CALGARY—After a short four years, the orange wave that swept into Alberta in 2015 was replaced Tuesday night by a sea of United Conservative Party blue.UCP Leader Jason Kenney — a former federal cabinet minister who entered provincial politics three years ago with a plan to reunite Alberta’s conservatives — will be the province’s 18th premier. The fledgling party, created by a merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose in 2017, surged toward a majority government, toppling NDP seats in just about every corner of the province.“Hope is on the horizon,” Kenney told a crowd of cheering and whistling supporters in Calgary, adding that “Alberta is open for business.”“There is a deep frustration in this province, a sense that we have contributed massively to the rest of Canada, but that everywhere we turn we are being blocked in and pinned down,” he said. “Today we begin to fight back.”A smiling Rachel Notley walked onstage in Edmonton to deliver her concession speech just before 10 p.m., greeted by a huge crowd of supporters chanting her name. At points she became emotional, saying the world sometimes feels like “two steps forward and one step back,” but lauding the NDP’s accomplishments on social issues like education, health care and child poverty.“Tonight’s result is not the one we hoped for or worked so hard for,” she said. “Four years ago, Albertans hired us to do a very big job at a very difficult time, and we did that job with purpose.”Notley pledged to push for ethics in the legislature in her new role as Opposition leader. Tuesday night’s election ends what turned out to be a brief NDP era in Alberta. Many saw the party’s surprise 2015 victory as an accident, a reaction to the entitlement and cronyism of the previous 44-year Progressive Conservative dynasty and the result of vote-splitting between two solid ri ...
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