Conservatives have yet another loss to add to their long list of recent failures after tonight, with both Calgary and Edmonton falling to Liberal rule.
Despite pre-election polls, neither race was even close: both Liberal candidates Jyoti Gondek in Calgary and Amarjeet Sohi in Edmonton dominated their respective ridings.
Before the Calgary election, a Leger Poll had Gondek at 26 per cent, while her opponent, Jeromy Farkas, sat at 24 per cent (a neck-in-neck race). But the actual results of the election are starkly different, with Gondek receiving 45 per cent and Farkas receiving a meagre 30 per cent.
Indeed, even if Farkas’ ostensibly Conservative peer, Jeff Davison (13 per cent), dropped out to give Farkas a boost, it would not have been enough.
The Conservative candidate in Edmonton, Mike Nickel, did not fare any better.
Before the Edmonton election, Sohl commanded a dominant lead at 34 per cent, while Nickel trailed at 16 per cent. As per the election results, Sohl received 45 per cent of the vote, while Nickel received 25 per cent.
In other words, not only did Nickel fail to close the gap — even if the results were inevitable — Sohl actually pulled away, ultimately making this election a total blowout for the Liberals.
Another interesting dimension to these municipal elections is the extremely low figures regarding voter turnout.
In Edmonton, only 36.6 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, and Calgary was not much different.
What does it say about municipalities where less than 40 per cent of the eligible voting population decides the fate of every resident? It very well could be the case that this election was decided by Conservative voters staying home, rather than a real majority having their say.
The same question could be broadened to Canada as a nation, which, due to the broken first past the post system, usually elects majority governments that similarly receive less than 40 per cent nationally with generally low turnout to boot.
Perhaps, if this election is indicative of anything — other than the fact Liberals will continue committing vampirism in Albertan metropolises — it is that something in our election system needs to change.
