Sitting MLA loses nomination battle
A challenger to incumbent MLA Rick Strankman has won the UCP nomination in Drumheller-Stettler, making Strankman the party’s first sitting member to be defeated in this nomination cycle.
Nate Horner, a 37-year-old farmer from south of Hanna, will be the UCP’s candidate in the riding during next year’s provincial election.
“I feel good. It is a little surreal,” Horner said Sunday, a day after his win.
“It’s exciting, we worked hard,” Hornersaid. “All sides workedhard. Yougetalot of invested people from across the camps and I’m humbly happy and excited with our victory, but definitely the goal now is to try to bring everyone back together.”
In a statement, UCP Leader Jason Kenney congratulated Horner on the victory.
“Nate has a diverse background, with experience in agriculture, oil and gas, and as a small-business owner. This, combined with a deep desire to create a better Alberta for his two small children, makes Nate an ideal United Conservative candidate and I’m pleased to welcome him to the team,” Kenney stated.
“I would also like to thank Rick St rank man for his immense contributions to the conservative movement, from going to jail to protest the unjustness of the Canadian Wheat Board to getting elected to the Alberta legislature in 2012. I am looking forward to working with Rick in the legislature in the coming months and whatever else the future holds. I know I join all Albertans in thanking Rick for his service to our province.”
Strankman, a farmer for more than four decades, was jailed in 2002 after being criminal ly charged for transporting 756 bushels of his own wheat across the U.S. border, in a protest against the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on the sale of western Canadianwheat. He received a pardon fromthen-prime minister Stephen Harper in 2012.
He said he has “an inclination” toward politics and hopes to stay involved in public life after his term in the legislature ends next year.
“I did all that from an unelected position,” said Strankman, recalling his 2002 efforts, “so this potential change may allow me greater freedom to do all sorts of things.”
Strankman said he was surprised by the result of the nomination vote, noting he was worried “awkward voting times” could have an impact. Nevertheless, he said he accepts the results.
“I still have a responsibility to the constituents,” Strankman said. “I’m still the MLA until the (election) ... I take great pride in representing the people of DrumhellerStettler; I always have.”
His time in politics has included some controversy. As a Wildrose candidate during the 2015 election campaign, Strankman apologized and retracted a poster that encouraged constituents in Drum hellerStettler to attend an“old fashioned pie auction” and “BYWP (Bring Your Wife’s Pie!!),” which some critics called sexist.
He also apologized the following year for an article he signed along with eight other MLAs, which compared the NDP’s carbon tax to the Holodomor, the genocide of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s.
Horner is the first challenger to defeat an incumbent UCP MLA during the party’s nomination contests so far. He said he was motivated to run after watching Kenney’s successful effort to unite the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties.
“I was inspired and invested in the idea that we needed to put the two parties together,” Horner said.
“I think that there really is two parts of Alberta in play. The major centres are growing and a lot of the rural areas are being drained somewhat by population and resources,” Horner said.
“It’s tough out here. The rural municipalities are in for the fight of their lives. They’re trying to keep what tax base they have and continue to provide what services they’re able to. I really want this party to succeed. I think it’s what Alberta needs right now, but I also am hesitant and want to fight and be an advocate for trying to keep our level of service in these remote rural areas.”