Carl Benito Edmonton-Mill Woods MLA Sign 2

Sign supporting MLA Carl Benito on the corner of 34th Avenue and Mill Woods Road.

Carl Benito Edmonton-Mill Woods MLA Sign 1

Signs supporting MLA Carl Benito on the corner of 34th Avenue and Mill Woods Road.

A reader of this blog spotted these two signs yesterday morning on the corner of 34th Avenue and Mill Woods Road in the constituency of Edmonton-Mill Woods.

Progressive Conservative MLA Carl Benito, who spent much of his first-term in office defending self-inflicted controversy, was defeated by Sohail Qadri in a tense battle for his party’s nomination. While most politicians in his position would quietly move out of the spotlight, are the sudden presence of these signs a signal that Mr. Benito’s name could show up on the ballot as an Independent candidate in the upcoming election?

The signs note that they are donated by “High Speed Printing,” which means that they were likely not paid for through constituency office funds.

While the opposition parties were hoping that Mr. Benito’s name would on the ballot as the PC candidate, a run as an Independent candidate could lead to interesting results. In 2008, Mr. Benito became the first PC MLA to be elected in this constituency since 1982. Voters in this constituency elected Liberal MLAs to represent them in the Assembly from 1993 until 2008.

Former Liberal MLA Weslyn Mather has been nominated to carry her party’s banner into the election, the New Democrats have chosen Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Vice-President Sandra Azocar, and Joanne Autio is the Wildrose candidate.