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The north stayed blue as Tory candidates kept their rural strongholds. Every riding in northern Alberta elected a Conservative to the legislature with most by handy margins. "Obviously, Alberta and Fort McMurray speaks of the land of opportunity where they can raise their family and have an excellent paying job. I've found most of those people to be very content," said newly re-elected Guy Boutilier. Boutilier walked away with his riding of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo to secure his fourth term as MLA, doubling the votes of the Liberals. With thousands of people having moved to northern Alberta to take part in the boom in the past few years, getting their vote was a key plank in the campaign strategy, said Boutilier, a former mayor of the northern city. Many of the newcomers are bringing their past Liberal support with them from other provinces, but many of them started to convert to the Tories once they saw what the province has been doing with the region, said Boutilier.
His Liberal opponent, 27-year-old Ross Jacobs who also happens to have moved to Fort McMurray just four years ago from Ontario, said he was seeing the opposite. Many of the newcomers kept their Liberal tendencies from other provinces but felt the Tories were their only option in Alberta. He spent part of the campaign working against that. "Now that theyšre in the land of the Tories, they didn't realize there was a Liberal option." In Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, environment issues have been playing out large. A lot of attention has been paid to how the energy companies are affecting the land, water and air around them. Over the weekend, a group from Fort Chipewyan even travelled to the Alberta Legislature to draw attention to studies showing higher levels of cancer in their community downstream from the oilsands. Boutilier said today the elders of the community were happy with Premier Ed Stelmach's promise to get to the bottom of the issue with proper research. On the other side of northern Alberta, Conservative candidates had a pretty easy time when the polls closed. Grande Prairie-Wapiti Conservative candidate Wayne Drysdale easily cruised to victory. Drysdale stepped in as a candidate after former gaming minister Gord Graydon decided not to run again. In neighbouring Grande Prairie-Smoky, Tory Mel Knight, who had a rocky year as energy minister, was given a large win in the mostly oil and natural gas riding. Former Grande Prairie city alderman John Croken, out for the Liberals, was trailing Knight in second place by a margin of four to one. In Dunvegan-Central Peace, back in 2004 Tory Hector Goudreau was given a scare when Alberta Alliance Dale Lueken came within 400 votes of taking the seat. This time out, Lueken was back for the Wildrose Alliance giving it another try. He kept it close for a time but Goudreau managed to gain on his old rival and was nearing the territory of almost doubling Lueken's vote. NDP candidate Nathan Macklin came in third here with Liberal Bob Woken trailing in last. Further north, Frank Oberle had an easy time in Peace River for the Tories, tripling the vote for NDP candidate Adele Boucher Rymhs. The Wildrose Alliancešs Goerg Beinert trailed in last place. Oberle didn't have to worry about a Liberal candidate in the riding after the Liberal nominee backed out at the last minute. kevin.crush@sunmedia.ca |
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