NDP candidate Mark Olsen, and Conservative Scott Anderson both made brief visits to congratulate Foster. Anderson said he was "obviously disappointed" but felt he ran a good campaign. "We fought a good battle, we couldn't have done better than we did. We doubled our percentage from the last time we ran here," he said. He said the public came to fear the NDP which is what swept the power over to the Liberals. "We intend to run again next time. This is a battle, not the war," Anderson said. Anderson expects to run again in the next election, and until then he says the Liberals will "have somebody looking over their shoulder." Olsen is surprised, disappointed, yet still very proud of his campaign and the team that ran it. "The people have chosen and we have to live with that. I want to congratulate Eric and the other candidates. I want to thank my campaign team. I'm a winner just knowing them," Olsen said. He says it's still soon for him to analyze what happened—why the NDP drooped when the polls had put them ahead. "You have to wonder where our polls are basing their numbers," he said. On both a local and provincial level, Olsen is surprised the NDP didn't do better. "I don't think anybody saw it coming. I thought it would be a closer race, and I'm surprised by the outcome. We worked hard to get our message out, but (the Liberals) were more successful," he said. He says his goal was to run an honourable campaign, which he believes he succeeded in. "It is what it is," he said. This was Olsen's second time running, and he says he'll have to pause and "re-evaluate some things" before making a decision to run again.
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