1993 Alberta general election
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.