Liberals to 'regroup' after Alberta election

The leader of the Alberta Liberal Party says the next few years will be a rebuilding phase after voters reduced his caucus from eight to five members in Mondays election.

Raj Shermannarrowly heldon to his own Edmonton-Meadowlark seat, beating Progressive Conservative candidate Bob Maskell by 118 votes.

In Edmonton-Centre, Liberal incumbent Laurie Blakeman beat PC candidate Akash Khokhar by about 39 per cent to 31 per cent of the vote.

Liberal incumbent Kent Hehr was re-elected in his riding of Calgary-Buffalo, beating his nearest rival, Tory Jamie Lall, by a wide margin. In Calgary-Mountain View, incumbent David Swann held off PC challenger Cecillia Low by more than 10 percentage points.

And in Calgary-McCall, Liberal incumbent Darshan Kang also held onto his seat, beating Wildrose hopeful Grant Galpin by 671 votes after a close race that lasted well into Tuesday morning.

Edmonton-River View, which had been a Liberal seat, was picked up for the PCs by Steve Young.

The Grits also lost Edmonton-Gold Bar and Calgary-Varsity in Mondays vote.

Sherman said he is happy the party fared as well as it did.

"I believe it was a miracle that we survived and got our five seats," he said.

Swann blamed strategic voting by progressive Albertans for his partys diminished influence in the legislature.

"I call it the fear factor: so afraid of the Wildrose and where they would take this province, they dumped their votes into the Tories," he said.

"Well have to regroup after this."