Well the election is over and Albertans have spoken!
Albertans voted in droves, the largest voter turnout since the 1930’s.
Of the 37, 099 eligible voters in the Drayton Valley-Devon constituency, 25,437 people voted, that was a 68.9 per cent voter turnout.
The new Legislature will have two political parties. The United Conservative Party elected 63 MLA’s to form a majority government and the NDP elected 24 MLA’s making them the Official Opposition.
I am very humbled that the constituents of Drayton Valley-Devon elected myself as one of the 63 United Conservative MLA’s. Thank you!
Those are the results but I want to take the opportunity to thank all of the candidates that ran in the Drayton Valley-Devon constituency. Elections can only happen when citizens put their names forward as candidates and commit to offering the people political choice.
Each one of the candidates should be congratulated for the efforts they put forward as they placed their vision of Alberta before the people.
I would also like to thank all of the constituents that exercised their franchise regardless of who they voted for.
Albertans clearly voted for change this election.
They voted for an Alberta where the primary objective of the government must be to control government spending and rebuild the economy.
Jobs, Pipelines and the economy were the primary election issues for Albertans and as a member of the government I will do my best to ensure that we rebuild this economy, provide the jobs needed by Albertans and get our oil and gas to tidewater.
This will not be an easy!
Over the last four years the government raised taxes and still spent in such a way as to create a yearly deficit of $8-10 billion.
We now have a $60 billion debt and $3 billion yearly interest payments to go along with it.
This will have to be addressed while at the same time we are going to have lower taxes and reduce regulatory red tape in order to attract the foreign capital needed to grow the economy.
During the election we pledged to move quickly should we be elected into government and that is exactly what we are going to do.
MLA’s will be sworn in to office on May 21st and the Speech from the Throne will occur the next day on May 22nd to start the newest session of the Legislature.
The election is over and it is now time to roll up our sleeves and start turning political vision into fiscal reality and start rebuilding the Alberta economy.
Mark Smith is MLA for the Drayton Valley-Devon constituency and writes a regular column for The Pipestone Flyer.