourced from Elections Alberta.

Northern Alberta

Central Edmonton

Suburban Edmonton

West Central Alberta

East Central Alberta

Central Calgary

Suburban Calgary

Southern Alberta

Defeated incumbents

MLAs who did not run again

;Progressive Conservative
;Wildrose
;Liberal
The following is a summary of published polls of voter intentions.

Media endorsements

The following media outlets endorsed the Progressive Conservatives during the campaign:
No media endorsements were made for any of the other parties.

Footnotes