Popular vote by riding. As this is a first-past-the-post election, seat totals are not determined by total popular vote, but instead by results in each riding.
With 53% of the popular vote, the Progressive Conservatives won a decisive majority over the Liberal and other parties, despite early suggestions of a closer race.[citation needed]
The 2008 election had the lowest voter turnout in the province's history, with only 40.59% of eligible voters casting a ballot.[2]
Results
The Progressive Conservatives increased their majority at the expense of all other parties in the legislature. The Tories also increased their share of the popular vote, and even though their share of the vote was still significantly less than it was in 2001, they managed to win just two fewer seats than they won in that election. This was largely a result of their continued widespread support in rural areas, as well as divided opposition support in Calgary and Edmonton. The Conservative gains came mostly in and around Edmonton, where the party recorded its best results since 1982.
The Liberals held on to official opposition status but sustained a net loss of seven seats. Bucking historic trends, the party was reduced to only three seats in Edmonton, but was able to win five seats in Calgary (a net gain of one seat and the largest total won by that party in that city in the past 50 years). The Liberals also held their existing seat inLethbridge to win a total of nine seats.
The other parties that were represented in the legislature also suffered losses on election night. The New Democrats lost two of their four Edmonton seats, and the Wildrose Alliance Party was shut out of the legislature as their leader Paul Hinman was narrowly defeated in his own constituency of Cardston-Taber-Warner.
For the first time in history, a majority of the Liberal caucus were from Calgary and the combined number of Liberal and NDP MLAs from Edmonton did not exceed the number of those two parties' MLAs from Calgary.
1 Liberal Chris Kibermanis originally had a five-vote margin over Progressive Conservative Thomas Lukaszuk. A judicial recount on January 24, 2005, determined Thomas Lukaszuk the winner.
2 Results change is compared to the Alberta Alliance in 2004.
Increasing per capita spending on policy in Calgary from $16 to $20
Re-legislation of tuition policy so it is made in open session
Implementation of a public pharmacare program
Using tobacco taxes, spend approximately $200 million to create a Community Wellness Fund which will seek to expand Family & Community Support Services and fund healthy living and lifestyle programs
Redirect the $250 million Natural Gas Rebate Program towards incentives for energy efficiency
Triple funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Increase the number of health care workers
Investment of 30% of all natural resource revenues in:
investment in the Heritage Fund so that income taxes can remain permanently low
elimination of the infrastructure deficit by 2014
establishment of an uncapped endowment for post-secondary education
establishment of a $500 million endowment fund for arts, social sciences, and humanities
Elimination of the education section of the property tax for seniors (approx. $700 a year)
Increasing the tax credit for seniors' caregivers to $9,355 from $4,355.
Making both Calgary and Edmonton into independent cities via a "Big Cities" Charter
Hiring 300 more police officers for Calgary and Edmonton
Fixed election dates
Cost: Net costs are zero as a result of re-allocating existing dollars and increased royalty revenues.
Cap rates of $25/day ($500/month) for infant care and $9/day ($180/month) for after school care.
Regulate after-school care for children.
Increase start-up grants for daycare centres and day homes.
Provide additional sustainable grants to day cares to increase wages for childcare workers.
Introduce rent controls.
Introduce limits on condominium conversions.
Full value royalties
Follow example set by Alaska and replace the royalty system.
Create an all-party, special committee of the legislature to investigate royalties and report back in three months.
Add a variable royalty structure that would increase the royalty revenues when oil prices pass a peak threshold.
Increase royalties on other non-renewable resources such as coal.
Green energy plan
Create a green energy fund that will receive $2 billion a year primarily through enhanced royalties. Use that money to fund energy efficient retro-fitting and alternative energy production systems for individual houses and building.
Fund alternative power generation projects such as solar and wind farms.
Place hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions with penalties for companies that exceed targets — details to be worked out later.
Slow down the pace of development
Big dollar signs out of politics
End campaign contributions from unions and corporations.
Table legislation binding all leadership and nomination contests to the same disclosure rules and donation limits of political parties.
Immediately end health-care premiums.
Create a new pharmaceutical agency to purchase drugs in bulk, negotiate prices with drug companies and find less costly options to brand-name drugs.
Roll back tuition levels to 1999–2000 levels.
Cap interest for student loans at prime.
Invest $100 million in student housing immediately.
Eliminate fees and fund-raising for learning essentials.
Phase out funding for private schools.
Hire 800 additional police officers
Mandate basic value-added and upgrading for all bitumen mined in Alberta to be done in the province.
Add an interim per barrel tax on all bitumen exported outside the province.
Establish a bitumen pricing system.
Start a public automobile insurance system.
Provide stable funding for non-profit First Nation and Metis agencies.
Tie AISH and social assistance rates to a market basket measure.
Introduce $30 million in new funding for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Cost: $477 million surplus, based on increased royalty rates, bitumen royalty premium and reverse corporate tax cuts.
Raise the basic personal income tax exemption to $20,000
Cut the provincial corporate tax rate from 10% to 8%
Allow income splitting for taxpayers who care for dependents in times of medical or other crisis
Direct savings from slowing spending growth to the Heritage Fund so that personal income taxes can eventually be eliminated
Allow governance and service delivery at the municipal and community levels as much as possible
As part of the party's universal health care plan, implement a pilot program in one of the smaller health regions that will be modelled after funding following the patients rather than the per capita funding currently in place today. Similarly, establish a school choice voucher pilot.
Provide significant debt relief to Alberta-trained medical professionals who commit to practising in the province at least five years
Establish fixed election dates, allow for citizen initiatives via referendums, and enact the right to recall elected officials
1 "Edmonton" corresponds to only the city of Edmonton. (Only the ridings whose names begin with "Edmonton".) The four suburban ridings around the city as listed below are grouped with central Alberta in this table.
The following is a list of ridings that were narrowly lost by the indicated party in the 2004 election. For instance, under the Liberal column are the nine seats in which they came closest to winning but did not. Listed is the name of the riding, followed by the party which was victorious (in parentheses) and the margin, in terms of percentage of the vote, by which the party lost.
These ridings were likely targeted by the specified party because the party lost them by a very slim margin in the 2004 election.
Up to ten are shown, with a maximum margin of victory of 15%.
March 29, 2006 Premier Ralph Klein is given a 55% leadership review, he later announced his retirement for the fall of 2006.
September 20, 2006 Premier Ralph Klein gives notice to the Progressive Conservatives, announces he will leave when a new leader is picked.
November 23, 2006 Dan Backs is removed from the Liberal caucus and is forced to sit as an Independent
December 15, 2006 Ed Stelmach replaces Ralph Klein as premier.
January 15, 2007 Former Premier Ralph Klein and former Deputy Premier Shirley McClellan resign their legislature seats.
June 12, 2007 By-elections are held in the seats vacated on January 15. While Jack Hayden easily holds the Drumheller-Stettler riding for the Progressive Conservatives, Craig Cheffins takes Premier Klein's old seat, Calgary Elbow, for the Liberals.[9]
February 21, 2008 Stelmach, Taft, Mason, and Hinman square off in a leaders' debate.
March 3, 2008, 8:22 p.m.: CTV Calgary declares a PC majority barely twenty minutes after the polls close. A CTV reporter asks Ed Stelmach about it, but the Premier has no real answer.
8:29 p.m.: Less than half an hour after the polls close, and less than 25 minutes after the first polling station reports, CBC News declares a PC majority; Ed Stelmach begins a brief speech thanking party workers in Calgary while the CBC anchor is making the declaration.
9:45 p.m.: Kevin Taft concedes victory. Despite the poor result, he announces his intention to remain party leader.
10:36 p.m.: Ed Stelmach formally claims victory in Edmonton.
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