By Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye
Rural Alberta and agriculture are on Doug Horner’s mind as the race to become Alberta’s premier continues.
The Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert MLA placed third in the first round of voting in the race to become Progressive Conservative party leader, and premier-elect of Alberta. Horner is up against Calgary-Elbow MLA Alison Redford, who finished second, and Gary Mar, who led the polls.
Horner has been travelling through rural Alberta to drum up some extra voters and memberships.
“I’m the underdog,” he explained. “We’re the guys that everybody has written off but I think we’ve got every chance in the world of success.”
Minister of Transportation Luke Ouellette was with Horner to show his support, travelling together in Horner’s campaign camper.
Horner gave a short speech at Vold, Jones and Vold Auction Co. Sept. 21 telling buyers and sellers he was there to fight for rural voters. He greeted people individually to let them know his priorities, “We decided to go out and make sure people knew about Oct. 1 and ensuring that agriculture is front and centre of a lot of these debates.”
When asked what sets him apart from the rest of the candidates, Horner said he is the only candidate with international business experience and he is an entrepreneur, who built a manufacturing business from the ground up — Westglen Milling Corp., an oat and barley milling operation.
Horner knows he has an uphill race, but he will be running a highroad campaign and will not speak negatively of the other candidates. “We are all part of the same family.”
His advice to voters when looking at candidates is to. “read the policies of each candidate, contact them if you have questions, we encourage that.”
Oct. 1 is election day for the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.