United Conservative Party wins Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection

The results are in from the byelection for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, and they took some by surprise, putting a party or two's future in question.

The unofficial results are in and the United Conservative Party received 61 per cent of the byelection vote in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding.

The Alberta NDP finished with 20 per cent, the Republican Party of Alberta had 18 per cent and the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition took about one per cent.

Official results will be announced July 3.

Many political analysts were curious if the Republican Party of Alberta would receive more votes, as they focused on Alberta secession during a time when discontent with Ottawa is high.

“The results of this byelection in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills could not be more disastrous for the Republican Party of Alberta. To have come in third behind the NDP is not something that even their most ardent supporters could ever have imagined,” said Matthew Solberg with New West Public Affairs.

“I would expect them to go off into the wilderness at this point.”

Cameron Davies, Republican Party of Alberta candidate and leader, sees the 2,705 votes as laying a foundation for future support.

“It took a step of courage for people to step away from their traditional voting habits and patterns and say the status quo isn’t working,” said Davies.

“My message to them is that we are still here and fighting, and we aren’t going away any time soon. This is just the beginning.”

On Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith said she hopes to quell the separatist movement and conservative vote splitting with a stronger relationship with Ottawa.

“The sentiment that you’re seeing was created in Ottawa by 10 years of terrible policy. I think it can also be dialed down by Ottawa by undoing 10 years of terrible policy and allowing us to get back to investing and allowing us to be able to chart our own course as a province in our areas of jurisdiction,” said Smith.

“I think that the jury is very much still out on the future of that movement, but I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to address these concerns so that sentiment subsides.”