Cory Satermo

Linda Duncan, NDP candidate in the Edmonton Strathcona riding, hugs a supporter at the Rose and Crown pub in celebration of her federal election victory

Supporters are packed in so tight at Linda Duncan’s campaign headquarters on Edmonton’s south side that bike helmets are bumping shoulders and the hardwood floors are getting a good dousing of Sawmill Creek red wine. Volunteers and supporters are up on their tippy-toes, stretching to see the next poll result as the counts are posted on a large board at the front of the room.

To the right, the CBC national coverage flits by on mute over a blue couch with a rainbow-coloured handmade quilt. Jason Foster, a volunteer, watches the NDP vote across the country, remarking on the number of second-place finishes.

Cider heats up in a slow cooker culled from someone’s kitchen, slowly filling the room with a hint of cinnamon. The red-haired bartender offers beer and wine while pulling her hair in frustrated anxiety. An orange sign on the fridge beside her reads: “In 1997, Raj Pannu won by 58 votes — every vote counts!”

At 9:36 p.m., about a thousand votes separate Duncan from Conservative incumbent Rahim Jaffer, and cheers erupt every couple of minutes as new numbers are posted on the wall. Foster remains cautious. The volunteer and long-time NDPer warns everyone within earshot that the polls currently coming in are all ones they won last year. The polls are coming in rapidly now, and each new bout of cheering blends into the last. Suddenly, there’s a lull, and everyone is quiet as a volunteer writes the last poll on the wall.

At 9:57 p.m., a communal shout erupts and a man deep in the crowd gives everyone the thumbs up. Foster runs outside yelling: “We won!”

Everyone is hugging and snapping pictures on their cell phones. Foster, completely transformed, dramatically remarks: “In Tory-blue Alberta, there’s a blot of orange.” Around him, friends and fellow volunteers are already talking about how they are going to be able to say they voted in the 2008 election, when the NDP broke though in Alberta.

“We are all going to Ottawa together,” declares Duncan in her first victory speech.

She beat the Conservative incumbent Rahim Jaffer by a slim 442 votes, according to election night results.

On Vote Splitting And Coalitions

At the central NDP party at the Rose and Crown pub downtown, a Tragically Hip record is playing so loudly that the group of men gathered at a table in the back with provincial NDP Leader Brian Mason can hardly hear him. The former bus driver is in high form, joking and talking about his trip to Alaska and meeting then-governor Sarah Palin.

And he has reason to be jubilant. Duncan’s win in Strathcona means both an increased visibility for the party in Alberta and a bigger, more experienced group of volunteers supporting the party at both the national and provincial levels, he says. As for Edmonton-East, where former NDP provincial leader Ray Martin lost to Conservative incumbent Peter Goldring by 7,855 votes, well, Martin says he’s just setting up the second NDP federal win for the next election.

What about concerns that the NDP have badly split the left vote once again this election, allowing more Conservatives to slip into office?

“The whole vote-splitting issue is just misinformation,” he says. “If anything, the Liberals split our vote.”

This probably won’t go down well at Claudette Roy’s office. The Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona placed a distant third with only nine per cent of the vote, compared to the Liberal’s 18 per cent showing in 2006. “There was a really big sense of strategic voting,” says Duncan volunteer Ross Penner. The 25-year-old knocked on doors in his Strathcona neighbourhood for three hours every day during the month-long campaign and worked full-out on election day, urging NDP supporters to get out and vote.

He worked for Duncan because of her environmental credentials, because she represented a viable chance to get rid of Jaffer, and not because she holds the NDP flag. Considering Canada has its third minority government in a row, he has no problem with the NDP working with the Liberals or anybody else to make Parliament work — so long as they are working towards the core social and environmental values he supports in Duncan. However, he doesn’t see enough good will within the different parties, including the NDP, to make that happen.

“I don’t have any expectations because the Conservatives still have a minority,” Penner says.