Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
I don't think anyone is writting off the Wildrose per se. But with that said the NDP and Liberal parties won more seats in Calgary and Edmonton in the last election than the Wildrose did. The Wildrose needs to appeal a lot more to urban voters in order to win the next election, and voter apathy will absolutely not work to woo urban votes. It certainly didn't work last time.
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In Calgary, Wildrose appealed a lot more than the Liberals or NDP did with well over double the total votes than the other two parties combined. The Liberals won one extra seat due to a concentration of support in a few ridings. Voter apathy was not Wildrose's problem in Calgary, and given the vote totals in 2012, a small increase in support (particularly at the expense of the PCs) would result in a significant gain in seats.
Edmonton, of course, is an entirely different story. Any PC losses in Edmonton would likely translate mostly to seats for the Liberals and NDP - but under this scenario, that would play into Wildrose's hands.
On the other hand, it goes without saying that if Prentice can rebuild PC support, it will almost certainly come from the Wildrose side, which would also allow the strategic support the PCs needed to survive in 2012 to slide back to the Liberals.