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What better way to end these posts about the other Alberta election than to thank all of you who supported me on April 23rd (the final results were posted by Elections Alberta yesterday at http://results.elections.ab.ca/wtResultsSNE.htm). There aren’t enough adjectives to use with respect to the support you showed – amazing, gratifying, humbling… I shout out these adjectives with respect to the support I received from my wife and daughters – Theresa, Andrea, and Kali – and my campaign team – Ashley Casovan, Dan Nielsen, David Vonesch (who doubles as my son-in-law), and Tegan Martin-Drysdale.

Other than my scintillating personality I like to think you were drawn to our campaign because you see the promise and the merit in the idea of the Next Alberta.The Next Alberta is a testament to Alberta’s diversity – Alberta isn’t the monolithic soul we see too often portrayed in the mainstream media.

I’m so pleased at our ability during the campaign to build a coalition of people who, in the provincial election, supported the Alberta Liberals, the Alberta NDP, and the Alberta Party.

I’m also very pleased that people who regard themselves as “progressive” Conservatives supported us – people like the Honourable Doug Roche and the Honourable Elaine McCoy.

Believe it or not – there appear to even be a few Wildrose supporters who voted for me. One former student – very bright, very libertarian – tweeted on election day that he voted for me and the Wildrose’s Vitor Marciano. Now there’s an odd couple for you.

When Ashley, Dan and I first sat down over coffee in Remedy on Jasper Avenue we talked about what we really wanted to do in this campaign was make a clear statement of what our idea of the Next Alberta was all about.

I think we did a great job of doing that – especially given the overwhelming attention understandably paid to the provincial election.

I’m proud of the type of campaign we ran — we talked about ideas, about the future of Alberta.

We didn’t dwell on the “oh how hard done Alberta is” refrain – the type of hymn the Good Reverend Stereotypical Albertan and the Western Alienation choir love to sing. The NEP was over a generation ago, the world has changed, Alberta has changed — get over it, get up to speed.

People warmed to the message that hyperpartisanship is letting them down and will let down future generations of Albertans. We need to approach politics differently.

Albertans warmed to the message that the federal government needs to live up to its obligations to protect the spectacular natural beauty of Alberta that is so much a part of our history, our identity.

Albertans warmed to the message that we can use our economic strengths and our tremendous petroleum wealth to move towards, to embrace, renewable energy alternatives in our electricity sector.

Albertans warmed to the idea that senior levels of government need to empower municipalities and citizens.

So thanks very much again for your support. April 23rd was the beginning, not the end, and I hope you’ll be there the next time we call on you to help us build the Next Alberta!