What's the role of the media in a province where 60 per cent of the electorate opts for one party? How do journalists deal with the fact that long before the votes are counted one party - The Canadian Alliance - is set to sweep all 26 Alberta ridings?

In the end Stockwell Day was denied absolute victory in his home province. Two Liberals hung on to their Edmonton seats and Joe Clark, with the help of Liberal and NDP supporters, snuck into the heart of the Alliance's Calgary fortress.

Nevertheless, it was yet another decisive win for the Alliance which has had a firm grip on Alberta since 1993.

Some, especially the losers, are wont to say that it was nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy created by media cheerleaders such as The National Post and the Calgary Herald. But is that possible? Are voters really that gullible? Or are the media simply reflecting the preferences of the vast majority of the electorate?

These are tricky questions, especially in Calgary where another political phenomenon - Ralph Klein - has successfully dominated government and the media, first as Mayor and then as Premier, for over twenty years.

"It's very hard for local candidates to make any sort of impression on the public. They don't have big budgets and are dependent on the media. But the media are only interested in thumbnail sketches and stock riding profiles." - David Taras, communications expert at the University of Calgary

Overwhelming support for this brand of conservatism (The Klein Tories are openly supportive of Day and the Alliance and vice-versa) means election campaigns aren't so much about which party is going to win as they are about the politics of the ruling party.

And that's why earlier this year two bitterly contested Alliance nominations in Calgary became front-page news.

It was a given that whoever won the nomination would be the next MP, so Alliance MPs Art Hanger and Rob Anders as well as their opponents, were subjected to unusual scrutiny. Reporters dug into their records, their supporters and their campaign tactics. But once the nominations were settled, coverage of local candidates wasn't nearly as intense.

David Taras, a communications expert at the University of Calgary, believes local candidates are given only token coverage because the media are driven by national polls and party leaders.

"It's very hard for local candidates to make any sort of impression on the public. They don't have big budgets and are dependent on the media. But the media are only interested in thumbnail sketches and stock riding profiles."

The Alberta media didn't even subject Stockwell Day to a thorough investigation of his past including his fourteen years in provincial government and what effect that might or might not have on his federal ambitions.

Two of the key pieces on Day were written by journalists outside the province. Gordon Laird, an Albertan now living in Toronto, wrote an article that was picked up by publications across the country about Day's life as a preacher and head of a Christian school. And it was CBC Television's National Magazine that revealed Day's belief in Creationism.

"The media did a much better job (of reporting on the issues) than the parties." - Faron Ellis, political scientist at Lethbridge Community College

But while the media in Alberta may be reluctant to tarnish the halos of home-grown heroes, Faron Ellis, a political scientist at the Lethbridge Community College, believes media outlets did a respectable job of examining issues and dissecting party platforms.

"The media did a much better job of this than the parties," he adds.

Ellis points to a series run by the Lethbridge Herald as an example of what local media can do to help citizens make up their minds at election time.

The newspaper invited readers to write in with questions for the candidates and then ran the questions and each candidate's answer. During the last two weeks of the campaign Ask the Candidates ran up to three times a week. The newspaper also featured a full page of election coverage that included local issues and candidates each day of the campaign.

Both Ellis and Taras commended the Calgary Herald's efforts to explain party platforms. On the question of tax cuts, for example, it devoted six pages to explaining the five party positions. Included in the package was a detailed, and very useful, chart on the effect of various tax cut proposals on a single parent of two children earning $35,000 a year.

Overriding all the local coverage, however, were the national public opinion polls.

"You could almost graph the effect of the polls on the coverage," says Taras. They affected commentary as well as reporting...it would shift daily according to the latest polls."

"The Edmonton Journal gave a lot of credence to polls that were not very scientific. They usually showed the Alliance to be in a very strong position. So you have to wonder what effect those polls had on voters." - Linda Trimble, political scientist at the University of Edmonton

Taras says polls have become so predominant that it's time for journalists to start questioning the role they play. Are they replacing old-fashioned reporting? Do they keep reporters from talking to ordinary voters? Are they suppressing voter turnout?

"After all who wants to go to the game when you already know the outcome?" he asks.

Linda Trimble, a political scientist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton thinks some of the media were sloppy when they reported on polls, especially those done by local pollsters.

"The Edmonton Journal gave a lot of credence to polls that were not very scientific. They usually showed the Alliance to be in a very strong position. So you have to wonder what effect those polls had on voters," she says.

And what about those headlines based on public opinion polls? The Calgary Herald ran a front-page headline that indicated The Alliance was gaining ground fast. Only when you read the story did you realize this was happening only in Alberta, not the rest of the country where it was actually losing ground.

So what now? How should Alberta journalists report on their MPs?

It's going to be difficult says Faron Ellis of the Lethbridge Community College, because all the parties blurred their platforms so much it's going to be hard for journalists to hold politicians to their word.

David Taras suggests that journalists find out more about how their MPs adapt to life in Ottawa.

"How do they respond to constituents' concerns?...how much independence are they given when it comes to representing their constituents? Somehow journalists have to find a way to connect the politicians with the public again because it's quite clear that the average voter doesn't see the issues the same way journalists and politicians do."