Couple a majority government in Ottawa with potential for stronger leadership in Alberta and you have a great recipe for economic stability, says a longtime Tory supporter from Caroline.
Sporting goods retailer Reg Dean, who has helped with campaigns and hosted political forums for the last 30 years, said the Conservative Party’s majority win Monday night brings a new era of economic stability to Western Canada.
Caroline is part of the Wild Rose riding, won handily by Conservative candidate Blake Richards, who had earned roughly 80 per cent of the votes according to unofficial counts. Jeff Horvath of the New Democratic Party and the Green Party’s Mike MacDonald finished a distant second and third, trailed by Liberal candidate John Reilly with Randy Vanden Broek of the Christian Heritage Party taking the last spot with less than one per cent of the total votes cast.
With 226 of the 260 polls reported, Richards had won 36,783 votes, Horvath earned 5,018, MacDonald 3,173, Reilly 2,697 and Vanden Broek 155.
Now, if Alberta’s provincial Tories are able to find a stronger leader and either they or the Wild Rose Party were to win the next election, that would put the icing on the cake, Dean said while watching results come in on Monday.
“It’s a great day for Alberta, I’ll tell you,” said Dean.
He predicted that two issues critical to Alberta will be dealt with right away, including abolishment of the long gun registry and tearing down the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on wheat sales.
“I think that we’re going to see more investment in Alberta,” said Dean.
“We’re going to have at least four years of stability with a Conservative majority in Ottawa, and . . . even if the Conservatives in Alberta lose a lot of seats in the next (provincial) election, I don’t think it will be a massive swing — so we’ll have two stable governments in a very prosperous province.”
Mountain View County Councillor Al Kemmere, who served as reeve during the previous term, also said the Conservative majority brings new stability and could help resolve some outstanding issues in the region.
“We’ve got a healthy situation right now. We’ve got a new Opposition, which I don’t think will be bad, and we’ve got a majority government for a few years.”
Elected for the second time with roughly the same number of votes as he received in 2008, Richards said he feels honoured to return to Ottawa where he will continue to serve as a voice for the people of his riding.
“I didn’t ever anticipate that we’d have a big majority like that. Obviously, it’s a real thrill,” said Richards.
Straight out of the gate, the new Conservative government will implement an agenda that puts its priorities on strengthening the economy, including bringing forward the budget first introduced before the government fell, he said.
Additionally, the new government plans to live up to its promise of moving forward with its criminal justice amendments within the next 100 days, said Richards.
Of particular interest to local voters will be the new government’s move to abolish the long gun registry and convert the Canadian Wheat Board to a dual marketing system, giving farmers more choices in marketing their grain, he said.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com
Horvath, who has represented the NDP in three of the last four elections, said he was encouraged to see his party’s leader, Jack Layton, displace the Liberals at the polls to become the new leader of the official Opposition.
“We were hoping for some gains and, so far, we’ve got some great gains going,” Horvath said while watching the early results come in.”
“People are making a strong statement that they’re looking for some change,” he said.