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A Grit victory in the Conservative heartland would have been seen as a major coup for the third-place party.

But just over a week before the by-election, Liberal natural resources critic David McGuinty said a number of MPs from Alberta — especially those on the committee — come to Parliament not prepared to work in the national interest.

He said they give attention to the fossil-fuel sector to the detriment of renewable energy or other industrial sectors.

“I think most Albertans are disappointed as well,” McGuinty told the Calgary Herald a short time later, reiterating the comments he made on Parliament Hill. “If they (the MPs) want to continue to pursue the interests that appear to be very, very local — or in this case, sectoral in nature at all times — then maybe they should run for the provincial legislature.”

McGuinty later apologized and resigned as natural resources critic, but not before Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other Conservatives held the comments up as proof of a long-held anti-Alberta attitude within the Liberal party dating back to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s government.

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae admitted at the time that McGuinty’s comments were “not helpful” to the Liberals’ fortunes in Calgary Centre, and Western Canada as a whole.

A day later, a video from 2010 emerged in which Liberal leadership candidate Trudeau appeared to say Canada is struggling because Albertans control the social agenda, and that the country would be better served with more Quebecers in power.

Crockatt ended up defeating Locke by 1,158 votes.

Mulcair, meanwhile, has stoked anger in some parts of Alberta by alleging the province’s energy sector is hurting eastern Canada’s manufacturing industry.