Polling companies and area residents all believed the May 5 Alberta election was going to be a close one, particularly in the Banff-Cochrane riding. But by the time a little more than half the polling locations had reported, it was evident to Wildrose candidate Scott Wagner that his NDP competitor was separating himself from the herd.
“I think it’s pretty obvious what the result is going to be,” Wagner said to a group of supporters at Cochrane’s Boston Pizza, congratulating Cameron Westhead for his election victory. “He’ll have a great task ahead of him, and I think we need to hold him to that task.”
The final tally is quite telling: Westhead garnered 43 per cent of the vote in Banff-Cochrane, Wagner had 28.8 per cent and PC incumbent Ron Casey a close third with 28.2 per cent.
Westhead, however, won handily, with 2,775 more votes than Wagner.
The Wildroser was able to look at the positive results for his party.
“We have 19 Wildrosers in the lead,” Wagner told his supporters, “and I think that’s a huge, huge success for the Wildrose. We’re going to do even better this time around.”
The Wildrose will be the official opposition, with 21 seats. The NDP’s majority government will boast 53 seats (with over 40 per cent of the popular vote), while the former governing PCs picked up 10 seats. Both the Alberta Liberals and Alberta Party also won a seat.
Wagner thanked all those who helped and supported his run for Banff-Cochrane MLA, including his wife, campaign manager and Wildrose Party constituency president.
“We’ve come a long way and we’ve shown Alberta resilience,” Wagner said, “and I think the Wildrose candidates in Alberta will be very successful in opposition.”
