Dan Nelles, the Alberta NDP's Airdrie-East Candidate said that despite his loss to incumbent UCP MLA Angela Pitt, he said there is much his team should be proud of.

"We ran the biggest campaign that the Alberta NDP has ever run in Airdrie East and we're on track to achieve the best results that the Alberta NDP has ever achieved in Airdrie East," Nelles said. "We presented a strong, credible, trustworthy positive campaign for Airdrie voters."

According to Elections Alberta, Nelles garnered 8,701 to Pitt's 15,229. In 2019, the then NDP candidate for Airdrie-East Roxie Baez Zamora had garnered 4,960 votes, to Pitt's 16,764. 

However, it should also be noted that voter turnout in the most provincial election was down from 2019. In 2019, the final voter turnout was 67.5 per cent, which was the highest voter turnout since 1971. Currently, the unofficial voter turnout for the 2023 provincial election stands at 62.38 per cent. 

"We ran a very positive campaign. We didn't focus a lot on the negatives and we told Airdrie-East exactly what it was that we wanted to do in government and what our plans would be," Nelles added. "I wish more folks would have cast their ballot in our direction, but I can certainly accept the results. That's the beauty of democracy and this is a strong foundation for future years. I think that the takeaway from all of this is that we will be back with an even larger campaign and we will continue to be here and we will continue to listen to people in the east."

Nelles said he would offer his congratulations to his UCP counterpart and well wishes. 

"I will say that it is an immense honour - to be entrusted by the voters of Airdrie-East with a position in the legislature. That position needs to be treated with respect as to all of the voters in Airdrie East. It would be my hope that this term will be characterized by more listening to the needs of the constituents here and that the needs of the constituents here will be met better than what happened in the past."

Province-wide, the UCP garnered 926,918 votes, 52.56 per cent of the total vote while the NDP garnered 776,188 votes, or 44.02 per cent of the vote. 

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