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NP: Drumheller reality check

In this morning's National Post I warn the paper's cross-country audience that despite the Liberal victory in Tuesday's Calgary-Elbow by-election, it could still be a while before Alberta politics is characterized by weird, unfamiliar phenomena such as a minority Assembly or pre-existing doubt as to the identity of the next government. The success of Premier Ed Stelmach's "northern conspiracy" is predicated on a mild loss of support in Calgary, so the vote in Elbow effectively had little content in an information-theory sense. But the day's overlooked other ballot, in Drumheller-Stettler, showed that the opposition parties are unprepared to compete aggressively. Despite the opportunity that a by-election presents for expressing impatience with a government, the Drum results bordered on the comical. Liberal candidate Tom Dooley, who was previously best known for being a folk song, couldn't even scratch together a thousand votes. And the New Democratic candidate reached an unbelievable new historical low for the party, finishing (NOT A TYPO) seventh. Probably a while, then, before we can break out the champagne we've all got set aside for the arrival of the New Jerusalem.

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Also of note for the Drumheller byelections, the Alberta Alliance's fall to the hands of the SoCreds and an independent...an independent, not too incidently, who was after independence. There is a notable "right of Stelmach" movement out there that the AA has managed to completely bungle what should be an easy effort to collect under one roof.

The results were unsurprising until I went to your Elections Alberta link. The Liberals did reasonably well in the Drumheller proper polls, outpacing the PC candidate 385 to 345 by my count. Weird.

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