Highwood - No contest as Blackie rancher replaces Tannas

By Ryan Laverty
Staff Reporter

It’s been known for sometime now that when the writ finally drops on the next provincial election, the Highwood Progressive Conservatives would have a new face championing their causes.
Last Thursday night, party members were finally able to put a name to that new face. And that name was George Groeneveld.
Groeneveld, a farmer from the Blackie area, beat out High River’s Shawn Ottewell, to claim leadership of the local PC riding. Unofficial sources said the final tallies had Groeneveld winning the nomination by a wide margin, 811-245.
“I’d like to thank all of you for your friendship, time and commitment,” Groeneveld told the crowd immediately after upcoming riding president Jamie Tiessen made the announcement.
“This is a constituency of ‘can-do’ people and I think certainly we can do it together. I’m proud to represent the people of Highwood. Can I change the world? No. But on this journey, please walk with me and I will be pleased and honored to walk with you.”
Ottewell’s resume included time as a High River town councillor, a public school trustee for the Foothills School Division and a 14-year membership with the Highwood PC Constituency Association, including two years as president.
The disappointment of the loss was apparent from the look on his face, but Ottewell maintained his reputation as a believer in the party, calling for the destruction of the ballots to ensure a unanimous vote.
“I’ve been to five different provinces and across the Pacific Ocean since this started, so I really feel worse for my campaign party because they put so much time into organizing this for me,” said Ottewell. “I’m still going to have many things to do tomorrow.”
Whether that includes helping with the Highwood PC’s though, is yet to be determined, but Groeneveld said he’d be happy to have Ottewell onside for the next election.
“I’m sure we’re going to want to get Shawn’s expertise onside,” said Groeneveld, who had never run for public office until now. “He has an excellent history with this party and hopefully he’ll be receptive to us.”
Ottewell didn’t rule out helping the Groeneveld camp, but kept his future plans with the party vague.
“I’d like to support the party in every way I can,” said Ottewell.
Both candidates held similar platforms, stressing the need for strong investment in education, improved infrastructure and road safety and an improved health care system, although Groeneveld suggested a two-tiered system as an alternative. But the largest concern for people was finding a solution to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis.
“We didn’t know it at the start, but (BSE) was probably the most crucial (issue),” said Groeneveld. “I get the impression that the rural people wanted a rural candidate to represent them on this issue. Not that Shawn couldn’t do it, but obviously he doesn’t come from an agricultural background.”
Current Highwood MLA Don Tannas suggested it would take a bit of time for Groeneveld to adjust to life in Edmonton, as it would for any new member, but that he has every confidence in his 63-year-old successor.
“I think George is a very capable candidate and I would have been confident in either one of them,” said Tannas. “Almost every MLA, even if they think they know, takes a couple of years to get used to how things operate in Edmonton, but I think George is quite capable of handling it and I will do everything I can to help him along the way.”
There has been no mention of dates for the next provincial election, but rumors suggest it is not far away. As such Groeneveld plans to take a couple of days off from the campaign trail, before getting ready for the next round.

Shooter gets probation

By Darlene Casten
Staff Reporter

A youth who narrowly missed shooting a Black Diamond resident and a local business owner was sentenced to 18 months probation in Okotoks Provincial Court June 15.
The now 15-year-old boy used his father’s .22 calibre rifle to shoot at Eamor Leather Works, the Black Diamond Gospel Church and a home on Nov. 11, 2003. The buildings are located along Centre Avenue, the town’s main street.
Business owner Brent Eamor had returned to work at approximately 3 pm when a bullet shattered the store’s front window. The bullet passed within 10 feet of Eamor and lodged in a doorframe.
Another bullet struck the church and a third tore through a mobile home wall, smashing the dining room light.
Homeowner Rocky Smith had just walked away from the window into the kitchen when the bullet struck the light fixture.
Crown prosecutor Peter Roginski said the young shooter was lucky no one was injured.
“This was in mid-afternoon,” explained Roginski. “He could reasonably expect that people would be around. Someone could have been killed and that makes it extremely serious.”
Roginski’s suggestion that the boy spend a short period of time in jail followed by a period of probation was denied.
The youth, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was given the rifle by his father, who expected his son was going hunting for rabbits.
“He has been shooting at things since he was six,” explained the boy’s father. “He knows how to handle a gun.”
Judge C. Daniel reprimanded the father for providing the gun to his son.
“When you have a child who is unstable, whether it is drugs or alcohol or some other reason, the last thing you do is give them a gun,” she said.
Daniel advised the boy’s mother and father that they would have to make their son their top priority in order to solve some of his ongoing problems.
Since the shooting the boy has been arrested twice. On Feb. 8 Turner Valley detained the youth after he was seen trying to smash a truck’s window with a shovel. A month later he was arrested at his home. RCMP responded to the youth’s home after a complaint was laid regarding an altercation during a house party. The boy was found drunk and in breach of several other conditions of his release, including a provision that he be under the supervision of an adult.
The boy’s mother said she feared that her son would be unable to quit using drugs such as marijuana and magic mushrooms.
He was ordered to undergo counseling prescribed by his probation officer, including drug and alcohol treatment and anger management counseling.
The teen’s grandmother said the boy was likely acting out in response to a terminal illness that will shorten his life substantially.
“A lot of it is the sickness,” she said to Judge Daniel. “He has given up.”
The boy’s sentence also includes a curfew from 9 pm to 6 am, an order that he cannot possess or consume alcohol or illicit drugs and a two-year weapons prohibition.
He also must pay $1,723 in restitution for the damage down to the buildings by his bullets.