The afterglow is beginning to fade, but the impact of the Calgary-Glenmore by-election most certainly continues to be felt.

Alberta’s major media outlets have all reported on the victory by Paul Hinman and his Wildrose Alliance party, using terms such as ‘upset’, ‘unexpected’ and ‘astonishing’ to describe the sudden end of 40 consecutive years of Progressive Conservative representation in the constituency.

To a degree, they have a point. However, it is the reaction from everyone from P.C. party members to new media pundits to Premier Ed Stelmach himself that paints quite a picture, and puts into focus how the message behind the results has been missed.

Proving that he didn’t quite receive or understand the meaning of the message, Unsteady Eddie’s response, publicly anyhow, was a ‘recommitment to fiscal conservatism’.

Considering the Stelmach government’s spending habits have effectively undone the work – and indeed, belittled the great sacrifices – Albertans made in the 1990’s, this comes off as nothing more than a sound-bite from a stunned leader. It is an issue to be sure, but as has become all too familiar, Stelmach hit the forest but missed the tree.

The truth is the P.C. government’s penchant for spending like Liberals was but one issue of many in the minds of the voters. The botched Royalty scheme that effectively suffocated investment in our energy sector, the fumbling of our health care system (another reported 300+ beds cut), the obvious lack of direction of the government overall, - these are but a few in a laundry list of concerns Albertans have with the current regime.

Meanwhile, some pundits are quick to write off the results as a common by-election ‘protest vote’. Yes, many voters who checked the box next to Paul Hinman’s name on the ballot are disenfranchised Tory supporters – that much is obvious. However, circumstances are much different than is the case in historical protest situations.

A 40% turnout for the by-election puts it in range of the turnout for a general election, which is rare. The fact that many traditional P.C. supporters have switched to the Wildrose Alliance cannot be discounted. Perhaps most telling of all is the common feeling that they haven’t left the P.C. party at all, but that Ed Stelmach’s Progressive Conservatives have left them.

It is also important to remember that, historically speaking, Alberta governments rule for long periods of time, then are swept aside en masse. Given the caliber of members and executives in the Wildrose Alliance, and their policies that are traditionally in-step with Albertans, one gets the unarguable sense that if history is going to repeat and we are going to see the end of decades of Progressive Conservative rule in Alberta, this group of fiscally-conservative – socially responsible folks could very well be the ones to bring the winds of change.

Now all the party needs is the right leader…