Special Programs

The Dawn of Competitive Party Politics in Alberta: An End to Solitude

In The Dawn of Competitive Party Politics in Alberta: An End to Solitude, Anthony M. Sayers and his co-authors Royce Koop and David K. Stewart make a compelling case for the end of a century in which Albertans regularly gave their vote to just one provincial party and one federal party.

Alberta’s century-long ascension from a peripheral province to a major social and economic force is reshaping Confederation and provincial politics. Once a vassal province of Ottawa, denied the constitutional powers enjoyed by other provinces, Alberta now has the third largest provincial economy and is fourth in size by population. Its major export, oil and gas, is Canada’s largest and three times bigger than second-ranked automotive parts.

This remarkable journey is marked by Alberta’s distinct early experience with multiculturalism that sat awkwardly with the binational and bicultural vision championed by the dominate federal Liberal party. There was no place for Albertans in a federal coalition reliant on voters in Ontario and Quebec. This helped spawn alienation from Ottawa and the populism that came to be hallmarks of Alberta political culture.

Instead, Alberta voters resisted the Liberal vision of Canada by supporting dynastic provincial parties that championed local interests within the federation and a series of outsider federal parties that offered a different understanding of Canada to that of the Liberals. 

These patterns began to break down after the departure of Ralph Klein in 2006, leading to the development of the Wildrose party as an alternative to the provincial Tories in 2012 and in 2015 the collapse of the Tory dynasty and rise of the New Democratic Party. For the first time in a century just two parties, the NDP and United Conservative Party, compete for the hearts and minds of Alberta. This is the new landscape of Alberta politics.

Presenter:

Dr. Anthony Sayers, Director of Canadian Governance Policy, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. Dr. Sayer's core research focus is Canadian politics and public policy. He teaches and writes on many of the central political institutions such as parliament, federalism and political parties.