More than 50 per cent of the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake riding turned out to the polls last week to cast their vote in the provincial election that ultimately bumped 19 years of PC leadership since the boundary was formed in 1993.
Kerry Towle, Wildrose MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake said she's excited to represent the riding.
“My priorities are to meet with municipalities and voters and really and truly find out how we can take our riding forward,” said Towle, who received 7,091 votes out of the total 15, 332, unofficial results from the Elections Alberta website state.
“We worked hard in this campaign and I will continue to work as hard as I did in the campaign right through for the next four years.”
She said her office will be in town but a decision on exactly where it will be located is still to be determined.
“We have to meet with the system in Edmonton to see what the budget is and all of that. As soon as I figure that out I'll be letting everybody know where we'll be going from there.”
Both the Innisfail and Penhold mayors said they are interested to see how the next four years will shake out.
“It's the first time we've not been represented by the governing party in our community,” said Innisfail mayor Jim Romane, who said he's unsure what that means.
“We felt Luke (Ouellette) had done a lot for the community and a lot for the municipality. It will be hard to follow that up,” he said adding that Towle has “big boots to follow.”
Penhold mayor Dennis Cooper shared similar sentiments, saying he personally supported Ouellette but is looking forward to working with the new MLA.
“It's going to be a little different when you're working through the opposition,” something that's “a process MLAs learn to do,” he said.
“I'm sure Kerry will do a great job with that,” he added.
Former MLA Luke Ouellette served the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency consecutively since 2001. Unofficial results show he received 6,139 votes during the election.
When contacted yesterday morning, Ouellette said he will retire for awhile to regroup and get his life back.
“I wish the best to the new MLA,” he said, also wishing the best to his constituents.
“I worked very, very hard at it,” he said of his time as MLA.
