Steven Wagers

Ryan Hastman, the only Conservative to lose in Edmonton.

It was a riding where many people were expecting a close race, but after it was all said and done Ryan Hastman was unable to pull of the upset.

After spending many hours helping to put together the campaign, Hastman’s volunteers and supporters watched as Linda Duncan pulled away from the Tory to defend her position as Edmonton-Strathcona’s MP by a comfortable margin.

But while Monday brought along some disappointment, there was a sense of optimism about the campaign that captured the audience assembled at Greenwood Inn to watch the results of the election live.

The mood was jovial right from the get go as people crowded around the television screens waiting to see how Hastman would fare.

Finally, as the votes for Edmonton-Strathcona started to be tallied a whoop from the crowd showed Hastman’s early success. However, as the night wore on it became more and more apparent the race would go to the New Democrats.

Although the election didn’t end the way the Hastman and his supporters would have hoped, there was still reason for them to celebrate.

“You wanted Prime Minister Harper to stay in office, you wanted a stable majority Conservative government to see us through the rest of the economic recession, and you wanted to have a Conservative MP for Edmonton-Strathcona inside that government, well two out of three isn’t bad,” he said to his supporters.

No matter how the election went Hastman says he will sleep easy knowing what he and his campaign accomplished.

“[Losing] hurts a little bit, but when you put as much work into something and you execute your plan and you know you couldn’t have done anything more to win, it helps.”