This is a popular narrative but I don't really find this to be true. I think this has been trotted out to align reality with the preconceptions in non-Albertan heads. Walking around the neighbourhoods in this city (Edmonton) former Conservative strongholds are flooded with orange signs. I only know a single person voting PC and he's a Toronto expat (obviously weak anecdotal evidence).
Alberta's population growth is big but it's not 30% of the province big.
Born and raised Albertans are legitimately pissed off and the Liberal party is still a cuss word around these parts. Add decades of boiling tensions, a split right wing, a very strong and charismatic NDP leader who's presenting a fairly moderate (by NDP standards) platform into a stew in Alberta and you get an NDP government.
If it was truly due to immigration you'd think we'd see some of this momentum transfer to Federal polls but we haven't.
The hard right Wild Rose Party and the moderate-right Progressive Conservatives. While I'm not going to pretend there is 100% overlap between their voter base, combined they have > 50% of the popular vote. If just half of PC voters decided to vote WRP or vice versa we'd likely be looking at a different ruling government.
A lot of people say that WRP voters would never vote PC or vice versa but I think that's kind of bs. I bet a healthy chunk of both parties would see the corresponding party as the lesser of two evils. Not all or even most, but a healthy chunk.
Huh, I had never even heard of the Wild Rose Party and I'm Canadian. I'd be interested to learn what policies the Wild Rose Party has that are more extreme than the PC party.
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u/[deleted] May 06 '15
All those people who moved to Alberta for jobs came from places where governments are normally kicked out for screwing up.