Quote:
Originally Posted by jigglysquishy
Re: western alienation
A major factor that killed western alienation politically was urban Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba. In the 1997 election, the Liberals or NDP won 8 seats in Alberta/Saskatchewan. Reform won only 3 of 14 in Manitoba. Hell, the PCs still won Brandon. So the prairies returned 19 non-Reformers.
If Reform swept the 3 prairie provinces (including the PC seat) the results would have been
Liberals: 146 seats
Reform: 79 seats
Bloc: 50
NDP: 12
PCs: 19
Still a Liberal minority, but no longer the 3 successive Liberal majorities.
Similar answer in 2000. 17 non-Alliance seats sent by the prairie provinces. Still wouldn't have been a Liberal Majority, but at least closer.
Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg largely rejected Reform/western alienation politics.
The movement was and still is largely a rural phenomenon.
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I asked one of my Saskatchewan born colleagues morning after election night about his opinion of this election. He wasn’t surprised that Saskatchewan went completely Blue again and the province has been solid Tory ever since the previous election. “The province (Saskatchewan) sequesters more carbon through agriculture and power plant innovation than any other province in Canada and Saskatchewan would still be dinged with the highest percentage payment for Federal Carbon tax, where as Ontario with gas combustion car manufacture plants and Quebec with opening new concrete production plants get a free hall pass” he said.
Apparently Ralph Goodale was the last Federal Liberal from Saskatchewan before losing his seat two years ago and he was a very well regarded cabinet minister. This election in a lot of the ridings in that province the Liberal candidate got 4th or 5th the amount of votes as other parties. The Liberals will have a hard time getting any riding wins in Saskatchewan in the future and the party’s decline has been occurring for many years. Their Provincial Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan party have been in power for a long time but the party it self is the remnants of the defunct 1990’s gutted provincial Liberal party reconstituted into it’s current party name.
Sad thing is if Trudeau had gotten even a win in a portion of the Saskatchewan ridings this last time, the Liberals would have got their majority and the next four years of Canadian politics would be looking very different. I have a bad feeling the Federal Liberals getting a majority in parliament has ended for a good decade or so to come after the Justin Trudeau reign. It’s going to be possibly generations before the Federal Liberals get decent representation from Alberta and particular Saskatchewan in the near future.
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