Defying all polls — including internal party surveys — that had her leading the Tories by numbers as high as double digits, the right-of-centre party failed to unseat the Conservatives.
Smith had to settle for winning her seat in High River, one of 17 the party took in the 87-seat legislature. The Progressive Conservatives won a comfortable majority with 61 seats and extended their record term in power with a mandate that takes them to 45 years in government. The Liberals won five seats while the NDP won four.
“I think a lot of undecided voters made up their mind in the last 24 hours, when people looked at the agenda the government was putting forward and the agenda we were putting forward, they felt we needed a little more time to season,” said Smith, adding that strategic voting helped give the Conservatives the majority.
Voter turnout was the highest since 1993 with 57 per cent of Alberta’s 2.2 million eligible voters casting their ballots. At stake was what was supposed to be the tightest race in years with the potential of a new majority government by the Wildrose or a minority government in a province that has historically elected only majorities and parties that stay in power for decades.
All that was upended when the PCs took 44 per cent of the popular vote and received about 120,000 more votes than the Wildrose received. Rural ridings that were supposed to boost the party to government and big wins in Calgary never materialized. The Conservatives won most of the rural ridings in the north and the cities, leaving the Wildrose with pockets in the southeast.
Smith also attributed some of her party’s loss to what she called the “distraction” of two candidates linked to controversial viewpoints that emerged in the last week of the campaign. One candidate in Calgary expressed his belief that as a Caucasian he was better able to represent a wider constituency than a Muslim or Sikh candidate, while another in Edmonton wrote in a blog post that gays and lesbians who remained homosexuals were condemned to a “lake of fire, hell.”
Smith said she has no regrets about her decision to stick with the candidates rather than firing them as some of her campaign strategists suggested.
“You don’t throw your values overboard just because you have a couple of candidates who say things that cause you political trouble. That’s expedient and I’m not an expedient person,” said Smith.
Premier Alison Redford, an international human rights lawyer, downplayed the impact the criticisms against the Wildrose candidates had on the election results.
“In a province like Alberta, it’s interesting that there is so much engagement. They have their own political perspectives and I thought it was exciting that they spoke out,” she said. “It shows a maturity of our political system where people feel they can make comments on their political perspective.”
Source: Star
Author: Petti Fong
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