Edmonton's NDP candidates hope a surge of support builds into a new orange wave

The results of Monday's federal election seemed to be a repeat of the last throughout the blue sea of Alberta — with few notable exceptions.

NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais hopes he is starting a new political future in Edmonton Griesbach, where his win flipped a riding that has been Conservative in one form or another for decades.

"I think that we stand a good shot the next election at not only retaining this seat but expanding across Alberta, particularly in Edmonton and Calgary," he said.

Desjarlais' win was part of an overall trend that saw a big bump in the NDP's share of votes compared to 2019 across all of Edmonton's 11 ridings. The rise was a stark contrast to the other two major parties: Conservatives on average saw a 13.8-point drop while Liberals stagnated at a loss of around 0.1 points.

Liberal candidate Randy Boissonnault barely clinched the Edmonton Centre riding from incumbent Conservative James Cumming but hard on their heels was the NDP's Heather MacKenzie.

"The NDP in Edmonton Centre have never shown better," she said last week. "This is a historic campaign for us — we had a higher percentage of the vote than ever before."

MacKenzie's campaign finished about 4.9 per cent — around 2,000 ballots — behind the winner, and she predicts the next cycle will draw in more supporters and more resources, topping the approximately $50,000 she estimated was raised during her campaign.