Lesser Slave Lake incumbent MLA Pearl Calahasen is running for her sixth time. She’s five for five and apparently not discouraged by her demotion from cabinet by current premier Ed Stelmach.
On Mar. 3, Calahasen hopes to enter her sixth term and third decade as an MLA.
When she was first elected in 1989, her party, the Progressive Conservatives, had been in power for 18 years, but was at something of a low ebb. The Tories had slipped below 50 per cent of the popular vote for the first time since 1971 (when they first came to power), and the Liberals and New Democrats combined easily outpolled the party led by Don Getty. However, despite getting nearly 30 per cent of the vote, the Liberals earned only eight seats, and Getty had a comfortable majority.
The Tory majorities kept getting bigger through the 90s, peaking at 62 per cent the popular vote in 2001 under Ralph Klein. Calahasen kept on winning re-election easily, although she did have one or two stiff challenges for the party nomination.
Popular support for the ruling Tories nose-dived in the 2004 election, to 46.8 per cent. In the house they went from 74 of 83 seats to 62.
Calahasen had no problem winning re-election, however. She beat the Alberta Alliance candidate by nearly 3,000 votes and walloped the Liberal entry by even more. Calahasen was Minister of Aboriginal Affairs under Ralph Klein at the time. She lost that post when Stelmach established his new cabinet in late 2006.
Challenging Calahasen in Lesser Slave Lake this time around are the Liberal, Steve Noskey, and the New Democrat Habby Sharkawi.
Noskey, 49, is a Little Buffalo resident who has been the chair of the Northlands School Division board of trustees for the past 10 years. He works in the oilpatch. It’s his first time running for political office.
“I’m as excited as I’m nervous,” he says. “It’s something I’m looking forward to.”
Sharkawi is from High Prairie, where she was born, raised and went to High School. Her parents own Nado’s Pizzaria in High Prairie. She’s been studying psychology and political science at the University of Alberta in recent years, and currently works as a restaurant manager in the city, as well as part-time as a social worker.
“I believe that the Lesser Slave Lake constituency has been neglected by politicians in Edmonton and Ottawa, and I want to do right by my community,” she says in a biographical piece provided by the NDP campaign office.

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