Alberta Elects NDP, Prentice Resigns

EDMONTON — The NDP has won a majority in Alberta by toppling the Progressive Conservative colossus that has dominated the province for more than four decades.

The party under leader Rachel Notley swept all 19 seats in Edmonton on Tuesday and made inroads in previously barren NDP territory in Calgary and Lethbridge.

The Wildrose party appeared poised to take second place and form the official Opposition, while Premier Jim Prentice and his PCs were trailing in third.

Prentice later resigned as leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.

He is also giving up the seat he retained in the provincial election in Calgary Foothills.

He says he takes responsibility for the decision that led to the party’s resounding defeat.

It’s a tectonic shift in Alberta politics, which has seen government change hands only four times since the Liberals won the first election when Alberta became a province in 1905.

The Tories, first elected in 1971, had been the longest-serving government in Canadian history at 43 years and almost eight months.