The new face of Alberta
How Alberta looked before and after the election
Edmonton was mostly Progressive Conservative territory before Tuesday night, with just four NDP ridings – including Rachel Notley’s seat – and two Liberal ridings, held by former party leader Raj Sherman and long-time MLA Laurie Blakeman. But even the seat Ms. Blakeman held since 1997 was swept up by the orange wave, and the entire city is now held by the NDP.
In Calgary, Leader David Swann managed to hang on to his Calgary-Mountain View seat, the sole Liberal seat left in the legislature. The Alberta Party also picked up its only seat when Leader Greg Clark won Calgary-Elbow. While the 2012 election left the city largely PC, with a few Liberal and Wildrose seats, most of the city turned orange Tuesday. The PCs were left with eight Calgary ridings after the vote, before Jim Prentice resigned and left his Calgary-Foothills seat vacant. Calgary-Glenmore has yet to be decided for the NDP or the PCs after a tie left the results up in the air.
The government is younger
The average age of the MLAs in the legislature in 2012, based on available numbers, was 53. After Tuesday’s vote, the average MLA age is 40 – but the sharp drop is related to a handful of young NDP candidates winning seats. While there were no MLAs younger than 30 voted into office in 2012, the NDP swept several twentysomethings into office Tuesday – the youngest being the new Edmonton-South West MLA Thomas Dang, a University of Alberta computer science student who turned 20 on April 7 – the same day the election was called.
The median age in the legislature is 44.5, dropping nearly 10 years from the median of 54 after the 2012 election. The median age of elected NDP and PC candidates also went down, but for the Wildrose, it increased from 45 to 51.5 years.
“The most women in any government in Canadian history.”
Percentage of female MLAs by party
There were 27 women who won seats in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly in this election. In her victory speech Tuesday night, premier-designate Rachel Notley said she thought Alberta may have elected “the most women in any government in Canadian history.” Women make up about 45 per cent of the NDP caucus, which is the highest number for any governing body in the country. The percentage of women for both the PCs and the Wildrose in this election went down compared with MLAs elected in 2012. The race for the Calgary-Glenmore seat is currently tied between two women, potentially adding one more woman to the legislature and bringing the seat total to 28. All but three of the women elected Tuesday were NDP candidates.