Westlock County Coun. Maureen Kubinec will replace Ken Kowalski as Progressive Conservative (PC) nominee for the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock riding.
There were 1,233 ballots cast throughout the constituency Saturday, Jan. 28, and Norm Kitz, PC returning officer, said 561, or 44 per cent, of the votes went to Kubinec, who said she was “cautiously optimistic” heading into the election.
This is the first occasion that a nomination race has taken place since Kowalski, who was not at the vote, was elected to represent the Barrhead area in 1979.
“I’ve known Maureen Kubinec for a long time. She is a community leader,” said Kowalski on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m going to help her every conceivable way. She is part of the movement that I’ve been involved in for 40-some-odd years.”
Constituency association acting president Mark Oberg announced the win to the roughly 100 people gathered in Memorial Hall. The left side of the room, largely made up of Kubinec’s family and friends, erupted with cheers.
“This is such an honour. I’m a little bit speechless. This is amazing,” said the 56-year-old grandmother of seven.
Although she looks forward to her future with the PC Party and the coming spring election, she noted it wasn’t going to be easy, recognizing she has big shoes to fill.
“He (Ken) did such great service for this constituency and I can’t say that I’m going to do the same things that Ken did; I will just do my very best job,” she said.
Throughout her campaign, a topic that kept coming to the forefront of discussion was getting youth involved with the PC Party — something she said she accomplished by having a handful of younger supporters involved in her campaign.
“People participated and that’s what’s so exciting about this race,” she said. “We had almost 750 people come to the Westlock polling station and that’s amazing. I think that shows that maybe the days of voter apathy are over.”
Oberg would not reveal the vote count for each nominee, stating the only number they would release was the total vote count of 1,233.
Despite this, several nominees said due to the amount of time it took to count the ballots, the outcome must have been close.
“Obviously by the amount of time it took for the counting here today, it was a very close race all the way through and I’m very excited for Maureen to win,” said Town of Westlock Coun. David Truckey, one of five who ran for the position.
All candidates expressed their congratulations to Kubinec and each said they would support her in the provincial election.
“Maureen deserves to win. She ran a better campaign,” said Tim Schultz, adding his biggest difficulty was connecting with the population in Westlock.
Heading into their campaigning, all candidates said reaching out to the various municipalities would prove their biggest challenge. Despite this challenge, a high number of voters turned out. “As far as the participation level, it really has raised the profile of the Conservative Party in this area,” said Westlock County Coun. Bert Seatter. “By the time it took to count the ballots, it was close … I think we were all pretty in the ballpark.”
Morinville mayor Lloyd Bertschi said Kubinec did a “great” job getting her supporters out on voting day, adding he felt she and the other Westlock candidates were at an advantage. “With three of them running, myself, I had to outsell three to one virtually in Morinville and we came up a little short of our goal in membership sales,” he said.
He said although she overcame the hurdle of being chosen as the PC nominee in the constituency, there is still much more to do.
“She has a lot of work to do rebuild and get ready to take on the next election because that is not going to be easy,” he said.
Kubinec will continue serving as Westlock County councillor until an announcement is made for the provincial election. At this time, she will take a leave of absence until the election results are in.
“I think we’re going to do really well (in the election). Albertans are looking for a change,” she said.
“We have a new premier, we’re going to have many new MLAs because at least 18 I think are retiring, so the face of the PC party is changing and that’s one of the beauties of the PC party is that it has that ability to regenerate itself and rejuvenate itself.”
Kowalski said he believes the PC Party will come out on top in the coming provincial election and expects Kubinec to fill his seat as MLA.
He said the party faced a rough patch last year overcoming the economic downturn, but said the recent change in leadership has gone a long way to boosting confidence in the party.
“She’s the only candidate that lives in this constituency. Let’s not ever forget that,” he said, adding the New Democratic Party nominee Trudy Grebenstein lives in Edmonton and Wildrose Alliance nominee Link Byfield lives in Riviere Qui Barre.
