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Alberta Politics

Nomination updates: NDP MLA Cam Westhead selected in Banff-Kananaskis, Eva Kiryakos chosen as UCP candidate in Calgary-South East

Photo: MLA Cam Westhead at his nomination meeting in Banff-Kananaskis (photo source: Alberta NDP on Twitter)

MLA Cam Westhead was nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in the newly redrawn Banff-Kananaskis district. Westhead is a Registered Nurse and former treasurer of United Nurses of Alberta Local 115 at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary. He was first elected 2015 in the current Banff-Cochrane district with 43 percent of the vote.

Banff-Kananaskis
Banff-Kananaskis

Westhead’s nomination was endorsed at a meeting this week by a number of prominent municipal elected officials from the district, including Canmore Mayor John Borrowman and former town councillor Sean Krausert and Banff town councillor Corrie DiManno. Borrowman is reported to have described Westhead as “a very strong representative of the Bow Valley to the legislature in Edmonton.

He’s an excellent listener, but he doesn’t stop there,” the Rocky Mountain Outlook reported Krausert as saying. “He goes back to Edmonton and talks to the person he needs to talk to and gets something done and he does that time and time again with integrity, with honesty and it’s just been a pleasure to see an MLA do what an MLA is suppose to do.”

Brenda Stanton was nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Banff-Kananskis this week. Stanton is the owner of Back to Basics Hospitality Training & Consulting and is the former president of the Canmore/Kananaskis Chamber of Commerce and former vice chair of Tourism Canmore/Kananaskis.

Eva Kiryakos UCP Calgary South East
Eva Kiryakos

In Calgary-South East, Eva Kiryakos was nominated as the United Conservative Party candidate after Cameron Davies and Matt Jones withdrew from the contest. According to her online biography, Kiryakos has practiced law for 11 years and one of her main campaign promises is to modify or repeal the Protecting Choice for Women Accessing Health Care Act, which seeks to limits protest and harassment of health care workers and patients accessing facilities that offer abortion services in Alberta.

MLA Jon Carson has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-West Henday. Carson was first elected as MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark in the 2015 election while earning 57 percent of the vote.

Kristie Gomuwka has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in West Yellowhead. Gomuwka is a director of the Edson Friendship Centre and was a candidate for trustee with the Grande Yellowhead Public School District in October 2017. She is married to Town of Edson Mayor Kevin Zahara.

Martin Long defeated Whitecourt town councillors Paul Chauvet and Ray Hilts, and two-time Wildrose Party candidate and former Hinton town councillor Stuart Taylor to secure the UCP nomination in West Yellowhead today. Long works at the Alberta Newsprint Company paper mill in Whitecourt, is the chairperson of the Tennille’s Hope Soup Kitchen and is a former director of the Whitecourt-Ste. Anne Wildrose Party association.

NDP MLAs duel for nomination in St. Albert

MLAs Trevor Horne and Marie Renaud (photo from St. Albert Public Library on Facebook)
MLAs Trevor Horne and Marie Renaud (photo from St. Albert Public Library on Facebook)

Two NDP MLAs will challenge each other for their party’s nomination in the newly redrawn St. Albert district. In what will be the first contested NDP nomination contest of this cycle, current Spruce Grove-St. Albert MLA Trevor Horne and current St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud will seek the NDP candidacy at a December 12, 2018 nomination meeting.

Renaud had already announced her intentions to seek the nomination months ago, but Horne’s intentions had been unclear. Because of a significant change in the electoral boundaries, Horne’s Spruce Grove-St. Albert district is being split between the new Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland and St. Albert districts, leaving this incumbent without a clear place to seek re-election without challenging fellow NDP MLAs Renaud, Oneil Carlier or Erin Babcock.


UPCOMING NOMINATION MEETINGS

November 17, 2018David Egan, Roger Fodjo, and Ruby Malik are seeking the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview. Jeffery Walters has withdrawn from the contest. The district is currently represented by NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who was elected with 73.8 percent of the vote.

November 18, 2018 – MLA Oneil Carlier is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in the new district of Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. Carlier has represented Whitecourt-Ste. Anne and has served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2015.


Here are some of the latest updates to this list of candidates running for nominations ahead of Alberta’s 2019 provincial election:

Calgary-Bow – Frank Penkala is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.

Calgary-Falconridge – Gurjinder Dhillon and Raman Gill have withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest.

Sherwood Park – MLA Annie McKitrick has officially filed her intention to seek the NDP nomination for re-election in 2019. McKitrick was first elected in 2015 with 52 percent of the vote and has served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Education since 2017.

If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!

Categories
Alberta Politics

Dale Nally secures UCP nomination in Morinville-St. Albert, Nicholas Milliken wins UCP race in Calgary-Currie, and the latest candidate updates

Dale Nally Morinville-St. Albert UCP candidate
Dale Nally

North of Edmonton in the new Morinville-St. Albert district, Dale Nally defeated past Wildrose Party candidate, Joe Gosselin, Legal town councillor Trina Jones, and former Sturgeon County mayor Don Rigney to win the United Conservative Party nomination.

Nally lives in St. Albert and works as a Senior Director of Learning and Development at Loblaw Companies Limited. He earned a Master of Distance Education from Athabasca University in the mid-2000s and was a spokesperson for Canada Post in the late 1990s.

This new district north of Edmonton was created from areas in the current Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater and Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock and the northeast corner of St. Albert. It is also is the area where I was raised and many of my family members still live.

Nicholas Milliken defeated past Wildrose Party candidate Terry Devries, Amoriza Gunnink, Dan Morrison, and Bettina Pierre-Gilles to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Currie.

Nicholas Milliken UCP Calgary Currie
Nicholas Milliken

Milliken is a lawyer and CEO of Brolly Legal Recruitment. He is also the great grandson of Alberta MLA William Howson, who represented Edmonton in the Alberta Legislature from 1930 to 1936 and led the Alberta Liberal Party from 1932 to 1936.

New Democratic Party MLA Barb Miller is expected to be chosen as her party’s candidate in Red Deer-South at a meeting on November 8, 2018.

Here are more of the latest updates to the list of candidates running for party nominations ahead of Alberta’s 2019 provincial general election:

Banff-KananskisBrenda Stanton is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. Stanton is the owner of Back to Basics Hospitality Training & Consulting and is the former president of the Canmore/Kananaskis Chamber of Commerce and former vice chair of Tourism Canmore/Kananaskis.

Calgary-Falconridge – Paramjit Singh Mann is seeking the NDP nomination. Ricky Dhaliwal and Harwinder Kang are the latest candidates to enter the UCP nomination contest in this district. Kang is a real estate agent and President of the Taradale Community Association.

Edmonton-Mill Woods – Nazia Naqvi is seeking the UCP nomination.

Edmonton-South – Inderdeep Sandhu has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest.

Livingstone-Macleod – Allen MacLennan is seeking the UCP nomination. MacLennan was a candidate for the right-wing Confederation of Regions Party in the 1993 election in Calgary-McCall. He earned 129 votes in that race.

St. Albert – Cameron Jefferies is seeking the Green Party nomination. Jefferies is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and the University of Alberta where he researches environmental law, natural resource law, ocean law and animal law and sustainability law.


Devin Dreeshen appointed in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake?

Devin Dreeshen UCP MLA Innisfail Sylvan Lake
Devin Dreeshen

The only electoral district in Alberta where the UCP does not have a nominated candidate or nomination activities is in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, where MLA Devin Dreeshen was elected in a July 2018 by-election.

There is speculation that the UCP board of directors could appoint Dreeshen as the party’s candidate in that district. The argument in favour of appointing Dreeshen is said to be that he already won a hotly contested nomination vote earlier this year and that his electoral district will not face any significant boundary changes when the election is called.

Dreeshen’s appointment would be a contrast to the situation faced by his fellow rookie UCP MLA Laila Goodridge, who was elected in a July 2018 by-election in Fort McMurray-Conklin and recently won a contested nomination in the redrawn Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche district.

Dreeshen is a former political staffer and is the son of Red Deer-Mountain View Member of Parliament Earl Dreeshen.


If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!