Tories re-elected with majority in Alberta

Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives survived the biggest scare of their four decades in power on Monday by holding off a right-wing rival in the provincial election.

Premier Alison Redford’s team won a 12th consecutive majority government, dating back to 1971, by defeating the Wildrose party under leader Danielle Smith.

The victory flew in the face of polls that had Redford’s party trailing the Wildrose for much of the campaign.

The Tory surge appeared to come at the expense of Raj Sherman’s Liberal party, which saw its support collapse and its percentage of the popular vote in the single digits.

The win suggested a groundswell push for a strategic vote to block the Wildrose was effective.

As the campaign wound down Liberal supporters were urged by campaign watchers to switch their vote to the PCs to block a Wildrose victory.

The Wildrose had alarmed moderates who feared that homophobic and racist comments made by a couple of their candidates would translate into an intolerant government that would move to restrict rights for minorities and women.

Redford did not make an open plea for a strategic vote, but said she could work with the Liberals or NDP in the legislature.

With the win, the Tory dynasty will soon surpass the Nova Scotia Liberals of 1882-1925 (43 years) and the 1943-1985 Ontario PCs (42 years).

The party’s previous 11 majorities have been measured in large or larger majorities. The last time they were threatened was by a resurgent Liberal party in 1993. But under new leader Ralph Klein, the Tories took 51 of 83 seats to 32 for the Liberals and the dynasty rolled on.

Redford, who took over as premier six months ago from Ed Stelmach, has some fences to mend.

She ran on her record of spending increases and no taxes, promising millions of dollars to build more schools and family health-care clinics. She also promised to put up an extra $3 billion over the next two decades to further develop oilsands products and protect the environment while not raising royalties.

The Tories were taken to task for granting themselves the richest salaries for provincial politicians in the country – about $163,000 on average. But it didn’t end there. Over the last decade, the party quietly and broadly changed the eligibility rules allowing more than 20 retiring politicians to walk away this year with six-figure golden handshakes.

To top it off, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation reported last month that members of the government’s largest legislature committee, mostly Tories, had been receiving $1,000 a month but had not met in over three years.

Redford stopped the bleeding early in the campaign, promising to end the six-figure handouts and ordering her members who sat on the no-meet committee to pay it all back.

With a week to go, polls suggested the Wildrose was headed for a majority. But then Smith’s party got hung up in the razor wire of social issues and she had to fight off critics who suggested her party had a hidden agenda.

The criticism firmed up around the issue of conscience rights — allowing civil servants to opt out of doing jobs they morally object to, such as marrying gay couples or prescribing birth control.

When there was a suggestion that her party could use a citizens-initiated referendum to end public funding for abortion, Smith disclosed that she was, in fact, pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.

As the campaign entered its final week, Wildrose candidates entered the spotlight. A year-old blog surfaced from Edmonton candidate Allan Hunsperger suggesting gay people would “suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire” if they didn’t change their lifestyles. He pulled the comments down and Smith stood by him.

Wildrose Calgary candidate Ron Leech was forced to apologize for suggesting in a radio interview that he had an advantage in his constituency because he is white and could speak for everyone. Again, Smith stood by her candidate.

Smith herself was shouted down at a leaders forum last week when she questioned the science of climate change.

Environmentalists feared that a Smith government that still didn’t believe in climate change would not push hard to clean up toxic emissions from the oilsands.

The Liberals took to calling the election a choice between Tory “bullies” and Wildrose “bigots.”