The Wild Rose party dominated southern Alberta in the 2012 election, taking all but two seats south of Calgary.
The NDP finished with none, but the three leadership candidates say they are confident the party will add more seats in the next election.
“Travelling around the province, we’ve been filling up rooms, and filling up memberships like never before,” says leadership hopeful David Eggen.
In 2012, both Bridget Pastoor and Greg Weadick held onto their PC seats, but it was close.
Lethbridge West NDP candidate Shannon Phillips placed a solid second with more than 29 per cent of the vote.
“Because of the hard work of our candidates, we recently re-nominated Phillips, and she was a tremendously hard working candidate,” adds NDP leadership candidate Rachel Notely.
The NDP’s work also continues on the national front.
Last week, federal leader Thomas Mulcair was in Edmonton, hoping to draw more support for the party.
However, political scientist Charldeans Mensah with MacEwan University says southern Alberta is not the place to start building that support.
“Generally speaking, if you want to break through in Alberta you need to start in Edmonton.”
That hasn’t discouraged the leadership hopefuls who say they see the support building and are confident it will spread.
“We certainly are seeing that momentum, definitely in Edmonton. We’ve seen several polls now show us as being the party most popular there, but we are also seeing it in other parts of the province and Lethbridge is one of those places,” adds Notley.
Hopes aside, there is no telling just how much orange will trickle down to southern Alberta until the next election.
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