Party of the People: Peter Lougheed and the Alberta PCs

Party of the People: Peter Lougheed and the Alberta PCs

The election of New Democrat Rachel Notley has left many Albertans and Canadians in shock – the governing Progressive Conservatives had entered government (just under) 44 years ago, on August 31 1971.  Many of us can’t even remember that and here at Clio’s, we can’t even remember an Albertan Premier before Ralph Klein, who became Premier in 1993.  Many woke up on May 6 wondering if Alberta was resigned to dynasties and if the NDP were setting up for a couple of decades of Alberta rule.  One way or another, the comparison to 1971 when the PCs kicked out the ruling Social Credit Party are thick on the ground.

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The End of the Two-Party System in Canada and the Rise of the Third Party

Canadian politics is greatly influenced by its "third parties," like the NDP or the Bloc Quebecois.  Third party options have been present to Canadians for the majority of our history. No Canadian today can remember a time in Canadian politics when third parties did not have some sort of influence, but for the first half century of Canadian political history, Canada was essentially a two-party system.  All of that changed in 1919 after the First World War.

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