The 21st general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on May 8, 1986 to elect members of the Alberta legislature.

Peter Lougheed, who had created the modern Alberta Progressive Conservatives, led it to power in 1971, and served as premier of Alberta for 14 years, retired from politics in 1985. The PC Party elected Donald Getty as its new leader.

Getty was not able to gain the confidence of Albertans as Lougheed had, and the party's popular vote fell by ten percentage points. The PCs were still, however, able to win a fifth term in government, with over half the votes in the province, and 61 of the 83 seats in the legislature.

The New Democratic Party, now led by Ray Martin, was able to make itself the focus of opposition to the PC government, winning almost 30% of the vote, and 16 seats in the legislature (up from two in the 1982 election.)

The Liberal Party of Nick Taylor returned to the legislature for the first time since 1967 with four seats. Two seats were won by former Social Credit members who had formed the Representative Party of Alberta after winning re-election in 1982 as independents.

Western Canada Concept, which had won almost 12% of the vote in 1982, collapsed, under the leadership of Jack Ramsay , who would later serve as a Reform Party of Canada Member of Parliament.

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

See also

List of Canadian political parties