Progressive Conservative incumbent Doug Horner will serve his fourth consecutive term as MLA for Spruce Grove-St. Albert, voters decided Monday.
Supporters at his Spruce Grove campaign office erupted with cheers early in the night as Horner was declared re-elected with just four of 85 polls reporting.
"I look at this election as the new beginning for the province of Alberta," Horner said.
He had a landslide victory, more than doubling his closest opponent, Wildrose candidate Travis Hughes. The success prompted a congratulatory text message from Premier Alison Redford on election night.
Horner received roughly 55 per cent of the votes with 10,722, while Hughes earned 5,340 votes. Alberta Liberal candidate Chris Austin got 1,779 votes and NDP candidate Rev. J.J. Trudeau received 1,773.
Winning by a large margin isn't something new to Horner, who won roughly 61 per cent of the votes in the 2008 election, doubling his closest opponent, Alberta Liberal Ray Boudreau.
"This was a crossroads for the province," Horner said of the 2012 vote.
"We were either going to move forward, in my view, progressively or we were going to turn to the right or turn to the left," he said. "I think Albertans have decided that they want to move in a progressive, positive way."
Many opinion polls predicted the Wildrose would gain a strong presence in the legislature, possibly even a majority government, but Horner said he was confident he would win his seat and was confident Albertans would support his party.
"In my gut, I felt that we had a much stronger chance across the province and I felt that Albertans would buy into our vision and they have," he said.
The PCs won 61 of the 87 seats in the legislature, trailed by the Wildrose with 17, the Liberals with five and the NDP with four.
Horner said he felt there was a lot of fear surrounding the Wildrose campaign, which ultimately worked against them.
"I think the platform of the [Wildrose] party was very thin – a lot of rhetoric, not a lot of meat behind it," he said. "My fear was that people would buy into the rhetoric without looking into the facts."
Another factor he said may have hurt the Wildrose was negative campaigning, which he felt was evident during the 28-day campaign period.
"Negativity in campaigns, once again Albertans have shown if you do it, you do it to your detriment," he said. "Put something out there that says this is what we're going to do and this is how we're going to do it and Albertans will respond."
Horner has been deputy premier under Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford and has long served in cabinet.
"My number one job is the MLA for Spruce Grove-St. Albert," he said. "If the premier asks me to serve on cabinet, I'd be more than honoured to do that."
Horner previously represented the Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert constituency, but due to population growth, amendments were made to electoral boundaries that took effect with this election.
In St. Albert, the Spruce Grove-St. Albert riding covers the area north of McKenney Avenue and west of St. Albert Trail. It also includes the communities of Villeneuve, Calahoo and the Alexander First Nation.
Not totally defeated
While earning less than half the votes of the victorious Horner, runner-up Hughes knew early in the night he would not be victorious. He stopped off at Horner's Spruce Grove campaign office to offer up congratulations shortly after it was announced Horner was re-elected.
Candidates on the left weren't bitter about the results, with both Austin and Trudeau saying a PC majority is better than a Wildrose majority – something they said was overwhelmingly apparent on the doorsteps.
"The people spoke and made their decision what they wanted and that's the way it is. That's the way the cookie crumbles," Austin said. "As long as [the PCs] learn something from this and they listen to the people more and they make the right decisions … I'm okay with it."
Heading into election night, he said he felt his chances were "good" because of the expected vote splitting on the right. Although he didn't win, he said he will consider running again if he is asked to, but will remain focused on strengthening a constituency association in the meantime.
Trudeau isn't sure she will run again, but said the election is a positive step for the NDP.
"I think that we made inroads and that's positive," she said. "Alberta spoke clearly, I think, in various ways and I think we're looking forward to hopefully a brighter future for Alberta."
