The 1993 Alberta general election was held on June 15, 1993, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Conservative government was re-elected, taking 51 seats out of 83 (61 percent of the seats) but only having support of 45 percent of voters. It is notable because it was seen by some as a contest between the former mayors of Calgary and Edmonton, Ralph Klein and Laurence Decore, respectively. Until the government's defeat in 2015, this election was the closest the Progressive Conservatives came to losing since coming to power in 1971.

Background

In 1992, the Liberal Party was led by Laurence Decore, a former mayor of Edmonton. Despite being the smallest of the three parties in the legislature, the Liberals made major gains by shifting to the political right and criticizing the Conservatives' fiscal responsibility, the province's rapidly rising debt, and the government's involvement in the private sector which resulted in some companies defaulting on government loans. In September 1992, Don Getty resigned as provincial premier and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, after polls showed that he would not win re-election. The party membership elected Environment Minister and former Calgary mayor Ralph Klein to succeed Getty. Klein campaigned for the leadership in part by making arguments similar to Decore's. He favoured a near-immediate balancing of the provincial budget and rapid debt repayment thereafter, and declared his government "out of the business of business". By the time Klein dropped the writs, his party had regained the lead on polls. The election was fought on a new series of electoral boundaries based on the census of 1991, drawn by a committee composed only of Progressive Conservative MLAs led by Bob Bogle, with no input from opposition parties. The new electoral map drew criticism from the Alberta Court of Appeal in 1994 because the committee gave no justification for creating four districts well below average population, one of which was Bogle's own riding of Taber-Warner.

Campaign

During the general election campaign, Klein promoted the significant changes that he had made during his time of Premier, distancing the Conservatives from Getty's past administration. Decore, facing a Premier with whom he agreed on many issues, argued that the Progressive Conservative party had no moral authority left on the issues on which Klein was campaigning. There were several televised debates, however viewership was low since it coincided with the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals.

Election

Klein's efforts were seen as successful in reinvigorating the Conservatives from certain defeat just under a year earlier. Ending up, they retained a solid majority in the legislature for its seventh consecutive term in government. The Conservatives actually managed to increase their share of the popular vote marginally, although they lost eight seats in the legislature since the vote was not as evenly split as it had been four years earlier. Notably, the PC's were shut out of Edmonton for the first time since 1963, but managed to make gains in Klein's hometown of Calgary where they won all but three seats. The Liberals capitalized on the stagnant PC vote and the collapse of the New Democratic Party vote from 26% to 11%. As opposition to the PC government coalesced around Decore and the Liberals, they won almost 40% of the popular vote and 32 seats in the legislature, including every seat in Edmonton. They formed what was the largest opposition caucus in Alberta history, eventually succeeded by Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party opposition after the 2023 election. To the surprise of many, Decore stepped down as Liberal leader not long after the election, supposedly being pressured to resign by party insiders who felt that he had missed the party's best chance in over 70 years to form government. Ray Martin's New Democrats, previously the official opposition, were shut out of the legislature altogether for the first time since 1967. All of their seats in Edmonton — including Martin's — were lost to the Liberals, due to the popularity of Decore there. Martin suggested that tactical voting was to blame as well, as the anti-PC vote consolidated around the Liberals.

Results

Overall voter turnout was 60.21%.

Overall results

Detailed results

Notes:

• Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. x – less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Results by riding

4,144 59.72% 1,921 27.68% 843 12.15% 6,552 52.43% 4,183 33.47% 1,048 8.39% 607 4.86% Ginger (V.M.) Sheets-Revitt (Nat. Law) 77 0.62% 6,312 54.92% 3,309 28.79% 1,076 9.36% 561 4.88% 143 1.25% Leonard Stahl (Ind.) 67 0.58% 4,222 45.44%||| 4,364 46.97% 666 7.17% 5,403 61.13% 2,424 27.43% 558 6.31% 436 4.93% 7,011 46.10% 5,369 35.30% 1,908 12.55% 376 2.47% 287 1.89% Roberta McDonald (C.o.R.) 120 0.79% Alan Livingston (Nat. Law) 78 0.51%||| 4,313 40.41%||| 4,826 45.22% 1,062 9.95% 212 2.00% Ralph Holt (Nat. Law) 185 1.73% 6,449 59.56% 3,576 33.03% 686 6.34% 86 0.79%||| 6,699 47.72% 4,670 33.26% 1,426 10.16% 1,200 8.57% 5,503 54.30% 1,689 16.67% 2,306 22.75% 366 3.61% 237 2.34%||| 9,846 57.94% 5,332 31.38% 1,063 6.26% 543 3.21% Linda Fritz (Nat. Law) 156 0.92% 10,061 57.94% 6,142 35.37% 617 3.55% 312 1.80% 101 0.58% Bruce Hansen (Nat. Law) 85 0.49%||| 7,855 54.58% 5,346 37.15% 558 3.88% 544 3.78% Darlene Holt (Nat. Law) 70 0.49%||| 8,129 52.71% 6,146 39.85% 965 6.26% 155 1.01%||| 7,972 48.54% 7,064 43.01% 603 3.67% 545 3.32% 147 0.90% John Vrskovy (Nat. Law) 61 0.37% 7,280 52.70% 5,803 42.01% 502 3.63% 122 0.88% Ida Bugmann (Nat. Law) 88 0.64%||| 4,118 44.69% 2,921 31.70% 900 9.77% 1,066 11.57% Allen Maclennan (C.o.R.) 129 1.41% Maureen Doram (Nat. Law) 55 0.60%||| 4,866 48.01% 2,592 25.57% 1,970 19.44% 613 6.05% Chris Deluce (Nat. Law) 68 0.67%||| 5,768 46.07% 2,791 22.29% 3,255 26.00% 481 3.84% 116 0.93% Alberta Scraba (Nat. Law) 71 0.57% 6,756 49.87% 4,262 31.46% 1,935 14.28% 394 2.91%Joyce Gregson (Nat. Law) 160 1.18%||| 6,443 45.37%||| 6,763 47.62% 495 3.49% 373 2.63% 110 0.77%||| 6,974 53.53% 5,057 38.81% 789 6.06% 176 1.35%||| 9,328 62.24% 4,963 33.11% 526 3.51% 136 0.91%||| 8,520 47.75% 6,860 38.45% 1,785 10.00% 531 2.98% Santo Esposito (Nat. Law) 99 0.55% 6,532 44.29%||| 6,927 46.97% 584 3.96% 548 3.72% 135 0.92%||| 3,345 69.05% 1,326 27.37% 163 3.36% 4,748 64.85% 1,015 13.86% 223 3.05% 1,025 14.00% 293 4.00%||| 4,816 35.97%||| 5,612 41.91% 2,072 15.47% 872 6.51%||| 4,034 49.11% 2,799 34.07% 494 6.01% 855 10.41% 5,261 50.98% 3,001 29.08% 768 7.44% 1,133 10.98% 138 1.34%||| 7,421 62.76% 2,457 20.78% 1,463 12.37% 454 3.85% 4,650 45.89% 4,347 42.90% 1,100 10.86% 3,433 26.82%||| 6,728 52.56% 2,190 17.11% 285 2.23% 97 0.76% Lucia Hoff (Nat. Law) 40 0.31%||| 3,060 28.68%||| 5,037 47.22% 2,473 23.18% 91 0.85%||| 3,418 28.66%||| 5,656 47.43% 2,343 19.65% 202 1.69% 95 0.80%||| 2,116 20.71%||| 5,466 53.49% 2,144 20.98% 398 3.90% 79 0.77%||| 2,669 23.28%||| 7,548 65.84% 1,088 9.49% 118 1.03%||| 5,150 33.31%||| 7,745 50.10% 1,874 12.12% 301 1.95% 1.50% Paula Johnsen (Nat. Law) 122 0.79% 4,721 26.30%||| 10,605 59.07% 1,820 10.14% 516 2.87% 165 0.92% Roni Shapka (Nat. Law) 90 0.50% 2,787 24.42%||| 5,189 45.46% 2,885 25.28% 428 3.75% 94 0.82%||| 2,521 21.45%||| 6,007 51.11% 2,904 24.71% 296 2.52% 3,635 26.90%||| 6,495 48.06% 3,173 23.48% 181 1.34%||| 4,177 29.69%||| 8,931 63.48% 799 5.68% 125 0.89%||| 3,978 31.10%||| 7,215 56.40% 1,111 8.68% 354 2.77% 110 0.86%||| 2,556 26.85%||| 5,330 55.98% 1,007 10.58% 414 4.35% 102 1.07% Raymond Boyko (Green) 46 0.48% Mary D. Romach (Nat. Law) 44 0.46%||| 2,517 21.68%||| 4,944 42.58% 3,749 32.29% 264 2.27% 88 0.76%||| 2,828 25.30%||| 5,872 52.53% 2,362 21.13% 95 0.85%||| 4,283 29.77%||| 8,583 59.65% 969 6.73% 398 2.77% 66 0.46% Myles Evely (Green) 64 0.44% 4,071 24.43%||| 6,542 39.26% 5,121 30.73% 460 2.76% 253 1.52% E. Benjamin Toane (Nat. Law) 108 0.65% Naomi J. Rankin (Comm.) 47 0.28% 5,351 36.18%||| 8,628 58.34% 648 4.38% 73 0.49% Richard Shelford (Nat. Law) 63 0.43%||| 2,738 27.22%||| 4,261 42.36% 1,483 14.74% 1,563 15.54%||| 4,942 54.97% 2,506 27.88% 1,199 13.34% 329 3.67% 4,457 47.89% 3,942 42.36% 880 9.46% 8,063 64.77% 3,159 25.38% 504 4.05% 701 5.63% 5,660 53.48% 2,294 21.67% 544 5.14% 520 4.91% 1,381 13.08% Len Scott (Ind.) 163 1.54%||| 3,897 39.11%||| 5,041 50.59% 999 10.03% 6,596 57.71% 3,001 26.26% 730 6.39% 687 6.01% 397 3.47%||| 5,884 42.87%||| 6,823 49.71% 812 5.92% 192 1.40%||| 4,260 55.30% 3,093 40.15% 326 4.23% 5,092 39.86%||| 6,114 47.86% 1,495 11.70% 4,643 41.73% 4,534 40.76% 973 8.75% 926 8.32%||| 6,709 67.07% 2,886 28.85% 382 3.82% 4,941 38.90% 4,790 37.71% 2,366 18.63% 568 4.47% 8,383 61.48% 3,378 24.77% 355 2.60% 815 5.98% 683 5.02% 3,156 43.23% 2,402 32.90% 1,192 16.33% 526 7.23% 4,843 45.33% 4,231 39.60% 930 8.70% 640 5.99%||| 5,977 63.48% 1,841 19.55% 747 7.93% 585 6.23% Robert (Bob) Hodgins (Ind.) 240 2.55%||| 5,402 55.44% 2,888 29.64% 762 7.82% 559 5.74% 104 1.07%||| 5,663 46.42% 4,879 40.00% 639 5.24% 882 7.23% 116 0.95%||| 4,582 36.55%||| 6,429 51.29% 1,306 10.42% 196 1.56%||| 5,192 55.69% 1,181 12.67% 604 6.48% 2,330 24.99% 6,704 40.31%||| 7,798 46.89% 1,955 11.76% 147 0.88%||| 4,428 39.53%||| 5,811 51.87% 813 7.26% 132 1.18%||| 5,746 40.27%||| 7,267 50.94% 1,031 7.23% 199 1.39%||| 4,855 41.27% 4,607 39.16% 1,481 12.59% 674 5.73% 133 1.13%||| 5,544 59.72% 2,723 29.33% 433 4.66% 564 6.07% 5,666 51.09% 3,783 34.11% 553 4.99% 517 4.66% 424 3.83 Lawrence Lein (C.o.R.) 118 1.07% 5,540 40.98% 3,797 28.09% 4,150 30.70% 5,524 52.13% 4,295 40.53% 744 7.02% 5,294 54.71% 1,933 19.98% 674 6.96% 1,760 18.19% 3,101 32.20%||| 3,562 36.99% 2,243 23.29% 582 6.04% 120 1.25% 6,297 45.93% 4,962 36.19% 1,597 11.65% 829 6.05% 5,600 48.11% 4,310 37.03% 912 7.84% 570 4.90% 218 1.87%|||