Well the polls were largely correct within the margin of error. A forty plus year Progressive Conservative dynasty in Alberta crumbled into the historical dust as the dream of the late Grant Notley leader of the NDP in Alberta from 1971 to 1984 was realized through the efforts of his accomplished daughter Rachel. Notley had been the appealing effective NDP leader who had tragically died in a small plane crash while on political business in the province.  Three decades later his bright, personable and accomplished daughter fulfilled the dreams of her father and captured political power in Canada’s oil and resource rich Rocky Mountain province on the western edge of the great prairies of the Canadian west. This election signals a potential major shift in Canadian politics in the elections to come including the eagerly awaited federal election. The results were clear and a decisive rejection of the old political establishment and its inability to speak to the needs of the majority of young and moderate income people who are an increasingly important demographic force throughout Canada. It is a force to be reckoned with particularly after the deep damage done to the Canadian economy by the crash of 2007-8 and the long recession which followed it. The NDP captured 53 seats,603,461 votes for 40 % of the vote. Wild Rose 21 seats, 360,101 votes and 24 % of the vote. The Progressive Conservatives only 10 seats, 412,955 votes and 28 % of the vote. The Liberals 1 seat, 62,171 votes and 4 % of the vote and the Alberta party 1 seat, 33,867 votes and 2 % of the vote. One seat resulted in a tie vote and a judicial recount will be held.

The voter turnout was 57 % . This amazingly is the highest turnout since  1993. Perhaps now with election of the NDP more voters will turn out in future elections

.One has to go back to the 1990s when the NDP captured 16 seats and further back to the great depression of the 1930s when the CCF, the parent party of the NDP was a force in Alberta politics to find substantial social democratic influence in Alberta politics. In some ways prairie populism was invented in Alberta and its return to dominance in the form of the modern centrist leaning left social democrats led by Rachel Notley who knows how to connect with this emerging electoral majority will have significant consequences in the months to come. Stephen Harper and his Conservatives may turn out to be outflanked in their home turf.