Alberta NDP win vacant seat in Lethbridge-West byelection, per unofficial results

Alberta’s opposition New Democratic Party has won the provincial byelection in Lethbridge-West, holding onto a riding it has held since 2015.

According to the unofficial vote count late Wednesday night, the Elections Alberta website reports that NDP candidate Rob Miyashiro secured 7,239 votes with all 57 polls reporting.

The United Conservative Party’s John Middleton-Hope trailed him by 1,150 ballots. The Alberta Party’s Layton Veverka finished the race a distant third with only 233 votes.

“We heard early on what people’s concerns were in Lethbridge-West,” Miyashiro said after the victory. “We heard that there’s concerns about health care and concerns about affordability and education, and I think that resonated with people when we were actually advocating for the points that they were so concerned about.”

Early vote results showed 18 per cent of the riding’s 37,000 eligible voters had cast advance ballots, down from 28 per cent in the 2023 general election.

The legislature seat was left vacant after New Democrat MLA Shannon Phillips resigned on July 1.

The byelection served as the first true test of Naheed Nenshi’s leadership of the NDP — which needs to grow support in places outside of Edmonton and central Calgary to form government again.

“We got one the highest, if not the highest voter turnouts in a byelection,” Nenshi said. “And I think that the Lethbridge-West voters have sent a very clear message to the UCP that their government is not good enough and I feel great about that.”

The win gives the NDP 38 seats in the 87-seat legislature, compared to 49 for the UCP.