Winning the election will undoubtedly seem like the easy part, once newly elected MLA Maureen Kubinec heads to Edmonton to represent her riding in the Legislature.
Regardless of your political stripes, it’s undeniable that her victory in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock last Monday night will be good for the Westlock area.
Kubinec knows the region, has many years of experience in local government and as a long-time resident, has a good idea of what kind of issues are facing our communities.
This is not to say that Link Byfield, who came a close second in the race, would have necessarily been a bad option for the riding.
He had been actively campaigning for more than a year, and has undoubtedly got more than an earful from disgruntled former Tory supporters about the changes that constituents would like to see.
Yet, the fact remains he was relatively unknown in this neck of the woods prior to the beginning of his campaign, and the big issues he campaigned on — and he said this himself many times — had to do more with government at the provincial level than at the riding level.
The Tories had best make a point of listening to Albertans’ concerns about those issues, because it’s not a stretch to say discontent with their government nearly cost them election.
Kubinec would do well to make a point of extending an olive branch to the all the Wildrose supporters in the riding, especially considering more than 7,000 voters cast their ballots for Byfield, only a few hundred less than those who voted PC.
As for the other three candidates, while they all expressed some good ideas in the campaign and should be commended for putting their names forward, the voters in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock and across the province sent a clear message that the centre-right parties are more in line with their way of thinking.
Nonetheless, this government must endeavour to represent all Albertans, and hopefully will work with the three opposition parties and not against them.
Four years is not really as long a time as it sometimes seems, and it’s safe to say that with the governing Tories having lost a clear mandate with only 43 per cent of the popular vote, the winds of change are still blowing.
