Unpacking Alberta’s Century of Alienation

The Dawn of Competitive Party Politics in Alberta: An End to Solitude Anthony M. Sayers, Royce Koop and David K. Stewart UBC Press (2026)

To understand the current flavour of politics in Alberta, it’s helpful to delve into its past. For most of Alberta’s century of existence, political success was guaranteed to those who managed to keep Albertans united against a common enemy: Ottawa.

Alberta’s disaffection with Ottawa has been an important driver, if not the driver, of the Prairie province’s penchant for single-party politics.

In 1935, 16 years after the United Farmers of Alberta defeated the province’s Liberal party, William Aberhart’s new Social Credit party formed its first government, and it stayed in power for close to four decades. The party modelled an ideological flexibility that was then emulated by Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party.

The Progressive Conservative party leadership successfully navigated Alberta’s shifting character from 1971 until 2015, the year the Alberta NDP’s unlikely victory put an end to a long-standing Progressive Conservative administration.

The loyalty of Albertans towards a single party over prolonged periods has fostered a unique power struggle in provincial politics. Competition has tended to take place within the confines of a party striving to stay in power, rather than on the campaign trail.

In their new book, The Dawn of Competitive Party Politics in Alberta , political scientists Anthony M. Sayers, Royce Koop and David K. Stewart give a comprehensive account of what shapes Alberta’s unique political culture.

“In addition to standard economic and social dimensions,” the authors argue, “provincial politics is often driven by a cultural sense of Alberta exceptionalism manifest in both the alienation from Ottawa and a populist hue. This exceptionalism is rooted in the prairie west as the periphery of a developing Canada struggling to maintain national unity, radically antagonized by its exclusion while reshaped and emboldened by its phenomenal economic and social growth.”

Identifying five distinct phases of partisan competition, the authors bring to the fore another critical feature of Alberta’s politics: the rural-urban divide.

The grassroots, rural United Farmers of Alberta took over an urban elite represented by the Liberal party.

Meanwhile the Social Credit party had its start among religious, rural folk. Although the Socreds gradually adapted to Alberta’s growing urban population, former Progressive Conservative premier Peter Lougheed’s urban appeal earned his party its first government in 1971.

In 2008, the Wildrose party emerged as a far-right alternative with a rural base. It split the conservative vote and delivered Rachel Notley’s NDP victory in 2015.

Notably, ideology has seldom played a prominent role in Alberta politics. Regardless of their position in the political spectrum, Albertans found solace in having a premier fight for their interests in the wider federal context.

Meanwhile, ideological flexibility and resource revenues enabled governments to implement socially progressive programs alongside fiscally conservative policies that favoured private interests.