The politics of Alberta are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy.

The provincial government's revenue, although it is often described as predominantly coming from the province's resource base, actually is derived from a variety of sources.

I’m what I would call a ‘constitutional fire extinguisher.’ We don't have to use it a lot, but sometimes we do have to use it," in response to a proposed "Alberta Sovereignty Act" if it was determined to be unconstitutional.

[2] Bills passed by the legislature are given Royal Assent by Charles III, King of Canada, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta.

The premier acts as the head of government for the province, chairs and selects the membership of the Cabinet, and advises the Crown on the exercise of executive power and much of the royal prerogative.

By-elections are conducted between the general elections to fill seats left vacant by death or resignation.

The UFA lost all its seats in 1935 when William Aberhart's Social Credit party (Socred) was elected on a radical monetary reform platform.

After Aberhart's death in 1943 and changing economic conditions, the Socred government moved to the right under Premier Ernest Manning.

[6] In the previous election (2004) Klein's PC party had taken less than half the votes cast in the province but had won 75 percent of the seats.

[7] Left wing Edmonton was an exception to the province's post–Second World War conservative voting pattern, earning it the nickname "Redmonton".

However, the UCP received just 54 percent of the vote, the first-past-the-post system inflating the avalanche of switched seats and exaggerating the appearance of the party's popularity.

When Social Credit came into vogue, winning its first electoral successes in 1935, federal representation also changed to being mostly Socred.

The Social Credit party under Ernest Manning turned right-wing in the 1940s, but this apparently mirrored changing sentiment among Alberta voters.

But under its later label, the New Democratic Party, the left has achieved more successes in Alberta, electing an MP in 1988 and one in Edmonton-Strathcona every time since 2008.

Rural Alberta ridings typically give the leading party, whether it is the Conservatives, or the United Farmers, Social Credit, Reform and the Alliance before them, some of the highest margins in the country; in many cases, the successful candidate receives more than two-thirds of the vote.

During the UFA and early Socred government periods, elections were conducted using transferable preferential ballots (see ranked voting).

Some Albertans continue to resent the imposition in the 1980s of the National Energy Program (NEP) by the Liberal federal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

This led some Albertans to advocate separation of the province from Canada but this advocacy (despite occasional surges in interest) has never resulted in electoral success.

In the 2006 election, the federal Conservative Party of Canada won all the seats in Alberta, providing them with a complete sweep of the province.

No Alberta seats changed parties in the 2011 election, in which the Conservatives went from a minority government to a parliamentary majority.

Alberta has for decades been considered a conservative fortress, no matter which right-of-centre party they may have chosen to support.

However, small disaffection with the Conservative Party of Canada over policies enacted during its minority government such as Equalization payments in Canada and the Conservatives' reversal on income trusts led to the founding of the nascent federal Party of Alberta, in 2006.

Provincially, while the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta had been in power for 40 years, they continued to win large majorities in the Legislative Assembly, winning 72 out of 83 seats in the March 2008 provincial election, although with declining popularity and lowering voter turn-out, reflecting increasing disfavour among ordinary Albertans regarding the government's market-first policies, its low quality of health and education services, and its flat-income tax policy.

[18] In April 2015, Jim Prentice called an election for May 5, citing the need for a mandate in order to make longer-term economic changes.

[19] Though initial polls had the PCs in the lead, as the election approached they fell behind the opposition Wildrose party, and the NDP.

The budget also contained a $700 million risk adjustment, which was intended to reflect "volatility of Alberta’s resource revenue.