Owwwwberta

Not following Alberta politics, well, at all, I have no real insight to offer into the election results there last night. Except to say the name Special Ed has a whole new meaning now. Who would have thought he could better Ralph Klein’s numbers? If you're an Alberta Liberal, ouch.

I gathered at a T-Dot pub last night to watch the results come in with Calgary Grit, Jason Cherniak and some other Liberals, including some of the ex-pat Alberta variety. Reactions from the Albertans in the room were, well, animated to say the least, and we’ll leave it at that.

I think as an (for the time being, geographically-speaking) Easterner, I think I look on Alberta the same way the Alberta looks on Ontario. With confusion and lack of understanding.

It seems to us they keep electing Conservatives no matter what, and it seems to them we keep electing Liberals no matter what. Although, we did at least give Mike Harris’s Conservatives two terms and Bob Rae’s NDP one. Both worked out fantastically, btw. Nevertheless, I think we’re both equally puzzled about the other. Ontarians are from Mars, Albertans are from Venus I suppose you could say.

I did want to comment though on the spin I’ve been seeing coming from some Conservative bloggers and commenters, saying the strong Conservative victory in Alberta shows the Liberal brand is dying nationally, and a Conservative wave blah blah across the country and what not.

Yeah, no. I think Dalton McGuinty would beg to differ. He won a bigger Liberal majority in Ontario last fall too. Did his win mean the Conservative brand is dying nationally? I doubt they’d agree with that.

If you’re going to try to ascribe national implications to the Alberta result you need to do the same for Ontario, and the trends are contradictory. Maybe their respective expanding bubbles of brand-killing will meet in Manitoba and fight to the death at Portage and Main.

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