Conservatives sweep local ridings

By John Barlow and Tara Merrin
Wheel Staff

Rookie Tory candidates George Groeneveld and Ted Morton were elected to the Legislature in landslide victories in Monday’s provincial election.
Groeneveld swept all the polls in the constituency to win the Highwood riding. Unofficially, Groeneveld finished with 6,782 votes while Liberal candidate Lori Czerwinski came in a distant second with 1,847 votes.
Groeneveld admitted he was surprised he won the riding by such a wide margin as he knew he would be challenged by the opposing candidates. But he said his platform obviously earned the support of the local voters.
“My platform resonated with the voters,” he said. “They looked at the big picture, but they focused locally. An overpass at Aldersyde, seniors’ housing and BSE are that come to mind immediately.
“Right off the bat, people saw the oppositions’ platforms involved too much spending and that scared them off a bit.”
Meanwhile, Foothills-Rockyview Progressive Conservative candidate Ted Morton also received overwhelming support on Monday night.
Morton garnered more than 60 per cent of the vote, far more than those cast for runner-up Liberal candidate Herb Coburn who received less than 20 per cent.
“Basically, I think people are happy. They are employed, they are buying homes and they are enjoying life.”
“They feel things are going well,” said Morton as he watched the results pour in.
“I believe people vote with their feet by either leaving a province or moving to a province. In Alberta we are seeing 60,000 people a year moving here. If people we not happy, we’d see 60,000 leaving the province each year,” he added.
Morton would not speculate why the Alberta Tories lost 13 seats this time around. However, he said many people feel Alberta is not getting a fair shake in Canada and want the government to look at new ways of strengthening the province’s role.
Morton, one of the authors of the Alberta Agenda, said he will continue to advocate those ideas, such as Alberta collecting its own taxes and starting its own police force, within caucus.
“These types of new ideas will help the party,” he added.
As MLA, Morton said he will fight for the people living in the Foothills-Rockyview riding who want the province to upgrade many area roads and intersections and come up with a solid plan to deal the affects of the BSE crisis.
The new riding does not include any big towns which means all of his attention will be focused on the needs of the rural residents, said Morton.
“The rural areas will no longer be a second order priority. For me, the rural residents will be first priorities so I will be able to focus on the issues that are important to them,” he said.
While the Tories continued to dominate locally, provincially Premier Ralph Klein’s party took a hit especially in Calgary and Edmonton where the Liberals grabbed several seats.
In all, the Tories won 61 of 83 seats (47 per cent of the vote) down from the 74 they held previously. The Liberals grabbed 17 seats (29 per cent) in the Legislature — fittingly 10 of those 17 seats are in Edmonton.
In addition, the New Democrats won four seats and the Alberta Alliance took one seat.
Groeneveld said the 2004 election results are an indication that the provincial Tories have to refocus their efforts.
“I dare say we wrested on our laurels,” commented Groeneveld who replaces long-time Highwood MLA Don Tannas. “People are not interested in the past, they want to look to the future. We received the message that we have got to show more foresight.
“We now have an Opposition that will keep our feet close to the fire.”
The Blackie area rancher added that issues such as health and education will be hot topics, but so will provincial spending.
“We still need to be fiscally responsible,” said Groeneveld. “We got that message loud and clear — we need to put money away.”
On a personal level, Groeneveld would like to focus on the BSE issue saying the industry needs to adapt to a changing marketplace. One proposal Groeneveld suggested was a cap on how much cattle large packing plants such as Cargill and Tyson Foods could own.
“The cattle business will never be the same even with the border opening,” admitted Groeneveld. “The fed cattle industry is going to change and the provincial government has a responsibility to be part of that change.”
At Monday’s celebration at Groeneveld’s campaign headquarters there was already talk of lobbying for the Highwood MLA to be the new Minister of Agriculture. Groeneveld said he was not necessarily seeking a portfolio and added that he did not plan on becoming a career politician saying he would commiting to serving two terms.