Mark Twain underestimated history. It doesn’t just rhyme, it can also repeat.

And that’s bad news for Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government.

While much of the chattering classes put Monday night’s byelection result in Calgary-Shaw — where the Conservative seat was nabbed by the NDP — down to voters’ annoyance with the government’s handling of the upcoming separatism referendum, they ignored a more salient point.

And it’s one that should send shivers through Smith.

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Yes, the NDP candidate won by 582 votes. That’s a handy enough margin, though given it’s a byelection in the fourth year of the government’s mandate, it wasn’t a real shocker. Such is politics.

The true bombshell was the performance of the Tory candidate, who picked up 978 votes.

Tory, you say? But wasn’t that the UCP fellow? (Most people have better things to do than fixate on the endless shenanigans of provincial politics.)

No, the Progressive Tory Party of Alberta is a newcomer. It’s led by former........

© Calgary Herald