Linda Duncan, Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona, remains Alberta’s lone New Democrat MP. “I wish I was not alone up here,” Duncan said at an NDP celebration following the election results. “But I am not alone,” she said as she waved up the other NDP candidates in attendance.
Janis Irwin, NDP candidate for Edmonton-Griesbach, was considered a likely winner due to the new riding having no incumbent, former MP Peter Goldring announcing his retirement before the election. The riding was won by Conservative Kerry Diotte, a former Councillor with the City of Edmonton.
Irwin campaigned for close to two years and knocked on every door in the large riding. In a tearful speech, she thanked her supporters. “We talk about hard work having its own reward. We didn’t get the result we wanted but I have a feeling our new MP will be spending a lot of time looking in the rear-view mirror because there is always another election.”
Aaron Paquette, running with the NDP for Edmonton-Manning, was a high-profile candidate as a successful artist and outspoken Aboriginal activist. His home was vandalized the week before the election. “We have four years to share the New Democrat vision for the future. Four years to talk to our friends and our neighbours. Four years to build something unbelievably strong, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Four seats in Alberta were won by Liberal candidates, the party which will form a majority government in the country with leader Justin Trudeau as the new Prime Minister. The Liberal majority was viewed by many at the NDP event as being bittersweet — while the NDP did not achieve near the expectations of supporters, the ousting of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister and his Conservatives as being the party in power, was seen as a positive development.
