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He added that he wasn’t worried about any repercussions for his criticism of Kenney.

“I don’t care. It might and I’m quite prepared do deal with it if it does,” he said.

More than 3,200 memberships were sold in Calgary Signal Hill which takes in part of Calgary West, the riding Anders has held since he was first elected in 1997 as a Reform party member. Party officials said 2,400 votes were cast Saturday.

Anders had accused Liepert’s campaign of signing up Liberals and NDP supporters in an effort to unseat him. He released the names of known Liberals Liepert recruited.

During the race, Conservative party officials chastised Anders for what they said were misleading phone calls. His campaign placed calls to party members that might have left the impression they were coming from Liepert’s campaign. If the target of the call was unsure about who they would support, the caller proceeded to criticize Liepert.

Liepert said the fact the negative campaign failed should serve as a warning to other candidates across the country.

“We’re not into negative politics and I hope this is a good lesson for everyone running going forward that you should run on your record,” he said.

“Talk about what you’ve achieved, what constituents want and stay away from the negative stuff because if there was one thing I heard from residents it was their disgust with the negativity.”

Anders is known for his strong social conservative views and gained attention for his sometimes inflammatory statements, including his opposition to granting honorary citizenship to Nelson Mandela, branding the South African leader a communist and a terrorist.