Premier Ed Stelmach overtakes Dinning to become Albertan's new premier
Larry Johnsrude, Andrea Sands, edmontonjournal.com Published: Sunday, December 03 2006
Sometimes, nice guys do finish first.
Ed Stelmach, the farmer who was often called too nice a guy to be a good leader, has been chosen Alberta's new premier.
"I promise tonight I'll do what's right for you and for all Albertans," he told jubillant supporters, who had packed the Alberta Aviation Museum all night to cheer him on. "Good guys sometimes do finish first."
He said his task of healing party splits and reaching out to all Albertans begins immediately. Those were key themes of his low key campaign - the voice of moderation in a race polarized between social conservative Ted Morton and Jim Dinning, a former provincial treasurer and Calgary businessman often portrayed as the candidate of corporate Alberta.
After running what his volunteers called a "stealth campaign," he appeared to come out of nowhere at last week's first ballot to finish third and remain in the running for Saturday's second and final ballot.
As the votes were tallied, he trailed Dinning throughout the night but pulled ahead as the final numbers were counted shortly after 1 a.m. today. With all 83 polling stations reporting, Stelmach had 51,764 votes to Dinning's 51,282. Ted Morton trailed with 41,282.
That alone wasn't enough to assure a win, which required a clear majority. But when third-place finisher Ted Morton's second-choice ballots were counted under the preferrential balloting system, Stelmach ended up with more than 77,000 votes - enough for a clear majority.
It wasn a stunning turnaround for Stelmach, who finished third in last week's first ballot and appeared to have been left on the sidelines in a two-way fight between Dinning and Morton.
But he quietly positioned himself as the only candidate who could bring the divided Conservative party together and build bridges to all Albertans.
Momentum seemed to be on Stelmach's side all night.
Of more than a thousand volunteers crammed into the Alberta Aviation Museum on Kingsway Avenue, Stelmach's supporters were by far in the majority. Most of Edmonton's Conservative MLAs were working for Stelmach or Dinning and perceive Morton as two hard-line socially conservative for their tastes.
Stelmach picked up support and campaign workers from the David Hancock, Mark Norris and Lyle Oberg leadership camps. Hancock, Oberg and Norris were knocked out in last week's ballot.
Stelmach was also the most visible of the three candidates throughout the night, mingling with the crowd and cheering along with his supporters as the numbers were posted on the board.
It is the second time in the same day that third-place finishers jumped ahead to win. Stephane Dion did the same earlier today at the national Liberal leadership in Montreal.
Dinning, who had been campaigning for the job for years and was often portrayed as heir apparent to the premier's office, was gracious in defeat. He wished Stelmach well and said he thinks he will do a good job.a
Morton said he was disappointed he didn't do better in Edmonton and Calgary. He said he'll talk to the new leader about what his role will be in the new Stelomach government.
Conservative party officials reported heavy turnout across the province as a record144,281 Albertans cast ballots.
Party workers began filing into the the drafty former airport hanger shortlly after the polls closed. The cavernous building, furnished with cocktail tables and festooned with Tory orange and blue baloons, is serving as media centre and celebration headquarters. The three leadership candidates and their teams will watch the results on giant video screeens.here. The winner and losers are expected to make their acceptance and concession speeches in front of hundreds of party workers.
Saturday's vote capped months of agressive and often-bitter campaigning.
Dinning campaigned on his experience in government and the TransAlta corporate boardroom. He promised no major changes in direction for the province but said it would be better managed under a Dinning government.
But Morton, a politicial science professor from the University of Calgary who had never held a cabinet post, promised to move the Conservative party and the province to the right. His defiant "more Alberta, less Ottawa" was a forewarning of a tougher pro-province tact and his proposals for private health insurance was his rallying cry for health reform. He also staked out a social conservative line with his opposition to gay marriage and proposed to strenghten the province's hand with a provincial police force and pension plan.
Stelmach, a farmer from Andrew, positioned himself between the two with his conciliatory overtures to reach out to all Albertans and all factions of the divided Conservative party.
New party members snapped up Conservative Party at polling stations around Edmonton today at $5 apiece for the right to record their picks for leader.
"It's frantic," said Sol Rolingher, returning officer at the Edmonton Glenora polling station.
"We're selling probably twice as many (new memberships) as last Saturday."
The deputy returning officer for Edmonton Highlands Norwood, Dan Papirnik, said membership sales there had also skyrocketed. Last Saturday, about 110 new memberships were sold in total for the party's first-ballot vote. By 1 p.m. Saturday, more than 200 new memberships had been sold.
"We've got a lot of first-timers voting," Papirnik said.
"People are pretty excited about having the opportunity to participate and decide who will be the next premier."
University of Lethbridge student Ryan McDonald bought his Conservative Party membership today at the Edmonton Whitemud polling station that had last week's highest voter turnout. Dave Hancock, the riding's MLA, won 47 per cent of the 3,069 votes last Saturday but is no longer on the ballot.
"I voted for Jim Dinning, basically because I think Ted Morton is way too far to the right and I didn't want him to win," McDonald said.
Office manager Doreen Muth cast her ballot for Stelmach today, with Morton as her second choice. Last weekend, she voted for Dinning.
"I just felt like he started the whole fight that was going on all week, and I'm not interested in that," Muth said.
"It was a hard choice, I have to admit, between Stelmach and Morton."
Ed Stelmach has won the race to lead Alberta's governing Progressive Conservative party beating out former Treasurer Jim Dinning and Ted Morton. Stelmach, now premier-Designate of Alberta, will be sworn in as Premier of the Canadian province once outgoing leader Ralph Klein leaves office later this month.

Stelmach placed third on the first ballot of the party's leadership election last Saturday behind Dinning, the favourite, who was in first place and former university professor Morton who was in second place. The top three contenders in the eight candidate race proceeded to the second ballot vote which occurred yesterday. 

Stelmach was the surprise leader last night as the first choice of 51,764 voters (35.9%) to Dinning's 51,282 (35.6%). Morton placed third with 41,243 votes (28.6%) and was eliminated from the contest which then proceeded to counting the second choices cast by Morton's supporters on the preferential ballot. Once the second choices of Morton's supporters were factored in Stelmach surged ahead to win a clear victory by a margin of over 20,000 votes in the instant runoff. 

The vote was open to all Albertans who purchased a five dollar party membership including members of other political parties. Over 144,000 ballots were cast and reports indicate that a number of members of more moderate parties voted in order to prevent a victory by Morton, a social conservative and supporter of allowing private health insurance to compete with the province's public system of Medicare and has been portrayed as a "right-wing extremist" by his opponents. 

The Alberta Progressive Conservatives have ruled the western province continually since 1971. Stelmach will be the province's fourth successive Progressive Conservative premier.