What exactly is a Byelection?

This is Paul Hinman's new house. Or something.

We know that not everyone has time to pay attention to politics.

We know that a lot of political information is forgotten after high school.

We know.

And we want to break things down so everybody can be an engaged citizen.

Part 1 of “Muddling Through: The Strange World of Provincial Politics”

By Dustin McNichol

Yesterday, Albertans got a chance to vote. But not all of us. Only those in the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore, where Wildrose Alliance candidate Paul Hinman won the provincial byelection.

A byelection occurs when an elected member of the provincial legislature vacates his or her seat at the legislature. Remember, every electoral constituency in the province gets one seat, and one member in each seat represents one constituency. Still with me? Good.

Now, a member of the provincial legislature can leave his or her seat due to death, resignation, fatigue from too many years of Tory government (just kidding), or simply if the member found a better job. In this case, former Progressive Conservative member Ron Stevens was appointed to be a Queen’s Bench judge, so he had to resign his seat.

The idea of democracy is that the people have to be represented. Since the seat is empty, it means the good people down in Calgary-Glenmore have nobody to represent them at the provincial level. And we can’t have that, can we!?

Of course not! So, the Premier calls a byelection to fill the seat, picks a date for everyone to vote, and the candidates start throwing mud at each other. Only residents of the Calgary-Glenmore constituency may vote; just as only the members of the specific constituency may vote in any byelection. The winner of the election gets to be the new Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore.

And that, my friends, is a provincial byelection.

Now I’m sure your next question is: “Okay, but why should I give a shit about some tiny little election that has no effect on me?”

I’ll tell you why. In provincial politics, byelections are viewed as an indication of how people feel about the current government. So if the Progressive Conservative (the current governing party) candidate comes in third place (which is what happened yesterday), it is viewed as a message to the government that they suck. Or that they need to improve.

It shows that people are unhappy with the ways things are going under the current regime. It means change is possible. And when this is the case, it means we can possiblly change things for the better.

Of course, we can’t interpret too much from provincial byelections. Many people thought that the Alberta Liberals would do well after winning a key byelection in Calgary, only to be crushed by the Progressive Conservatives in the general election of 2008. Byelections are only a small piece of how people think about provincial politics, and you can only read into them so much.

Anyway, take what you want from it. Personally, I’m happy to see that, after 40 years of the same party in Calgary-Glenmore, people finally decided to vote for someone else. I think it is a fairly good message to the current government party, considering the PC candidate not only lost, but lost by a long shot.