Ed Stelmach
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| Hon. Edward Stelmach | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office Set for December 15, 2006 [1] |
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| Preceded by | Ralph Klein |
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| Born | May 11, 1951 Lamont, Alberta |
| Political party | Progressive Conservative |
| Spouse | Marie Stelmach |
Edward Stelmach, MLA (Born May 11, 1951 in Lamont, Alberta) is the current Premier Designate of Alberta, Canada. He was elected Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives on Sunday, December 3, 2006. He sits in the Alberta legislature as the Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (previously Vegreville-Viking). Stelmach served in Cabinet as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations until March 2006 when he resigned in order to clear the way for his candidacy in the leadership election to select a successor to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.
[edit] Background
Stelmach was first elected to the legislature in the 1993 provincial election. He entered Cabinet in 1997 serving as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development until 1999. Subsequently, he was Minister of Infrastructure and Minister of Transportation before becoming Intergovernmental Relations Minister in 2004.
Before entering Cabinet, Stelmach served as Deputy Whip and then Chief Government Whip and had served as chairman of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and a member of the Standing Policy Committees on Community Services and Health Restructuring. He has also served on Treasury Board, the Agenda and Priorities Committee and the Standing Policy Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Prior to entering provincial politics, Stelmach served variously as Lamont County Reeve, a school trustee and chair of the Vegreville Health Unit board.
Stelmach attended the University of Alberta, then worked in the retail business for 11 years before returning to the family farm.[2]
Stelmach's grandfather, Nicholas, arrived in Alberta from the western Ukrainian district of Radekhiv with his wife, Theodora Kuchera, and settled on the homestead south of Andrew, Alberta in 1898. Ed Stelmach grew up on the farm as the youngest of five children. Stelmach has raised his own four children on the farm his grandfather established[3].
Ed Stelmach won on second votes
[edit] Leadership
Stelmach was the first minister to resign from cabinet in accordance with Premier Klein's order that all prospective leadership candidates resign from cabinet by June 2006 [4].
In the first round of voting on November 25, 2006, Stelmach came in third place, winning 15.3 per cent of the vote to Jim Dinning's 30.2 per cent and Ted Morton's 26.2 per cent. As the top three finishers, Stelmach, Dinning and Morton advanced to a second ballot on December 2. Of the five candidates who were dropped from the second ballot, three endorsed Stelmach, one endorsed Dinning and one offered no endorsements. Several newspapers also endorsed Stelmach as a compromise candidate between the relatively progressive Dinning and the socially conservative, democratic reformer Morton.
The second round was done by preferential ballot, with voters indicating both their first and second choices. When the first choices were tallied, Stelmach had a very narrow 0.3 per cent lead over Dinning, but with Morton eliminated, Stelmach overwhelmingly won the second choice preferences of Morton's voters.
[edit] Sources
- Official website
- Official biography
- Alta. cabinet minister Stelmach quits position Canadian Press, March 21, 2006
- Son of Ukrainian homesteaders becomes Alberta's agriculture minister Ukrainian Weekly, April 27, 1997
| Preceded by: New District |
MLA Vegreville-Viking 1993-2004 |
Succeeded by: District Abolished |
| Preceded by: New District |
MLA Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville 2004-present |
Succeeded by: Incumbent |
| Preceded by: Ralph Klein |
Premier of Alberta-Designate Due to take office, 2006 |
Succeeded by: Incumbent |
| 2006 Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidates | |
|---|---|
| Winner: Ed Stelmach Defeated on the second ballot: Dinning | Morton Defeated on the first ballot: Doerksen | Hancock | Norris | McPherson | Oberg |
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| Premiers of Alberta |  |
|---|---|
| Rutherford | Sifton | Stewart | Greenfield | Brownlee | Reid | Aberhart | Manning | Strom | Lougheed | Getty | Klein | Stelmach (Designate) |
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| Lieutenant-Governor: Norman Kwong | Former lieutenant-governors | |
| Premier: Ralph Klein (Incumbent), Ed Stelmach (Designate) | Former premiers | |
| Opposition Leader: Kevin Taft | Former Opposition Leaders | |
| Executive Council (Cabinet) | |
| Legislature: Current members | Former legislatures | Current electoral divisions | |
| Speaker of the Assembly: Ken Kowalski | |
| Political parties: Progressive Conservatives | Liberals | New Democrats | Alliance | |
| Alberta Party | Communists | Greens | Separation | Social Credit | |
| Elections: 2004 general election | Past elections | Electoral districts | |
| Current issues: Equalization payments | Prosperity Bonus | Same-sex marriage | Separatism | |
Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada)
Gordon Campbell (BC) • Ralph Klein (AB) • Lorne Calvert (SK) • Gary Doer (MB) • Dalton McGuinty (ON) • Jean Charest (QC)
Shawn Graham (NB) • Rodney MacDonald (NS) • Pat Binns (PE) • Dennis Fentie (YT) • Joe Handley (NT) • Paul Okalik (NU) • Danny Williams (NL)
