Even with majority, UCP's Copping, Nixon and Milliken lose seats in Calgary

Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party won the election last night but the Alberta NDP made some inroads in Calgary, the city where most of the month-long campaign was fought.

When the dust settled on Monday night, Smith had defeated Rachel Notley's NDP by 11 seats.

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The majority of the rural ridings went to the UCP and all of Edmonton went to the NDP, but Notley made some significant progress in the city of Calgary.

According to the unofficial results, the NDP captured 14 out of the city's 26 seats. In the 2019 election, the opposition won in just three ridings in Calgary.

PROMINENT MINISTERS OUT

Among the losses the UCP suffered in Calgary were Jason Copping, who served as health minister, Nicholas Milliken, Smith's minister of mental health and addictions, and Jeremy Nixon, the former minister of seniors, community and social services.

Devinder Toor, Jason Luan, Prasad Panda, Josephine Pon and Inder Grewal also lost their seats to their NDP competitors.

The long-vacant riding of Calgary-Elbow also went orange, with the NDP's Samir Kayande defeating Chris Davis of the UCP by less than 1,000 votes.

RECOUNT EXPECTED

There were also some races too close to call in Calgary.

A judicial recount has been ordered in Calgary-Acadia, where unofficial results show Tyler Shandro, Smith's justice minister, is behind Diana Batten of the NDP by just seven votes.

A riding just outside Calgary went orange as well, with the UCP's Miranda Rosin behind the NDP's Sarah Elmeligi by 199 votes.

That's short of the official Elections Alberta guideline to initiate a recount, but Rosin still could appeal the decision following the release of the official results.

Back inside Calgary, there were three other close races:

• In Calgary-North West, incumbent Rajan Sawhney defeated her opponent Michael Lisboa-Smith by just 149 votes;
• In Calgary-North, the UCP's Muhammad Yaseen edged his NDP opponent Rajesh Angral by 113 votes; and
• In Calgary-Glenmore, Whitney Issik was just 30 votes behind the NDP's Nagwan Al-Guneid.

The UCP won the election with 52.5 per cent of the popular vote, with 926,918 ballots cast in its favour.

The NDP earned 776,188 votes or 44 per cent of the popular vote.

The UCP says Danielle Smith spent 19 days of the campaign between May 1 and 29 in Calgary campaigning, making announcements and meeting with voters.

The NDP says Rachel Notley spent 22 days on the trail in Calgary between the same period, visiting 20 of the city’s 26 ridings.

(With files from Tyson Fedor)