By George! Tories roll through Alberta

By Don Patterson
Staff reporter

After a landslide victory in the Highwood constituency in Monday’s provincial election, Progressive Conservative incumbent George Groeneveld hopes to finish what he began as agriculture minister in 2006.
“I certainly have some unfinished work to do there. We had started to do some interesting initiatives, especially with the lives stock producers, that I would like to pursue,” he said.
Groeneveld was one of 73 Progressive Conservative candidates elected as Premier Ed Stelmach lead the party to its 11th straight government.
Groeneveld came in first place in the riding with 65 per cent of the ballots cast, and a total of 7,716 votes. Alberta Liberal Candidate Stan Shedd came in second with 1,647 votes; Wildrose Alliance candidate Daniel Doherty came in third with 1,405 votes; Alberta Green Party candidate John Barrett took fourth place with 690 votes and NDP candidate Carolyn Boulton was fifth with 392 votes.
Groeneveld said a long-term health care facility is his top priority for the riding.
“For me, that has to be the beach head to work on for Highwood,” he said.

Groeneveld will also work to get transportation projects such as the proposed 32 Street bridge and the extension of Secondary Highway 543 north of High River on the Province’s priority list.
According to Groeneveld, Monday’s results show Premier Ed Stelmach has placed the province on the right track, and he believes it shows the royalty review was the right thing to do.
“I think we were hearing a lot of negative things about the premier because of the royalty review,” he said. “I think the people in my constituency and Alberta are saying ‘He was right and let’s move on from here.’”
With the Wildrose Alliance only being six weeks old, Doherty said the party wanted an opportunity to introduce itself to Albertans in the election.
“It’s always been kind of a two-part strategy for the Wildrose Alliance – don’t forget we’re just newly formed, only about a month. We let everybody know we’re here, and we seem to have thus far gone up in popularity. Part one is achieved, part two is going to be forming the government next election,” he said.
Doherty noted Albertans don’t change their political stripes often, but said he’s certain they will come around to his party. He intends to be a part of his party’s future and will run again in the next election.
Shedd said the results were a surprise; however, he added, the Conservatives likely benefited from the royalty review.
“I didn’t see how it could possibly hurt them, I would think it would help them,” he said.
While he may not have won the riding, he achieved one of the goals he set out to accomplish. Shedd was successful in rebuilding the party’s constituency association.
“There was no constituency association, so I said all along my goal was to build a party apparatus here,” she said.