Seriously?

Yours Truly,

Calgary Grit

UPDATE: If 2004 was dubbed the Kleinfeld election because nothing happened, this one will have to go down as the X-Files (or Ed-Files, I guess) election because it’s almost impossible to explain. Yes, the pundits will try to make sense of it in hindsight but I think they’ll only look silly trying to do that because this one just defies any sort of conventional wisdom. Generally when popular leaders resign and are replaced by duds in long serving governments, things go poorly for them – even in Alberta. After the year he’s had and the campaign he’s run, it’s hard to find any sort of rational explain as to why he’s nipping on Klein’s record highs.

I’d been expecting a strong PC majority but I can’t even find any silver linings in this one. Too many good candidates got far worse fates than they deserved. And when only 4 in 10 Albertans bother to vote, it’s hard to even give the “at least democracy is alive and well” spin.

Name change? New leader? I don’t have the heart to get into those debates right now because this one is probably going to sting for a bit…and I don’t even live in the province anymore.