The orange wave of 2015 was washed away April 16, as the United Conservative Party (UCP) captured a majority government, taking 63 of the 87 seats in the Legislature, according to the unofficial results.
The UCP took an early lead and it was quickly apparent the New Democratic Party (NDP) had been defeated.
"What a great day for the province of Alberta," said premier-elect Jason Kenney in his jubilant victory address, declaring, "Alberta is open for business."
He focused in on industy, promising the lowest taxes, a deep culture of enterprise and innovation, and a renewal of the Alberta advantage.
"There is a deep frustration in the province," he said, adding fiscal federalism is not helping Albertans in the current climate, and promised to fight the "foreign-funded campaign" against Alberta oil.
"Your days of pushing around Alberta with impunity have ended," he said of foreign special interest groups. "We've had enough of your campaign of defamation and double standards."
Kenney took aim at equalization payments and issued a special message to Quebec, saying he had great respect for Quebec's premier and people; however, with the economic crisis in this province, "we need pipelines for the prosperity of all Canadians, including Quebecers."
"At a time that Alberta is hurting we must work together," Kenney said, adding if other provinces want to benefit from Alberta's advantage they must partner with Alberta to build the pipelines.
For her part, Rachel Notley gave an impassioned concession speech, highlighting the NDP's record while in office. She said she would remain the NDP leader and told supporters, "My friends, Albertans have hired us to be a thoughtful and constructive opposition," before promising to continue to fight for NDP values.
Locally, Peter Guthrie (UCP) easily won his seat with 66.2 per cent of votes, and will be the first MLA to represent Airdrie-Cochrane. His closest competitor was Steve Durrell (NDP) with 25.2 per cent of votes.
“I’m absolutely, utterly speechless and overwhelmed,” Guthrie told our sister paper, the Cochrane Eagle, minutes after learning of his victory.
He expressed his gratitude to the tremendous voter turnout, his family and a small army of some 250 volunteers.
Durrell commended Notley and the NDP government, saying they did "amazing things" while in office.
"I'd like to congratulate Peter on his win," he said, "and ask that he work to advocate for the needs of all people in our riding, including the needs of the LGBTQ2+ community, supports for new moms looking to return to work, and the need for new schools in Rocky View [Schools], and that he absolutely can not back off getting infrastructure projects like the [Highway 1A and Highway 22] interchange built."
In Airdrie-East incumbent Angela Pitt (UCP) easily held on to her seat with 67.3 per cent of votes. NDP candidate Roxie Baez Zamora followed with 20 per cent of votes.
"The United Conservative Party has so much hope to bring to this province," Pitt said. "I think it's very clear that the people of Airdrie-East certainly agree with the hope that we're promising to bring through our election platform."
Turning her sights on the future, Pitt said there is a lot of work to be done.
"There's been a lot of damage done by the NDP, and our job is to not be tinkering," she said. "It's not to try experiments out. It's to get to work, and immediately and aggressively put our plan into action so we can get people back to work and we can get them to a place where they can feed their families and, hopefully, we see food bank usage – which has been on the rise for the last year – actually start to decline."
Banff-Kananaski proved to be the county's tightest race and, as of noon April 18, unofficial results indicate Miranda Rosin (UCP) is leading incumbent Cam Westhead (NDP) by a small margin – Rosin has 48.4 per cent of votes to Westhead's 44.7 per cent. However, with just 96 of 98 polls reporting, neither candidate had conceded by press time.
“This race has definitely been a nail-biter for everyone but our team is still cautiously optimistic that we can pull out a win,” Rosin told our sister paper, the Rocky Mountain Outlook, the morning after polls closed.
In a prepared statement issued April 17, Westhead said he was proud to have run with Rachel Notley and the NDP.
“I remain hopeful that I’ve earned the support of our community, and if so, I will be excited to get to work right away,” he said.
In Chestermere-Strathmore it was quickly apparent incumbent Leela Aheer (UCP) had won the riding by a landslide, with 67.45 per cent of votes. Her closest competitor was Melissa Langmaid (NDP) with just 16.4 per cent.
In a Facebook post, Aheer thanked her campaign team, supporters, her family and constituents.
"The people of the riding of Chestermere-Strathmore and the previous riding of Chestermere-Rocky View are my reason for working so hard, because you work so hard," she wrote. "You inspire me everyday."
Nathan Cooper (UCP) overwhelmingly gained the support of voters in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, regaining his seat by claiming 78.8 per cent of votes. Following Cooper was Kyle Johnston (NDP) with just 11.6 per cent.
As reported in our sister paper, the Innisfail Province, Cooper said throughout the campaign constituents consistently brought up similar concerns.
"I think we’ve seen this evening a very, very clear directive from the people of Alberta," he said. "They are looking for a government that really wants to focus on the main issues of jobs, the economy and pipelines; that really wants to have a government that respects Albertans, and really puts them back in the driver’s seat. That's exactly what they’re going to find in the UCP government.”
Official results will not be released until April 26.
