The 1982 Alberta general election was held on November 2, 1982, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premier Peter Lougheed decided to call a snap election to catch fledgling new parties off guard, most notably the separatist Western Canada Concept which was capitalizing on anger over Lougheed's perceived weakness in dealings with the federal government, in particular his acceptance of the hugely unpopular National Energy Program. The WCC's Gordon Kesler had won a by-election earlier in the year, and Lougheed decided that it would be wise to stage a showdown with the WCC sooner rather than later. Lougheed then proceeded to mount a campaign based largely on scare tactics, warning Albertans angry with Ottawa but yet uneasy with the WCC that they could end up with a separatist government by voting for a separatist party. Lougheed would also promise to sell the government owned airline Pacific Western Airlines, which the Lougheed government had purchased in 1974. The strategy worked for the Tories, who won their fourth consecutive term in government, and returned to the 62% popular vote level it had attained in the 1975 election. This netted the Tories 75 seats in the legislature—in terms of percentage of seats won, the second-largest majority government in the province's history. In the process, they reduced the opposition to only four MLAs in total. The Alberta Liberal Party was punished in the wake of the NEP. Barely able to field candidates in a third of the ridings, it went down to one of its worst showings in party history. The Social Credit Party bottomed out after spending a decade in the wilderness after losing power in 1971. In a harbinger of things to come, Socred leader Robert Curtis Clark returned to the backbench shortly after the 1979 election, and retired from politics in 1981. Clark's old seat of Olds-Didsbury was resoundingly lost to the WCC in the ensuing by-election, dropping the Socreds to only three seats, one short of official party status. In March 1982, Socred parliamentary leader Raymond Speaker announced the Socreds would sit out the election. A resolution was put forward to disband the party, but failed. After the writs were issued for the 1982 election, two of the remaining three Socred MLAs, Speaker and Walt Buck, resigned from the party to run for reelection as independents. The third, Fred Mandeville, opted not to run for reelection. With no incumbents for the first time since 1935 and no full-time leader, the party's share of the popular vote fell from almost 20% to less than one percent. It was shut out of the legislature for the first time since 1935, never to return. Speaker and Buck, however, did win reelection, and later formed the Representative Party of Alberta after being denied opposition status. The New Democratic Party, led by Grant Notley, became the official opposition when Ray Martin was elected to the legislature. Notley had been the sole NDP MLA for more than a decade. The WCC, a party that advocated the separation of the four western provinces of Canada to form a new country, had surprised Canadians when Kesler won his by-election and took a seat in the Alberta legislature. Although Kesler lost his seat in this election after he changed electoral districts from Olds-Didsbury and ran in Highwood, the WCC won almost 12% of the popular vote. The Alberta Reform Movement, a new party founded by ex-Progressive Conservative Tom Sindlinger was caught unaware when the election was called, and ended up losing its only seat in Calgary Buffalo.

Opinion polls

Results

Overall voter turnout was 66.00%. Note:

• Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Results by riding

5,342 56.96% 1,952 20.81% 1,538 16.40% 529 5.64%||| 8,369 72.06% 1,288 11.09% 1,919 16.52% 5,001 51.37% 478 4.91% 633 6.50% 3,331 34.22% 240 2.47% Ernie Charman (ARM) 39 0.40% 4,842 59.43% 2,547 31.26% 732 8.98% 4,541 60.06% 266 3.52% 2,719 35.96%||| 9,412 70.02% 2,293 17.06% 1,059 7.88% 380 2.83% 253 1.88%||| 7,591 62.01% 1,211 9.89% 739 6.04% 2649 21.64% 9,701 75.51% 1,417 11.03% 1,018 7.92% 686 5.34% 10,331 78.18% 1,128 8.54% 1,174 8.88% 396 3.00% 158 1.20% 7,521 69.64% 1,054 9.76% 829 7.68% 674 6.24% 520 4.81% Ray Neilson (SoCred) 172 1.59% 17,376 79.63% 1,501 6.88% 2,252 10.32% 659 3.02% 9,708 66.92% 2,249 15.50% 1,438 9.91% 540 3.72% 570 3.93%||| 9,704 73.94% 1,478 11.26% 1,244 9.48% 314 2.39% 294 2.24% Bruce Potter (Comm) 56 0.43% 13,835 77.63% 1,532 8.60% 1,864 10.46% 526 2.95% 17,493 76.40% 2,673 11.67% 1,728 7.55% 852 3.72% Grand Tim Majanja (ARM) 120 0.52% 12,130 71.54% 2,451 14.46% 1,332 7.86% 621 3.66% 383 2.26%||| 6,323 68.38% 1,626 17.58% 779 8.42% 417 4.51% Doris Schupp (Comm) 50 0.54% 7,187 57.43% 3,372 26.95% 772 6.17% 420 3.36% 706 5.64%||| 9,168 72.50% 1,753 13.86% 968 7.66% 701 5.54% 11,711 74.85% 1,745 11.15% 1,768 11.30% 404 2.58%||| 11,668 78.41% 1,175 7.90% 1,106 7.43% 598 4.02% 251 1.69%||| 10,547 63.53% 3,070 18.49% 2,900 17.47% 3,738 59.14% 250 3.96% 2,309 36.53% 4,837 73.54% 465 7.07% 1,266 19.25% 5,434 35.67% 1,683 11.05% 1,783 11.71% 6,312 41.44%||| 4,170 64.27% 637 9.82% 590 9.09% 1,080 16.65%||| 4,906 66.75% 1,155 15.71% 1,265 17.21% 8,148 68.14% 1,124 9.40% 2,630 21.99% 6,606 52.92% 4,045 32.40% 1,275 10.21% 466 3.73% Rona Drennan (Comm) 40 0.32% 6,579 54.51% 3,893 32.25% 986 8.17% 512 4.24% Joan Jenkins (Comm) 37 0.31% 6,894 50.51% 5,638 41.31% 819 6.00% 268 1.96%||| 8,442 55.31% 5,527 36.21% 1,274 8.35% 5,414 49.72% 3,578 32.86% 812 7.46% 849 7.80% 197 1.81%||| 5,997 58.38% 3,181 30.96% 1,037 10.09% 7,724 61.88% 2,555 20.47% 1,649 13.21% 534 4.28% 7,223 56.65% 3,563 27.94% 996 7.81% 567 4.45% 387 3.04%||| 5,157 54.36% 3,493 36.82% 721 7.60% 66 0.70% 6,723 57.53% 3,498 29.93% 987 8.45% 241 2.06% G. Crofton (ARM) 179 1.53% 4,294 41.62% 3,879 37.59% 669 6.48% 318 3.08% 950 9.21% George Klimuk (SoCred) 192 1.86%||| 10,817 58.44% 4,590 24.80% 1,511 8.16% 776 4.19% 423 2.29% Andy H. Groenink (SoCred) 345 1.86%||| 10,095 55.75% 5,159 28.49% 1,894 10.46% 590 3.26% 329 1.82%||| 4,782 45.25%||| 4,857 45.96% 569 5.38% 263 2.49% David Wallis (Comm) 37 0.35% 8,229 55.30% 5,771 38.78% 823 5.53% 39 0.26% 8,401 54.70% 3,462 22.54% 3,029 19.72% 450 2.93% 7,105 47.73% 6,643 44.63% 743 4.99% 279 1.87% Joe Hill (Comm) 64 0.43% 10,696 58.98% 4,884 26.93% 1,209 6.67% 791 4.36% 291 1.60% Keith Schultz (SoCred) 241 1.33%||| 6,003 56.88% 3,232 30.62% 1,284 12.17% 9,555 58.11% 3,280 19.95% 2,249 13.68% 331 2.01% 504 3.06% Roy Housworth (SoCred) 494 3.00%||| 7,811 69.89% 465 4.16% 2,006 17.95% 183 1.64% 6,684 70.66% 738 7.80% 2,001 21.15% 6,844 56.74% 3,481 28.86% 1,021 8.46% 584 4.84% 5,141 61.12% 1,108 13.17% 1,339 15.92% 811 9.64%||| 3,150 57.48% 914 16.68% 607 11.08% 466 8.50% 316 5.77%||| 8,716 69.57% 1,369 10.93% 1,054 8.41% 962 7.68% 400 3.19% 8,302 69.37% 1,844 15.41% 938 7.84% 480 4.01% Brenda L. Perkins (ARM) 377 3.15% 2,144 33.75% 168 2.64% 851 13.40% 3,174 49.97% 5,581 71.86% 905 11.65% 1,249 16.08% 6,136 71.34% 546 6.35% 1,293 15.03% 144 1.67% 14,654 81.20% 2,072 11.48% 996 5.52% 286 1.58%||| 5,096 46.91% 233 2.14% 2,714 24.98% 4,688 56.14% 1,541 18.46% 1,657 19.84% 211 2.53% 225 2.69%||| 4,388 64.52% 1,636 24.06% 650 9.56% 109 1.60% 4,031 50.65% 876 11.01% 2,646 33.25% 235 2.95% Eric Ostergaard (Ind.) 154 1.94% 10,659 54.70% 1,915 9.83% 1,468 7.53% 5,396 27.69%||| 4,438 50.98% 2,507 28.80% 1,121 12.88% 157 1.80% 467 5.36%||| 6,443 65.99% 1,191 12.20% 2,116 21.67% 3,950 57.79% 1,537 22.49% 1,316 19.25% 3,260 41.61%||| 3,443 43.95% 1,093 13.95% 12,982 54.60% 4,438 18.67% 2,465 10.37% 3,406 14.33% L.D. Callfas (SoCred) 434 1.83%||| 4,269 55.97% 2,872 37.66% 447 5.86% 4,915 71.40% 617 8.96% 1,334 19.38% 10,210 59.73% 2,905 16.99% 2,337 13.67% 299 1.75% Murray Fuhr (ARM) 202 1.18% 6,800 70.97% 486 5.07% 1,811 18.90% 461 4.81% 8,693 77.47% 549 4.89% 1,949 17.37% 4,526 53.51% 2,418 28.59% 807 9.54% 202 2.39%Robert E. Robert (SoCred) 487 5.76%||| 4,357 58.20% 1,205 16.10% 1,742 23.27% 159 2.12%||| 4,589 61.68% 476 6.40% 2,145 28.83% 218 2.93% 12,923 63.76% 3,190 15.74% 3,511 17.32% 576 2.84%||| 4,635 51.46% 1,220 13.55% 2,276 25.27% 147 1.63% 685 7.61%|||