Party Websites: Alberta election

Here is a list of the main party websites for the Alberta provincial election.
The list comes from this site. The business community is very upset it seems that Stelmach leads the Conservatives. The Financial Post claims that the Wild Rose spokesperson sums it up:
Perhaps Paul Hinman, leader of the fringe Wildrose Alliance, best summed up the mood:
"We have three socialist parties [in Alberta] who are all saying that if we tax and take away from the most successful industries, we are going to make our communities better."
Wow! Maybe if you stretch the meaning the way it is nowadays the NDP might be called socialist or at least vaguely pink but hardly Stelmach or Taft. The oil patch people must be filled with right-wing extremists far to the right of good old George to our south. More likely they are just venting or hyperventilating.

Alberta Tories score high in analysis of provincial election party websites
1 day ago
EDMONTON - The party websites are up and running in the Alberta election campaign. The Canadian Press asked Steven Hoose, who teaches web design at Edmonton's Grant MacEwan College, to asses the sites:
Progressive Conservatives (http://www.albertapc.ab.ca/)
Strengths: Pretty impressive overall and very on-message from a design point of view. There is visual unity. All the things I see on the page play well together and the pages are easy to scan. The site uses contrasting scale and colour in headings and subheads to help me order the messages they consider important. The messages are in predictable locations for content like navigation, key tasks, and important information. My eyes and brain don't have to do a lot of extra work.
Weaknesses: An introductory splash page that you must click on to enter a site. I try to push students away from this gimmick because it does nothing for the content or your visitor's experience. Also, too much visual consistency and the site becomes boring. I'd consider changing things up a bit from page to page to maintain interest.
Most Impressed By: The efficiency. Not a lot of clicking to get from general to specific, like to an excellent visual list of candidates.
Alberta NDP (http://www.albertandp.ca/)
Strengths: Visually approachable. The colours, shapes with rounded corners, language, photos,and messages add up to a friendly site. It's easy to read. site visitors have choices (weight, size, and colour of type) to help them read on-screen.
Weaknesses: Too much wheat. Get away from the wheat motif in Western Canadian logo design. I also could not shake the feeling that I was on a shopping site. It felt too friendly and that damaged the credibility in my mind. I blame this on the friendly colours, friendly logoa nd the friendly "Four ways You can Help" icons. Style and substance aren't mutually exclusive, but without appropriate style, we might miss substance.
Most Impressed By: The visual interest. Every page had enough different and enough same to make the overall experience balanced and visually engaging.
Alberta Liberal Party (http://www.albertaliberal.com/ )
Strengths: Clarity of navigation. Each page has menus listed on the left side. I like this way of structuring complicated content. I never lose my available choices. There are lots of people pictures, which is a good design choice. The volume of content is overwhelming, so I'm glad there are smiling faces surrounding all of those words.
Weaknesses: Visually daunting. No one likes to wade through content that is all there all the time. Most prefer to scan web pages for personally relevant content instead of cracking the spine on an epic read. I'm as happy to be given some policy detail, but visually I just don't want to see it all at once. The grid pattern in backgrounds, buttons and banner is dated and boring.
Most Impressed By: The use of imagery. Even though it's overtly "leader heavy" (there isn't a single page without party leader Kevin Taft), pictures are an effective way to make messages more approachable.
Green Party of Alberta (http://www.albertagreens.ca/)
They win the award for worst application of a really good logo and brand. Their audience is more sophisticated than their visuals and there is a lack of human presence and visual interest on the site.
Wildrose-Alliance (http://www.wildrosealliance.ca/)
Their website is well organized but hard to scan for information because of the number of small pieces I had to sift through. Lots of "click to read more." I like the wild rose concept better than the wheat as a visual approach, but the Wildrose-Alliance logo is looking retro - and not in that desirable way that the chrome dining sets look. Also, the word "announced" should never look like "amounced."