Leader staff
We’re still waiting for an announcement on voting day for United Conservative Party members in Lesser Slave Lake to choose their candidate for the next provincial election. It will fall in late February or early March, and at least 21 days after the sale of party memberships is cut off.
The window for prospective candidates to register for the UCP nomination race, meanwhile, closes on Feb. 2. As reported before, the only confirmed candidates so far are Martine Carifelle and Scott Sinclair.
Both have been touring the riding, attending meetings and events, knocking on doors and so on. This was even before the party reviewed their applications; there’s always a possibility they will be rejected, though that seems unlikely.
Carifelle, who is a resident of the Swan River First Nation and a former assistant to Lesser Slave MLA Pat Rehn, got hold of The Leader on Jan. 23.
“It’s been crazy!” she said, which we take to mean very busy.
Campaigning has been going “really good,” Carifelle says. “I’ve been loving it – talking to so many people.” She adds people on the whole have been “very friendly, eager to help out.”
Sinclair has also been in touch. He says he’s been making his way around the riding, and found that the reception has been “real positive,” with “great feedback.”
Sinclair says he’s been busy developing a platform, so people can see “what I’m running on.”
A few of these points were presented on a poster he put out a week or so ago. They include affordability, economic growth, better access to health care, and “re-establishing trust in our MLA.”
Party members will be keen to find out if other candidates will join the field. As of press time, nothing new had been announced.
But we did learn Mitchell Paul Boisvert would like to be a candidate. According to a post on social media, he was rejected by the party for not having been a member for six months.
Boisvert says he isn’t giving up and is looking into the possibility of an appeal. He’s urging supporters to get in touch with the party.
