Wildrose Party’s Glenn van Dijken will represent the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock riding after upsetting incumbent PC Maureen Kubinec.
After a night that saw the province painted orange, van Dijken is one of 20 Wildrose candidates heading to the legislature.
Van Dijken said he’s relieved the campaign has finally come to the end and that he can now concentrate on representing his constituents.
“Now the work of representing Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock begins,” he said at his Westlock campaign office shortly after becoming elected. “That will be a work of really getting to learn a lot about the people, getting to learn their priorities and their needs and how I can best represent them.”
Van Dijken said he’s proud of his party’s ability to come back after all but being written-off five months ago.
“Our party came from being essentially dead at Christmas time to where we are again respected as the official opposition,” he said. “The rise and the fall of the Prentice PCs was essentially the people being tired of being played as puppets in a political game.”
Along the campaign trail, the new MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock said he was hearing people’s desire for change and that’s just what happened on election day.
“We knew going into the third week there was a lot undecided, we also knew that as we went to the doors that people were ready for change,” van Dijken said. “They definitely spoke loud and clear that Alberta was ready for change.”
As part of the official opposition van Dijken says his role will be to hold the government to account.
“Essentially the opposition is there to monitor the effectiveness of the current government and to speak for those who are not necessarily being represented in government,” he said. “To make sure that the interest of all Albertans are being taken care of.”
At the end of the day van Dijken says he is thrilled to serve as MLA for the constituency in which he has lived his entire life.
“To represent this riding is a great honour. I’ve grown up and run a business in this riding all my life and I really treasure our constituency,” he said. “I believe we are so blessed to be in such a wonderful province in such a wonderful country.”
