Liberals win the election but Alberta stays Conservative blue

Conservatives win 34 of 37 seats, Liberals win 2, NDP 1

Pierre Poilievre delivers his election night concession speech to supporters (screenshot: Conservative Party of Canada / Facebook)

One of Daveberta’s first rules of Alberta politics is to never underestimate the Conservatives, and that rule appears to have held true last night as votes in the federal election were counted across the province.

At the time I am publishing this, Conservative Party candidates are elected in 34 of 37 ridings in Alberta. This makes them a significant block in what will be a 144 MP Conservative Opposition in Ottawa. This is a larger Conservative caucus than existed before this election but falls far short of the huge majority government the Conservatives were expecting Pierre Poilievre would lead them to only a few months ago. The Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Mark Carney were re-elected with 168 seats, including two in Alberta.

Here are the national seat totals (pending recounts):

• Liberal: 168

• Conservative: 144

• Bloc Quebecois: 23

• NDP: 7

• Green: 1

While the Liberals only won two seats in Alberta, some of the party’s candidates placed strong seconds in ridings in Calgary and Edmonton and saw their province-wide vote jump to 27.8 percent — the party’s best showing in Alberta in almost 60 years. The Conservatives saw their support jump to 63.7 percent province-wide, with the party’s candidates racking up huge majorities in rural ridings outside of the two big cities. The NDP finished with 6.2 percent in Alberta, roughly a quarter of what the party earned in the last election.

By my count, at least 13 Conservative candidates were elected with the support of more than 70 percent of voters in their ridings. It also looks like Battle River—Crowfoot Conservative Damien Kurek will keep the crown of representing the strongest Conservative riding in Alberta with 82 percent of the votes.

The only non-Conservatives elected in Alberta last night are rookie Liberals Corey Hogan in Calgary Confederation and Eleanor Olszewski in Edmonton Centre, and NDP MP Heather McPherson, who was re-elected to a third term as MP for Edmonton Strathcona.