Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi heading for legislature after byelection win

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has won a byelection in Edmonton-Strathcona, according to unofficial results posted online by Elections Alberta.

With all polls reporting, Nenshi's party colleague Gurtej Singh Brar was also leading in the Edmonton-Ellerslie race. And in central Alberta, the United Conservative Party hung onto a seat in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. 

With all polls in Edmonton-Strathcona reporting, Nenshi had 7,952 of the 9,665 votes counted, or about 82 per cent of the ballots. The UCP candidate Darby Crouch earned 14 per cent of the vote.

"This is your result, your victory," Nenshi told supporters gathered at a south Edmonton hotel for a victory party.

"It's your inroads you made tonight."

Nenshi defeated five other candidates who ran for the UCP, Liberal Party, Alberta Party, Republican Party of Alberta and the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. 

Political newcomer Tara Sawyer of the UCP is poised to be the next MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, staving off a threat from the Opposition and an invigorated separatist party.

With all polls reporting, Sawyer had 61 per cent, or 9,363 of the 15,318 votes tallied. NDP candidate Bev Toews came in second place with 20 per cent of the vote, and Republican Party of Alberta leader Cam Davies was in third, with 18 per cent of the vote. Wildrose Loyalty Coalition candidate Bill Tufts was in a distant fourth place.

Sawyer told supporters gathered at a hotel in Olds, which is 96 kilometres north of Calgary, she feels honoured voters recognized she was the right person for the job.

She told reporters the intrigue with a separatist candidate shows how frustrated rural Albertans are with the federal government, and that it's time the Liberal government take Alberta's interests more seriously. Sawyer said citizens told her this while she was door knocking during the campaign.

"What I kept telling them, and what they clearly recognized, is we didn't need a divisive party," Sawyer said. "We need to remain strong, and we already have a government that's working every day on all the issues that are frustrating them."

The seat was vacated by former legislature Speaker and longtime UCP MLA Nathan Cooper, who resigned last month to become Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C.

Cooper was at Sawyer's victory party in Olds on Monday night, and congratulated her with a hug.

Republican Party leader Davies said he's undeterred by the byelection result.