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EDMONTON While the recent four provincial byelections highlighted a crippling split on Albertas centre-left, party leaders say that rift wont be healing anytime soon.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley and the Liberals Raj Sherman both say they have a growing base of support to make a breakthrough in the 2016 general election and will not be exploring a merger.

Notley said the partys fortunes in recent polls and in fundraising are reflected in candidate Bob Turners second-place finish in Edmonton-Whitemud, a riding where the NDP has traditionally been off the radar.

Whitemud is the most secure Tory seat in the province and they ran the (former) mayor (Stephen Mandel). And we went from running a distant fourth to a respectable second, said Notley in an interview.

If those results were projected across the city, we would be looking at a tremendously successful election in the city of Edmonton.

Last week, Premier Jim Prentice and his Progressive Conservatives won all four byelections three in Calgary and one in Edmonton.

The Tories came up the middle in two of them.

Education Minister Gordon Dirks won Calgary-Elbow with just 33 per cent of the vote. Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark was second and Wildrose candidate John Fletcher was third.

In Edmonton-Whitemud, Mandel, the health minister, won with 42 per cent of the vote.

Shermans party did not target one specific riding to win and finished well back in all of them.

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Liberals, NDP rule out merger in Alberta to beat PCs