It was a long and anxious wait for several people gathered at the St. Paul Legion on Saturday night, but seven hours after polls closed, the announcement of Darrell Younghans as the PC candidate for Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills was welcomed with loud cheers and whistles from his friends and supporters.
The former school board chair thanked the people gathered and expressed his desire to “take this constituency back” after it went to the Wildrose in 2012.
“The other candidates have all given me their blessings – I appreciate that guys,” he said, turning to the three other people that ran, Conservative MP Brian Storseth, Town of St. Paul Mayor Glenn Andersen and former Lakeland County councillor Jeff Dechaine, that flanked him on other side.
”It was a close race but a very well fought battle,” said Younghans, who had taken a leave of absence from his position as the president of the local PC constituency to run.
While the polls closed at 7 p.m., counting the votes took some time, with party officials saying it took three rounds of ranking runoff ballots in order to declare a winner, shortly after 2 a.m. on March 15. PC Alberta did not release official vote tallies on the night, but more than 1,800 ballots were cast and Younghans said he won by “a very slim majority.”
It was the cap off to weeks of campaigning, he said, noting that he was thankful to his family and army of volunteers that tirelessly worked on his behalf.
“I was just exhausted. We went hard, hard,” he said, with his victory speech saying the PCs could give it a run in the riding in any upcoming election as long as the team continued to work together.
One of his backers, former PC MLA Ray Danyluk, crowed with delight as Younghans accepted congratulations from the packed room at the Legion, which included distinct camps of support for each of the four candidates.
“Sweet, sweet, sweet,” announced Danyluk, who lost the 2012 election to the Wildrose’s Shayne Saskiw, who was supported by Storseth. “Justice prevails.”
“What happened was, Darrell ran the cleanest campaign ever,” Danyluk said. “I never hear him say ‘I.’ It’s never ‘I.’ It’s about his community, and that’s key.”
Ruven Rajoo, a Two Hills area supporter of Younghans, pointed out the massive campaigning efforts for Younghans by his volunteers, saying that on Saturday, he had made 200 calls himself in trying to ensure that votes would not be lost to Storseth, whose camp was also trying to sew up support.
Storseth left immediately after the results were announced and did not respond to calls for comment following the nomination results.
Dechaine and Andersen both offered their congratulations to Younghans.
“A heck of a battle,” said Dechaine, who said he “was really proud of my whole team” for their campaigning efforts. However, he added he was ready to throw his support behind Younghans.
“It was an interesting process, probably not one of the most positive ones I’ve been through in my life,” said Andersen of the nomination process, which began with a hiccup as one nomination committee was thrown out, another was brought in and as the nomination deadline was extended to clear the way for late contender Storseth to enter the race.
Andersen also noted that in his campaigning, many people indicated they would not support the PCs, and said he believed that the election ahead wouldn’t necessarily be smooth sailing. However, he wished Younghans all the best as he moved forward in the election process.
Younghans agreed that in what is widely believed to be a spring election, it would not be a straightforward path to victory for the PCs in the riding.
“There was some negative PC things we heard on the trail,” he said.
However, all four people running for the nominations had built momentum and reenergized the party by selling memberships, he said.
“It’s a really good base when you’ve had 1,800 votes cast,” he said, adding, “It spells nothing but good for the party.”
