The final result wasn't what he wanted to see, though it didn't come as a shock.
The final result wasn't what he wanted to see, though it didn't come as a shock.
Travis Olson, who was running in his second straight provincial campaign in the Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater riding for the Wildrose Party, wound up in third spot behind incumbent Jeff Johnson and the new NDP MLA for the riding, Colin Piquette.
Olson had 4,975 votes on the night, 42 behind Johnson and more than 1,800 back of Piquette.
“It was about what we expected, ” stated Olson about 90 minutes after the polls closed. “I didn't notice a shift during the campaign, but there was a very heavy anti-PC sentiment out there and voters were telling us right from the start that they were looking to vote for the best option to take them out. ”
Olson added that as the campaign drew close to its conclusion, that option clearly became the NDP.
“When the polls from the cities started looking like the NDP were moving ahead, voters in our area were saying they believed they were the best option, and told us that's who they would be voting for, ” he said, noting there was a lot less partisanship this time around, compared to 2012.
As for the provincial result, Olson said he was more than pleased that the Wildrose maintained Official Opposition status and pushed the PCs to third.
“It's a very good result for our party, considering what we saw occur before Christmas with the floor-crossings, ” said Olson.
“Internally, the party was talking about how to make the party relevant and regain the trust of the public again. For us, to end up maintaining our status as Official Opposition, it's an immense win. ”
For Olson, to have the Wildrose end up with nearly four times the amount of seats they had when the election was called, and with the NDP numbers surging near the end of the campaign, the final result is pretty good.
“To keep that position, it will help us do the best job possible in holding the NDP government to account for their action, ” he said.
