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MLA pleased with new leader despite backing third spot finisher

Lac La Biche-St. Paul MLA Ray Danyluk says he’s happy that Alison Redford was elected to lead the Progressive Conservative party on Oct. 1.

Lac La Biche-St. Paul MLA Ray Danyluk says he’s happy that Alison Redford was elected to lead the Progressive Conservative party on Oct. 1.

Danyluk has been supporting Doug Horner throughout the election because he believed Horner had the best policies for the area. Yet he says he is happy that Redford has shown interest for Lac La Biche when she was the Minister of Justice.

“She’s been in Lac La Biche before and I look forward to bringing her back to meet constituents and learn more about our area,” Danyluk said.

Strong local support

Danyluk said he is impressed with the voter turnout in the area.

“Our constituency has sent a strong message that rural Alberta is engaged and important and wants a voice into the future of this province and their area,” he said.

The majority of the Lac La Biche-St. Paul area voted for Horner in both the Sept. 18 and Oct. 1 ballots. In the first round of voting, 1,089 party members voted for Horner, and in the second, 1,566 out of 1,974 ballots cast were in his favour. This is the most support he received from any of the constituencies.

Saturday vote

But Horner’s local support wasn’t enough to keep him in the final round of voting on Saturday. He ended up with only 20 per cent of the votes, while Redford received 37 and Mar 42.

Many political watchers believe it was Horner’s voters who put Redford as their second choice that gave her the victory. After the second tally — in which Horner was dropped and his voter’s second picks were counted — Redford beat out Mar by less than 2,000 votes. She ended up with 37,101 votes while Mar had 35,491 — a difference of just a little over two per cent.

Redford

Redford is the first woman premier-designate in Alberta. She held the seat for Calgary-Elbow since 2008 but she has been involved in provincial and federal politics since the 1980s.

She has also been involved in international work including working as one of four Election Commissioners to administer Afghanistan’s first elections, a position she was appointed to by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.




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