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Premier Danielle Smith has appointed an Acme-area farmer and Alberta Grains board chair as UCP candidate in the upcoming Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection.
Tara Sawyer announced this week she will take a leave of absence from her Alberta Grains role while she campaigns in the byelection. The premier has six months to call a byelection and a date has not yet been set.
The seat will become vacant as of June 1 when Nathan Cooper officially resigns after the premier appointed him Alberta's new senior representative to the United States. Cooper also resigned as Legislative Assembly speaker, a job he has held since 2019. He was replaced on Tuesday by former Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver.
On Friday, the premier explained why she chose to appoint a candidate for the riding rather than hold a nomination vote.
Smith said she wanted to hold all three pending byelections at the same time. Byelections are necessary for Edmonton-Strathcona after former Liberal leader Rachel Notley stepped down and NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi was acclaimed in January as that party's candidate.
Edmonton-Ellerslie also needs an MLA after long-time NDP member Rod Loyola announced in March he was quitting to run fe3derally. The Liberals later dropped him as Edmonton Gateway candidate after a 2009 video surfaced in which he appears to praise Hezbollah and Hamas at an anti-NATO protest.
"I wanted to get all three byelections done at the same time," said Smith. "I think for taxpayer purposes it was better to have all three of them at once and we've just run out of time to do a full nomination process.
Fourteen candidates were considered and Smith interviewed candidates who lived in the riding.
"Tara Sawyer just emerged as really a spectacular candidate for us," she said. "She is the former chair of Alberta Grains and we do need to have some bench strength as we deal with some of the tariffs from China and the impact its going to have on canola and other industries.
"Should she be elected, I think she'll be a great addition to our caucus team."
Sawyer is a wheat and barley farmer near Acme, about 30 km southwest of Three Hills and was Alberta Grain's first chair following the amalgamation of the Alberta Wheat and Barley commissions. Vice-chair Scott Jespersen, a Spruce Grove grain farmer, will take over as acting chair.
“It has been an honour to represent Alberta’s wheat and barley farmers and help lead this organization during such a transformative time,” said Sawyer in a statement earlier this week.
“I’m proud of what our board has accomplished together and am confident in the strength of the leadership team taking the reins while I pursue this opportunity to continue serving Albertans in a new capacity.”
Meanwhile, Alberta"s New Democrats announced on Thursday they had opened their nomination to select an Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills candidate. The candidate will be selected by members at a vote on June 14, 2025.
“Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills is a community full of hardworking people, and they deserve a representative and government that is committed to making life more affordable, creating real opportunity, and building a future where everyone can thrive,” said Alberta New Democrat Leader Naheed Nenshi.
“Danielle Smith flirts with separatism, but in this campaign we will speak up for those Albertans who understand we are stronger when we are united as Albertans and Canadians.”
Any non-UCP candidates will have their work cut out for them. In the last provincial election, Cooper won with 18,192 votes. NDP candidate Cheryl Hunter Loewen was second with 4,573 votes.
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