The politics of Alberta are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of the province is Edmonton, where the provincial Legislative Building is located.
The unicameral legislature—the Legislative Assembly of Alberta—has 83 members. Government is conducted after the Westminster model. The provincial government's revenue, although often described as predominantly coming from the province's resource base, actually is derived from a variety of sources. Non-renewable resource revenue provided the government with 24 percent of its revenue in 2010-11 with about the same coming from individual income tax, 14 per cent from grants from the federal government, and about eight percent coming from both corporations and the government's own business activities. (source: the Government of Alberta website) Alberta is the only province in Canada without a provincial sales tax (see also Sales taxes in Canada).
Alberta has a system of municipal government similar to that of the other provinces.
Alberta politics since the 1940s are more right-wing than those of any other Canadian provinces. However, from 1921 to 1935 it had the longest-lived of the farmers' governments that arose in Canada in the post-WWI social upheaval. This was followed by the Social Credit government led by William Aberhart, which attempted to use the power of the Legislature to attack the wealth, power and privilege of the banks, corporations and speculators and through Social Credit programs provide the ordinary Albertan with a more secure financial existence. Aberhart's death in 1943 and his replacement by Ernest Manning, opened the way for the SC government to turn to the right. This rightward turn helped the SC government withstand a strong showing by a relatively-new left-wing party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which polled a significant 25 percent in the 1944 provincial election. Discovery of oil in north-central Alberta, generally improving economic times and strident, and occasionally-violent, attacks on progressive movements (copied from McCarthy in the U.S.) obliterated the chances for people-first parties to wield power in the Legislature until the world-wide downturn of the 1980s, and in recent times increasing political awareness, changed the political climate in Alberta. Meantime, the Social Credit was in power until 1971 when it was replaced by the Progressive Conservatives. One of that government's most controversial premiers was Calgarian Ralph Klein. Despite cutting provincial expenditures on social services, letting the province's infrastructures deteriorate and having problems with alcohol, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative party for many years. A large minority of party delegates signified their disapproval of him being the party's leader in the spring of 2006. (Only 55 per cent gave him their approval.) And he left, to be replaced in relatively quick succession by Ed Stelmach and now by the province's first woman premier. [1] Edmonton is the exception to the province's current right-wing voting pattern. City residents, to a larger extent than elsewhere, vote for left-of-centre parties, such as the Liberal Party of Alberta and Alberta New Democrats, although the seat count often obscures this fact due to constituency boundaries fixed in such a way as to benefit the ruling party. The 2004 provincial election was an example.[2] Klein's successor, Ed Stelmach, represents a riding just outside Edmonton and was perceived to be less connected to the interests of Calgary-headquartered energy corporations.
Alberta's right-wing tilt (after 1940) is no less pronounced on the federal level. The province was the heartland of the former Reform Party of Canada and its successor, the Canadian Alliance. These parties were the second-largest political parties in the federal Parliament from 1997 to 2003, and the furthest to the political right. The Canadian Alliance merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form today's Conservative Party of Canada. The Conservatives' current leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, moved to Alberta in the 1980s and represents a Calgary riding. Rural Alberta ridings typically give the Conservatives (and Reform and the Alliance before them) some of their highest margins in the country; in many cases, the other parties are lucky to win over 20 percent of the vote.
Alberta's political stability has led to a series of political dynasties, only four governments in 106 years, the last two of which were/are among the longest-lived in the British Commonwealth. Alberta elections currently are won on a first-past-the-post system, so even though a party may have a majority of the seats in the Legislature, it does not necessarily mean that the government in power matches the votes cast by a majority of voters. For example, in the 2004 election, the Progressive Conservative party won 61 of 83 seats (73%) while obtaining only 46.80% of the popular vote. During the UFA and early SC government periods, elections were conducted using transferable preferential ballots (see Single Transferable Votes)and candidates in cities ran "at-large," ensuring more representative membership in the Legislature. (source: Monto, Tom. Old Strathcona - Edmonton's Southside Roots, Edmonton: Crang Publishing, 2011 (available at Alhambra Books, Edmonton), p. 426) Many of the opposition parties today include electoral reform in their policies.[3][4]
In its history, Alberta has seen only four parties form governments, none of which has been returned to power after being voted out of office:
| 1905–1921 | Alberta Liberal Party |
| 1921–1935 | United Farmers of Alberta |
| 1935–1971 | Social Credit Party of Alberta |
| 1971–present | Alberta Progressive Conservatives |
Most of the 26 Alberta general elections held as of 2006[update] have resulted in overwhelming majorities in the Legislature for the governing party, a trend unseen in any other province in Canada. No minority government has ever been elected in Alberta, nor has any minority ever been brought about due to by-elections and/or floor crossings.
Both the provincial Progressive Conservatives and the Reform/Alliance parties reflect Alberta's more socially conservative nature when compared to other provinces. Politicians elected by Albertans tend to oppose social policies such as same-sex marriage and gun control. According to a 2001 poll by Leger Marketing, 61.8% of Albertans polled are in favour of the death penalty compared to 52.9% of Canadians,[5] although death penalty has been abolished throughout Canada since 1976. Former Premier Ralph Klein attempted to establish relations with politicians in the United States, including sending a letter of support to US President George W. Bush signifying his approval for the Iraq War.[6]
Some Albertans continue to resent the imposition in the 1980s of the National Energy Program (NEP) by the Liberal federal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. It was considered to be an intrusion by the federal government in an area of provincial responsibility and led a few fringe Albertans to consider separation of the province from Canada. The NEP was imposed at a time when the world price for oil dropped, thus conveniently giving the provincial Conservative govenment a scapegoat for the resuting economic downturn, caused by the government's lack of success at diversifying the provincial economy from the extraction and export of un-refined resources (still an underlying weakness in the provincial economy). Due in part to the anti-Liberal backlash at the time, the Liberal Party of Canada has had few successes in Alberta outside of Edmonton since that time. There have been occasional surges in interest since then in the idea of seceding from Canada, but this movement is on the political fringe and had never elected a single MLA. The NEP was ended when the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney, formed the federal government following the 1984 federal election.
Wealthy Albertans are the lowest-taxed people in Canada, mostly because of the province's considerable oil and gas income as well as the more conservative financial philosophies of successive governments. It is also the only province in Canada where there is no provincial sales tax.[7] Unlike the other provinces, which use a progressive income tax regime, Alberta uses a flat rate income tax (currently at 10%), thus putting a higher burden of taxes on the middle-class visa vis the upper-class than found elsewhere. Alberta is of late one of few provinces that consistently has not received equalization payments from the federal government (the others being British Columbia and (until 2008) Ontario, the original benchmark provinces). Alberta is now the largest net contributor to the program, which is intended to ensure that all provinces are able to provide similar levels of public services. The province's wealth is largely due to the abundance of natural resources, as a result Alberta is the only province in Canada that has (recently) eliminated its provincial debt.[8]
In the 2006 election, the federal Conservative Party of Canada won all the seats in Alberta, providing them with a complete sweep of the province. However, the NDP won the seat of Edmonton—Strathcona in the election of 2008, denying the Conservatives a sweep of the province in this election. No Alberta seats changed parties in the 2011 election, in which the Conservatives went from a minority government to a parliamentary majority. In all three elections, many of the Conservative candidates were elected with large majorities of the vote. Alberta has for decades been considered a conservative fortress, no matter which right-of-centre party they may have chosen to support. Albertans followed strong support for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1980s with the same degree of support for the Reform Party, and the Canadian Alliance in the 1990s, finally delivering a clean sweep for the new Conservative Party of Canada only a few years after its creation in 2003–2004.
However, small disaffection with the Conservative Party of Canada over policies enacted during its minority government such as with equalization and the Conservatives' reversal on income trusts led to the founding of the nascent federal Party of Alberta, in 2006. Provincially, while the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta has been in power for 40 years, they continue to win large majorities in the Legislative Assembly, winning 72 out of 83 seats in the March 2008 provincial election, although with declining popularity and lowering voter turn-out, reflecting increasing disfavour among ordinary Albertans regarding the government's market-first policies, its low quality of social (health and education) services and its anti-worker legislation, for example, a very low legislated minimum wage. As well, for the first time in decades, the PCs are facing a challenge from the right wing from the upstart Wildrose Alliance Party, with a November 2009 poll finding the new party having 28% support, just 6 points behind the governing PCs.[9] Wildrose found itself enjoying a double digit polling lead in December 2009 with 39% versus 25% each for the PCs and Alberta Liberals.[10]
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