Heather McPherson may be hot on the heels of victory, but she’s still having a really rough day.
The NDP candidate held onto her seat in Edmonton Strathcona, making her the lone New Democrat elected in Alberta. But she says her success feels bittersweet as her party crumbles around her.
“It’s very hard today,” McPherson told host As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “I’m grieving the loss of some really remarkable members of Parliament.”
McPherson blamed her party’s losses on strategic voting, the first-past-the-post electoral system, and an election she says centred on fear of U.S. President Donald Trump. She issued dire warnings about the country sliding towards an “American-style two-party system” that breeds division.
“In the long run, I think that New Democrats will come back. We always do. We’ll keep fighting,” she said. “You don’t become a New Democrat in Alberta because you wanted the easy way.”
Asked if she would seek her party’s leadership when Singh steps down, she said it’s “too early to tell.”
“I think that history will remember Jagmeet Singh as bringing forward the biggest expansion of our health-care system in a generation,” she said, referring to him as her mentor. “I am so proud of what he was able to achieve.”
