No, I was pretty involved, so I'm sure about this. I was told 1309, to be exact, distributed across the close Calgary ridings.
In rural areas, it wasn't even close, so that drives up the UCP numbers quite a bit. People are crazy loyal to anything labeled "conservative" out in the boonies, it's not even a question of policy (which is why they'd vote Republican). Still, if you look at the popular vote numbers, 52.6% isn't exactly a landslide. The NDP were a hair from winning.
As for the far right, that stuff is brewing up in conservative parties all over the Western world. I seem to remember leaving bodies in dumps being the centerpoint of the Manitoba campaign, and the leading party federally is full of MPs that supported the trucker convoy. That's not an excuse, but I think it's a stretch to say that because people narrowly voted Danielle Smith in, they'd be okay not having government healthcare, which I can't imagine a Republican candidate would abide.
You're mixing the way first past the post works with popular votes (which is the important part of this discussion), that's two separate things and you should know it if you were involved as you mentioned. One shows the opinion of the population as a whole, the other shows the opinion of the majority of separate districts.
The NDP wasn't even close to the conservatives, they were 8.6% behind in popular support. 1300 is the difference required to switch enough districts to the NDP so they would have won, it still would have meant that they would have taken power with less than 45% of the total vote and with the second position going to a party with 8% more popular support than them.
If your three kids want to go see movie A and you and your wife want to go see movie B and you tell them "Well, we're paying so we're going to see Movie B" it doesn't mean your family was leaning towards seeing Movie B, it means the parents had disproportionate power to decide which movie the family was going to see.
That's what happens with first past the post, have 45 districts voting at 100% for Party A, 55 districts each individually voting at 35% for party A and 65% for party B, party B is now in power with 35.75% of the popular vote and 55 seats, party A has 45 seats and 64.25% of the popular vote.
Alberta leans conservative, the popular vote is the proof of that.
Yes, Alberta leans conservative. I of course can't prove it, but I expect if suddenly in an environment with a centerline much further to the right, it would lean left. That's all I'm saying.
Smith would be in the Republican party if we were in the US and she would be one of the MAGA COVID deniers libertarian wackos and she got over 50% of the vote, I think you need to start facing reality...
I'm presenting statistical facts, no need to live where you are to interpret those and guess what, we are able to find articles about Smith, it's not 1923 anymore even if 52% of Albertan electors would like it to be!