A longshot at best, Banff-Airdrie Green Party candidate Mike MacDonald was unfazed finishing fourth on election night.
After the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election polls had been counted in his riding, he’d garnered 2,383 votes or four per cent of the total votes in Banff-Airdrie.
“I kind of had a feeling this is where it was going to go in the last week,” MacDonald said following the election. “Early on I had hopes. I hoped we would have a bigger shift, especially in Airdrie as far as the Conservative vote.”
No such luck, as Conservative incumbent Blake Richards won his third-straight term in the region with 40,617 votes.
Liberal Marlo Raynolds claimed second and New Democratic Party’s Joanne Boissonneault third.
“I knew Marlo had run a strong campaign and had got a quite a few people on board and, nationally with the party, I’m not surprised with the Green vote in this riding being lower this time,” MacDonald said. “That being said, I am happy to beat the national average (for the Green Party) of 3.4 per cent.”
Green Party leader Elizabeth May was lone Green Party member elected. She reclaimed her Saanich-Gulf Island riding.
“I finished with four per cent (3.8) and that has been pretty consistent in this riding. In the last four elections the Greens have always been a little higher than the national vote.”
As for Greens winning just one seat in Canada: “That is a little bit disappointing. I kind of had hopes on the West Coast there would be seat pickups there and there were ridings that were strong in Victoria.”
