Albertans woke up to a new political reality as the Alberta NDP Party pulled off what many people believed to be the impossible.
The NDP will form a majority government, winning 53 of a possible 87 seats up for grabs. Emily Shannon who ran in the Drumheller-Stettler riding, but did not win, feels this will be a responsive government.
“That’s a fantastic majority, so it will actually be an effective government,” said Shannon. “It’s better than a minority where we are not able to make forward moves.”
Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman said while there is a new political landscape, his concerns remain the same.
“(My concerns) as usual are property rights and health care, not necessarily in that order, also education,” said Strankman. “It will be interesting to see what the NDP Party comes forward with.
Their platform didn’t have anything on education. The budget we had was horrible when it came to education. The home schoolers, the private schoolers, the public schools and Catholic schools were united in their disrespect for the provincial budget.”
He said he has heard concerns from people in the oilfield and small business.
“People are learning the seriousness of this electoral choice,” he said.
He says the role as official opposition doesn’t change.
“We will just be holding them accountable as per usual. There will be different challenges, but we will just have to provide good government to Albertans and try to maintain the Wildrose policies. That is our mantra, what we live and run by,” he said.
Donald Wilson has been in the energy industry for many years, and is not overly concerned with the new government.
‘”Change is good for anything. What we had was going the wrong way, maybe they will get it right this time,” he said. ‘There is no need for a knee jerk reaction.”
He says the change in government doesn’t really make much difference in the price of the resources, and that is what will dictate the recovery.
