There are a lot of factors, but the reality is that Albertans are more progressive and centrist than people think. We're not a bunch of rednecks with no view of the future. In truth we all want a very similar thing and its a question of which party articulates a path that we think can make it happen.
The Wildrose problem to me is more than just a few candidates shooting their mouth off and not saying anything. It comes down to a few major things:
A) Some of their ideas are pretty far out there. I don't mean in an agree/disagree sense, I mean like get out of the CPP, create a provincial police force and stop using the RCMP. Getting rid of AHS and things like that. These are huge concepts and ideas and its hard to know what they even mean for Alberta. Even if you are wanting some change at this point in Alberta it has to be said that things are pretty good in general; and those are huge changes. It will take a lot of education to make some of those not sound as radical as they do.
B) People vote for a vision, and not purely against something. So while the Wildrose spent a lot of time making Redford out to be a dirty, elitist, eastern liberal who is one step away from a communist its hard to gather support based solely on that. Even if you were/are a somewhat disaffected voter these labels and the demeaning commentary that accompanies them makes it hard for "us" to come over to your side! I say us because truth be told I "feel" like an average Alberta voter. I don't think that I have any extreme views and yet the debate was so polarizing that once you kind of decided on where you would fall, switching sides was a real battle. I don't know if I can put that into words properly, but that is a major reason why I think we saw so many ballot-box conversions.
C) Related somewhat to point one, the Wildrose made a rookie mistake in my opinion. Its enticing, but you can't come out and claim that everything is terrible today, but vote for me and it will all be better. No one really believes you. Instead you have to admit that actually things are really good for Alberta. I know...who can agree that the PCs have done some good things? But with 95% employment, and provincial surpluses on the horizon that every party agrees with its basically undeniable. Instead what the Wildrose should have been preaching is a message of "things are good, but we can make some incremental improvements". This could also read as "yes, they have done some things right, but they've shown some terrible mismanagement as well and these little [not scary!] changes will help make it better for everyone."
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