WESTLOCK – Voters in the Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland rising have given MLA Shane Getson a second term following his decisive victory in the May 29 provincial election.
The UCP incumbent posted a 9,000-vote win over NDP candidate Oneil Carlier, earning 14,917 votes from constituents this time around and says the support he received, which includes the Hamlet of Busby, is a clear indication of the direction Albertans want the province to go. Other candidates in the riding included Carlier who garnered 5,868 votes, Marilyn Burns, of the Advantage Party of Alberta, with 182 votes, Vanessa Diehl, of the Green Party of Alberta with 205 votes, and Janet Jabush, of the Alberta Party, who claimed 463 votes.
Locally, Busby-area residents voted overwhelmingly for Getson, who won his seat initially in 2019, casting 356 ballots his way, while Carlier picked up 95.
“It was overwhelming support. We may have had 1,000 less votes in total in the constituency but my percentages went up so the gap between myself and the NDP candidate actually increased quite a bit versus last time,” said Getson, noting his victory was evidence of a well-run campaign that put constituents first and politics second. “The other candidates wouldn’t have an open forum and I think that really spoke poorly to them and reflected poorly for them in the results.”
Getson noted important issues that helped win him the election included the UCP’s ‘four pillars’ of jobs, the economy, standing up for Alberta and affordability, the latter which he said was “huge in our area.”
“When you look at all the subsets of all the other items that come out of that, it was making sure that our seniors were taken care of, making sure that our schools were decent,” he said, pointing out actions he took as parliamentary secretary for economic corridors that included leading a task force and coordinating the signing for the memorandum of understanding between the three prairie provinces was also a factor.
“That resonated with folks in our area. It wasn’t just about pipelines or anything else, it came down to logistics transport, agriculture, all the key parts,” he explained, adding that disinformation and countering it was also a hot topic for the riding. “Folks knew me and trusted me at that point. If I was giving my word and vouching for it they could take it to the bank because I didn’t get into politics to become a politician and I think that style really resonates with folks in my area. I was very humbled to see that overwhelming support when the numbers finally settled,” he said.
As for premier Danielle Smith, Getson said despite losing 14 seats in the May 29 election, she has a strong mandate from Albertans and has a solid team (of MLAs) that’s “pulling in the same direction.”
“When you look at how the campaign was run, we were fighting an uphill battle from Day 1 when it came to disinformation,” he said. “Given that we had only formed in seven months, there were so many sound-bites taken from two or three or five years ago, it was just a disinformation warfare quite honestly.”
Getson pointed out the difference in support between the larger urban centres like Calgary and the rural parts of the province that were “overwhelmingly supportive of our mandates to continue forward.”
“I think all we have to do literally, is to carry on. We do have a majority government, we do have a mandate from Albertans and I believe that when I talk about those four major pillars, that’s what people want,” said Getson. “People want outcomes but they want to make sure that they’re engaged in the process and that’s what we’ve been doing and we’ll continue to do.”
