Somewhere, Jack Layton must be smiling.
The late New Democratic Party leader would have gotten a real charge out of this week's election results in Alberta, Canada's most Republican-like, Texas-style province: NDP, 53 seats; the Wildrose Party, 21 seats; Stephen Harper's so-called Progressive Conservatives, 10 seats. And the PC Premier resigned not only as party leader but from his seat in the legislature. Alberta in the hands of leftists — meow!
Speculation has already begun about what an NDP-ruled province will mean for the Keystone XL pipeline. For our part, we cats are wondering what, if anything, the NDP Alberta sweep portends for this October's federal election. Have Canadians finally had it with Harper and his anti-environmentalism after nine long years? Our paws are crossed!
In the meantime, we're enjoying some big Cheshire-cat grins over the Tories' Alberta travails. And since the NDP won just over 41 percent of the popular vote, the Canadian rule of electoral math has happily applied: Get into the high 30s and you win a majority. Get more than 40 percent of the vote, and you wipe out the competition. We cats PURR.
(IMAGE: Rachel Notley, Alberta's new Premier. Yeah, she's a little happy.)
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