EDMONTON – The woman known ironically across the country as Landslide Annie because of her ability to hold onto her Liberal seat by slim margins in Conservative Alberta couldn’t hang on this time.
Former deputy prime minister and minister of public safety Anne McLellan lost her Edmonton Centre seat in a close race to former fighter pilot Laurie Hawn making all 28 Alberta seats Conservative.
The lead shifted between the two candidates throughout the night. Even when it was clear voters across the country were turning away from the Liberals, McLellan didn’t concede defeat.
Read Also
Phosphate prices to remain high
Phosphate prices are expected to remain elevated, according to Mosaic’s president.
“We’ll just wait and see what happens. It never changes. It’s always close,” said McLellan from her post-election headquarters in her Edmonton riding shortly after the polls closed.
McLellan was first elected in 1993, beating a Reform candidate by a single vote. On a recount, the margin was raised to 12. In 1997 she won by 1,400 votes.
In 2000 she won by 700 votes and in 2004 she defeated Hawn by 700 votes, but the former University of Alberta law professor couldn’t make it five wins.
This time Hawn won by more than 3,500 votes.
Even before acknowledging defeat, McLellan noted Canadians were seeking change with the election of a Conservative minority government.
“Our nation is clearly questioning the choices that are available to it and they’re not very happy with what the Conservatives have to offer. I also acknowledge that there’s unhappiness with us at this point,” she said.
Although the Conservatives won the election, they will have to hold together a “badly fractured” parliament, which won’t be easy, she said. She predicted the Conservatives will be forced to come to the Liberals at times to hold on to power.
McLellan said it was sad that Paul Martin won’t continue as leader of the Liberals, but looked on it as an opportunity for renewal.
She can’t point to any one thing that went wrong during the campaign but the Liberals knew when the election was called that it would be tough to win a fifth straight victory.
“We knew and we’ve known for some time it would be tough to win number five. It’s a natural part of a healthy democracy,” she said, acknowledging a desire for change also in Edmonton Centre.
Hawn said he too heard voters’ interest in change as he campaigned.
“They were telling me it was the time to switch.”
Hawn said keys to his win were the poor national Liberal campaign and the exceptional national campaign of the Conservatives.
In 2004 Edmonton voters also elected David Kilgour, the former Tory MP turned Liberal, who after the election became an independent.
He did not run in this election and the riding, Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont, was won handily by Conservative Mike Lake.
