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The upheaval in Alberta’s political landscape only proves the adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And so much has changed in the last two or three years. In short, we saw the bombshell election of the NDP, the disappearance of the Wildrose Party and the even more shocking demise of the dynastic Progressive Conservatives after members of the two rival camps voted to forge their brands into the new United Conservative Party.

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The loss of the big PC tent, and the resulting departure of many of its eponymous progressives from the new right-wing party, appeared to polarize Alberta politics into a version of the U.S. two-party system with the NDP on the left, the UCP on the right and a diminished centre occupied by the Liberal and Alberta parties — considered also-rans in the current scheme of things.

Albertans faced a stark choice in the next provincial election between two vastly different choices on opposite ends of the political spectrum.