As Canadians across the country are waking up to a new political climate on Tuesday under Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party, two Calgary ridings made a turn from Tory blue as well.
Calgary-Centre and Calgary-Skyview both went to the Liberals, who made the first breakthrough in the province since 1968.
Kent Hehr claimed Calgary-Centre from PC incumbent Joan Crockatt after a hard back and forth battle all night, but when it was all over, the former Liberal MLA came out on top, just 906 votes over his opponent.
He told CTV Calgary on Tuesday morning that he doesn't want to ignore the voters in his riding. "I don't want to just represent those citizens who voted for me, I want to represent all the citizens of Calgary-Centre. That means consulting with public policy as well as being at the grocery stores, restaurants, and coffee shops discussing issues that matter to those people whether they voted for me or not."
That wasn’t the only seat the Liberals took in Calgary on election night, however. Darshan Kang won in Calgary-Skyview, beating his opponent Devinder Shory of the PCs with about 46 percent of the vote.
Kang is also a former Liberal MLA in the riding of Calgary-McCall.
"The road here has been paved by those who believed and worked for decades," Kang said during his victory speech. "We won this campaign the old-fashioned way, we earned through hope and hard work."
The last time that the Liberals held a seat in the area was under Pierre Trudeau, with Pat Mahoney winning Calgary-South.
At the end of the night, Stephen Harper’s Tories suffered a huge defeat, dropping from 159 seats down to 99.
Some of the more notable defeats among the Tories included Finance Minister Joe Oliver, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt, and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.
Michelle Rempel, who was victorious in her riding of Calgary-Nose Hill, says the legacy left by Harper has improved the country whether people care to admit it or not.
"I always think there's an arc and a life cycle for a government and we've had many good years of a government that I think has left Canada in a great position. Certainly, ten years is a long time."
Harper has announced that he would be resigning as leader of the party, but Rempel says it's still way too early to consider who will replace him.
"The role that I'm thinking about right now, that I've been given, is to be a strong voice for the residents of Calgary-Nose Hill. I think one of the most rewarding things for me over the last four years in the service has been finding that voice and learning how to use it. I think that's been reflected in some of the policy that's been put forward."
Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won 184 seats.
The NDP finished the night with 44 seats, the Bloc with 10, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May held onto her seat in Saanich-Gulf Islands.
Political analyst Stephen Carter says the election result can be based on what's called 'wave politics'. "Over and over again, the electorate, those undecideds until the very end are coming in on one side or the other. We saw it with Naheed Nenshi in 2010, we saw it with Alison Redford in 2012, we saw it with Rachel Notley in 2015. Wave politics, even the NDP in 2011 we saw in the federal election, caught the Orange Wave which has now turned into the Orange Crash. We;ve completely shifted our thinking with this election."
The real work will be beginning immediately for the Liberals to fulfill campaign promises of $125B in infrastructure investments over the next 10 years.
Trudeau also promised $1.5B for Calgary’s LRT Green Line and millions on flood mitigation projects.
