alberta general election, 1979

The 19th general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on March 14, 1979 to elect members of the Alberta legislature. The Progressive Conservative Party of Peter Lougheed won its third consecutive term in government. Despite losing over 5 percentage points of the popular vote, the PC Party increased its legislative caucus, winning 74 of the 79 seats. Harkening back to Social Credit unofficial slogan, "63 in '63", from the 1963 election, some Progressive Conservatives talk of winning "79 in '79", i.e., all 79 seats in the legislature. Social Credit held on to the four seats they had won in the 1975 election, and formed the official opposition in the legislature. Grant Notley, leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party, was the only other opposition member.

owspan="2"\|Party	rowspan="2"\|Party Leader	rowspan="2"\|# of candidates	colspan="3"\|Seats	colspan="3"\|Popular Vote
lign="center"\|Previous	align="center"\|After	align="center"\|% Change	align="center"\|#	align="center"\|%	align="center"\|Change
Progressive Conservative	Peter Lougheed	align="right"\| 79	align="right"\| 69	align="right"\| 74	align="right"\| +7.2%	align="right"\| 408,097	align="right"\| 57.40%	align="right"\| -5.25%
Social Credit		align="right"\|79	align="right"\| 4	align="right"\| 4	align="right"\| -	align="right"\| 141,284	align="right"\| 19.87%	align="right"\| +1.70%
New Democratic	Grant Notley	align="right"\| 79	align="right"\| 1	align="right"\| 1	align="right"\| -	align="right"\| 111,984	align="right"\| 15.75%	align="right"\| +2.81%
Liberal	Nick Taylor	align="right"\| 78	align="right"\| -	align="right"\| -	align="right"\|	align="right"\| 43,792	align="right"\| 6.16%	align="right"\| +1.18%
Independent		align="right"\| 12	align="right"\| 1	align="right"\| -	align="right"\| -100%	align="right"\| 5,449	align="right"\| 0.77%	align="right"\| -0.36%
Communist		align="right"\| 7	align="right"\| -	align="right"\| -	align="right"\|	align="right"\| 357	align="right"\| 0.05%	align="right"\| -0.08%
Total		334	75	79	+5.3%	710,963	100.00%
align="center" colspan="9"\|Source: Elections Alberta

Notes: "Previous" refers to to standings at previous election, not to standings in the Legislature at dissolution. n.a. = not applicable - the party was not recognized in the previous election

Alberta General Election, 1979

See also