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“You never like to see the trends, so regardless of the validity of those polls, the concern is there is a trend,” said one PC campaigner.

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Indeed, Stephen Carter, who ran the party’s campaign in 2012, is watching the drama unfold from the outside this time.

“I’d be nervous,” he said. “We’ve got a left-right squeeze, and that’s the worst squeeze you can get.”

He also noted the regional concentration of support favoured the opposition.

“The NDP is doing great in Edmonton, just fantastic, and I believe that’s real. I believe that’s sustainable. And you have Wildrose coming back at a time when everyone was questioning whether they could come back … they are coming back in a big way.”

Prentice’s budget managed to upset both sides of the political divide.

“They really alienated both the left with their cuts and the right with their 59 new taxes. (Wildrose leader) Brian Jean can ride those suckers all the way to the bank.”

This was not supposed to be a difficult election for the PCs. Prentice called the vote a year early — the more cynical suggest it was an attempt to finish off the troublesome Wildrose, fatally weakened by the mass defection of nine of its MLAs in December.

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But the backlash against the PCs has been intense. First, the election violated the spirit of the fixed-date election law they supported. It also revealed the entitlement and lack of fair play that have long perturbed the government’s critics — and even many of its supporters.