Alberta’s neighbours saw their own stark rural-urban election splits in new political reality [Video]

The day after leading the United Conservative Party to a majority government in Alberta in May 2023, Premier Danielle Smith was asked by CBC Power & Politics host David Cochrane how she viewed the results.

The election saw Smith’s party dominate in the rural parts of the province but struggle in the two major cities in Alberta, getting shut out of Edmonton and claiming the minority of seats in Calgary. Smith noted the party was represented in mid-size cities such as Medicine Hat and Lethbridge but acknowledged what appeared to be a new reality.

“What I did see is that the left is consolidated now in our province. It really is a two-party province in a way that it hasn’t been in the past,” Smith told Cochrane.

Take a look at a map of the province’s electoral results and you’ll see the visual split: deep blue swaths covering large envelopes of the rural heartland of the province — communities like Fort …