Former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith is on her way out of the provincial legislature after Okotoks town coun. Carrie Fischer won the Highwood Progressive Conservative nomination.
Former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith is on her way out of the provincial legislature after Okotoks town coun. Carrie Fischer won the Highwood Progressive Conservative nomination.
Fischer was surrounded by her family when the results of the nomination vote were revealed at the Highwood Memorial Center in High River on March 28.
The first term Okotoks councillor said she will be prepared to run in the next provincial election, which is expected to be held this spring.
“I will work hard for Highwood and hard to represent each and every constituent in an election that comes forward,” she said.
There were 972 ballots cast in the nomination vote, however, the individual results are not being made public.
Fischer thanked her family and campaign team for their support during the nomination race.
“To all of the voters, thank you for your support and encouragement,” she said. “Thank you for taking time out of your day today to vote. You put your trust in me and I will not take that lightly.”
Fischer said the nomination process was fair and open and she also thanked Smith for running a fair campaign.
Smith congratulated Fischer on the win and said she will support Fischer's campaign.
“I think she is a tremendous public servant and I'm sure that the residents of Highwood look forward to having a representative in the legislature as well as she represented them on city council,” said Smith.
She thanked her staff, family and campaign supporters and said she doesn't have any plans yet for what she will do after the vote.
The results come with mixed emotions for Smith, who said she was hoping to be the Highwood PC candidate in the next election. She had received support from Premier Jim Prentice after she crossed the floor with eight other former Wildrose members to join the PC Party in December.
Smith said it was not a mistake to cross the floor. She said the PC Party is the only one with a credible, long-term plan to get the province's finances on track.
“I think it's really important when we're facing such challenging fiscal times for conservatives to unite under [premier] Jim Prentice's leadership,” she said.
Fischer said she hasn't decided whether she will resign her seat on town council. She said she wants to meet with town council to discuss the matter, adding there is there is nothing under the Municipal Government Act that prevents her from serving until a provincial election is held.
In the mean time, Fischer will be getting down to work quickly after the vote. She is scheduled to meet with the PC caucus on March 29 at a “campaign college.”
There are several issues in the Highwood Fischer said she wants to address, particularly closing outstanding DRP files and securing funding for a water pipeline for Okotoks.
Without any funding in last week's provincial budget for the Okotoks water pipeline, she said she will work with the Province to find a way to get it built.
“We've got different funding models for the pipeline and I'll work with ministers … and with Okotoks council to see which ones work to move that forward,” she said.
Fischer said there have been some hiccups in the process to rebuild High River and she wants to find ways to improve it to get people back in their homes.
“I've seen issues in Highwood that need to be addressed,” she said. “We've got the DRP files that are still sitting unaddressed, many families don't have safe housing, they don't know when they're going back home.”
A provincial election has not been called, but is highly anticipated to be held something this spring.
