WESTLOCK – Although he’d hoped to win the United Conservative Party (UCP) nomination and represent the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock constituency in the next provincial election in early 2023, Isaac Skuban has no regrets and has pledged his support to incumbent MLA Glenn van Dijken and the party.
The 25-year-old Skuban, who’s been the Div. 5 councillor for Westlock County since 2019, collected 447 votes in the “hotly-contested” two-day UCP constituency runoff held Dec. 9-10 at polling stations in Smoky Lake, Athabasca, Barrhead and Westlock, while van Dijken retained the nomination with 500 ballots cast in his favour.
Skuban’s challenge, which he announced in May after being involved in the party since the “end of the Wildrose days” and sitting on the 30-member constituency association board for years, was the third campaign he’s run since 2019 and he admitted that “it hasn’t been easy” and “it’s taken a lot of time and a lot of money.”
“I want to congratulate Glenn on winning and I think he ran a good campaign. And I think I worked pretty hard on my campaign as well and I’m proud of all the work that we got done. My volunteers, a lot of my family and friends, really stepped up and in crunch time you really underestimate how many people you need to win these kinds of elections,” said Skuban following a county council meeting Dec. 13.
“I tried to focus on local issues, like hospitals and rural revitalization … that’s why I ran for county council and just being an MLA gives you more of an ability to address those issues. And I think we as the UCP are not doing a bad issue of addressing those issues and we have a good track record on the economy. But I think at the rural, local level I felt like I had something to offer and that’s why I put my name forward.
“Some of the best life lessons are lived and losing is losing, but I learned so much. And it was humbling to receive so much support from the community, especially from Athabasca, Smoky Lake and Westlock.”
Skuban, who’s studying political science and economic studies at the University of Alberta, admitted that the nomination process is unique in that only card-carrying UCP members can vote so, “ … it’s another thing to get people to spend $10 and be a card-carrying member of the party.”
“And I didn’t just try to sell to the hardcore conservative types. I tried to target the more centrist, progressive people and get them on board and I think that’s a big win for our conservative movement — again, emphasizing being united we need to bring these people into the party and show them that they have a space,” he continued, noting the local membership has now swelled to around 2,000. “Going forward I’m going to stay involved and help Glenn in any way he needs it. And I hope all the people that bought memberships stay involved.”
Although another vote won’t be held for four years, the lifelong resident of Westlock County said he’s already “been encouraged to run again” but won’t make any commitments today.
“I’ll re-evaluate what the party needs in three years and if I feel like I’m needed, I may put my name forward again. That said, I didn’t plan on becoming a career politician,” he added.
“A big thing in my campaign was that we as conservatives can keep our traditional values, but we need to have progressive ideas. I still feel that I have a lot of value to add to the conversation, so I’m going to be involved one way or the other.”
This is the second time van Dijken, who’s been an MLA for eight years, has faced a challenger for the local UCP nomination since 2018 when he defeated Thorhild farmer Monty Bauer by claiming 70 per cent of the 891 ballots cast in what was then the newly formed riding of Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock.
