There's a really solid reason why the NDP won the provincial election and the conservatives won Alberta federally. It's not that Alberta has the memory of a goldfish at all.

Despite the NDP winning the provincial election in Alberta, the majority of the province didn't vote for them. This sounds crazy, until you realize the reason the NDP even won was because the conservative side was split between two parties, which isn't the case federally. The NDP had 40% of the vote, while the conservatives and wild rose combined had 50%. The ratio federally is about the same, but reversed, with the NDP and liberals splitting the vote on the left.

Alberta is still a rather conservative province. What really sped things along last election was a lot of people didn't like the Alberta Conservatives anymore, yet weren't so willing to jump to the NDP and liberals, so the vote for the right-wing parties got scattered. The NDP were strong enough to benefit from this 'anything but conservatives' mantra as the NDP took the lead in the split vote. Added with a rather weak liberal campaign in Alberta--I almost think they just played it low to let the NDP take the advantage--the NDP was able to dominate even though most of the province didn't want them.

I am very curious on how things will go for the next next election in Alberta. If either right-wing party is able to unite the right vote again in Alberta, then it's likely the NDP will be out. This is of course going on if the province stays conservative. Alberta can be stubborn sometimes, so that might be the case. There's also the possibility that the liberals will start campaigning hard in Alberta and take a chunk from the already shaky NDP popular vote.