No Aboriginal representation from Alberta

October 19, 2015

The red wave that swept Justin Trudeau into Ottawa as prime minister of a Liberal majority government with 184 seats by-passed Alberta.

The province’s sole Aboriginal Liberal candidate, Garry Parenteau, placed a distant second in the northern riding of Lakeland. Lakeland was the only riding in the province with two Aboriginal candidates. NDP Duane Zaraska placed third. With
192 of 235 polls counted, Lakeland went to Conservative Shannon Stubbs.

At deadline, the Liberals had won the riding of Calgary Skyview, while Liberal Kent Hehr was battling with Conservative Joan Crockatt in Calgary Centre. In Edmonton, Liberal Randy Boissonnault was 400 votes up on Conservative James Cumming in Edmonton-Centre and Liberal Amarjeet Sohi defeated incumbent Conservative Tim Uppal by 80 votes in Edmonton-Millwoods. The Green Party’s sole Aboriginal candidate, Ralph Mclean was a distant fourth in Edmonton-Millwoods.

At least 30 of Alberta’s 34 ridings went Conservative, giving the now Official Opposition almost one-third of its 102 seats. There were no Conservative Aboriginal candidates in Alberta.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed a disappointed crowd in Calgary, taking sole responsibility for his party’s loss. In a statement released while he delivered his speech, Harper directed party officials to select an interim leader. It is expected that while Harper resigns as leader he will maintain his Calgary Heritage seat.

Bernard Valcourt, who held the portfolio of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, was among the many Conservative ministers to lose his seat.

The six Aboriginal NDP candidates in the province placed distant second or third in their respective ridings, a reflection of the NDP fall from Official Opposition to third place with 41 seats. In the riding of Peace River-Westlock, with five polls left to come, Cameron Alexis placed second with 6,987 votes to
Conservative Arnold Viersen, who garnered 34,076 votes. In Fort McMurray-Cold Lake, Melody Lepine placed third with 213 of 227 polls reporting. Lepine garnered 3,315 votes to incumbent Conservative David Yurdiga’s 26,192. Fritz Bitz placed third with 5,654 votes to winner incumbent Conservative Mike Lake’s 38,924 votes with 230 of 264 polls reporting. In Edmonton-Manning with 155 of 187 polls reporting, NDP Aaron Paquette placed third with 9,729 votes with Conservative Ziad Aboultaif declared winner with 19,156 votes. In Battle River-Crowfoot with all polls in, NDP Katherine Swampy placed third with 3,844 votes with incumbent Conservative Kevin Sorenson re-elected with 47,650.

Linda Duncan held on to Edmonton Strathcona for the NDP. Leader Tom Mulcair, who fought hard to maintain his seat in Quebec, spoke passionately about his party continuing to push for a national inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal
women and was “resolute” about building a nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations. He said he was “immensely proud” that his party had the most Aboriginal candidates and women candidates in the history of Canada. The NDP dropped from 103 seats.

In an interview with CBC News, prior to the Liberals being declared as majority government, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said both the Liberals and the NDP had “robust responses” to the AFN’s Closing the Gap election report. Bellegarde said he would work with whoever was elected.