The Progressive Conservative (PC) party is 10 days away from choosing the next premier of Alberta after the first ballot failed to deliver a majority to any one of the six candidates vying for the province's top job on Saturday.
Fewer than 60,000 PC members cast ballots. Gary Mar led the first ballot with 40.8 per cent, followed by Alison Redford with 18.7 and Doug Horner with 14.5. The top three will move on to the final ballot on Oct. 1, where voters will mark first and second choices should one candidate not receive a majority of first choice votes.
Former Finance Minister Ted Morton came in behind Horner with around 12 per cent, followed by Rick Orman with 10 per cent and Doug Griffiths with four per cent.
“I was very pleased to finish with twice as many votes as the next candidate. My deepest thanks go to every supporter who made that result happen," Mar's online blog from his website read after the vote.
He called the low voter turnout the “one disappointment."
“I will represent all of Alberta, north and south, urban and rural, and the first ballot results shows that is true. It puts me in the position of being able to unite our party under one leader, and that will give tremendous potential for this province," Mar said.
Mar won clear victories in all of Edmonton's constituencies, but was forced to share Calgary's constituencies with Redford.
During the campaign, “We talked about change in how we govern, in how the party works, in getting people to join up to have a role in making the decisions about their future," Redford told the Journal, in a phone interview.
“In two weeks, we're going to have a new premier, and that premier is going to have to be a person that people can trust to continue to deliver programs that allow people to have the quality of life that they've come to expect in Alberta and that they're entitled to have."
Redford plans to do a lot of traveling until the next vote and may be in St. Paul to hold a public event and meet with partners in the Safe Communities program. “I think what we see in St. Paul is a really good set of community partnerships that understand what that community needs in order to support their future aspirations."
Horner dominated the vote in the Lac La Biche – St. Paul constituency, with 1089 of 1343 ballots cast, over 80 per cent. Mar came in a distant second place with 102 votes, while Redford earned 65, Morton 34, Griffiths 33 and Orman 20.
“Now we've got two weeks, so we've got to make it happen," said Horner in a video statement posted on his website. “Let's get the vote out in the next two weeks."
The local constituency received the most votes of any rural constituency and more than most constituencies in Calgary and Edmonton.
“We worked very hard to get the voter turnout," said local MLA Ray Danyluk. “We have a chance to come from behind and we have a chance to be the winner, and for our area, that is critically important."
Danyluk expects an even bigger constituency turnout on Oct. 1, calling the first ballot “a warm-up."
Horner and Danyluk are talking with MLAs, who are “weighing their options" after the first vote to try to increase support, said Danyluk.
Horner earned the win in outlying areas of Edmonton such as St. Alberta, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, as well as a swath across the northern part of the province from east to western boundaries, including Peace River and Lesser Slave Lake but not Fort McMurray – Buffalo where Mar won with 119 of 207 votes.
Horner's support was weakest in Calgary, where he earned the least amount of support among the candidates in 11 constituencies.
Local constituency votes dwarfed those cast in the neighbouring northern constituency of Bonnyville – Cold lake, which received only 322 votes. Horner captured the constituency with 56 per cent, while Mar again took a distant second with 11 per cent.
In Fort Saskatchewan – Vegreville, Horner beat out Mar by only three votes with 276 out of 716.
