A long-time St. Albert resident won the nomination to run for the Progressive Conservatives in the Spruce Grove-St. Albert riding on Saturday.
Rus Matichuk, 50, emerged victorious over fellow candidates and St. Albert residents Kathleen Range and Neil Korotash in a vote on Saturday.
Matichuk is president of Sumex Capital a business financial advisory company. He's married with four children and lives in the Lacombe neighbourhood.
"It feels great," said Matichuk when interviewed on Monday.
Winning the nomination was a fair amount of work, he said. Now that he's secured his place on the ballot as the PC nominee, he'll be spending some time learning more about the constituency's issues while waiting to find out if he'll be running in a byelection or a general provincial election.
Doug Horner resigned as MLA as of the end of January, which triggers a byelection for Spruce Grove-St. Albert to be held within six months of the resignation. That's a moot point if a general provincial election is called, and speculation continues to swirl that one will be called this spring.
Matichuk has a background in finance and business, something he thinks might have helped him win the nomination as the province faces an uncertain financial future.
Other nominees acclaimed
Feb. 21 was the first of two planned "super Saturdays" in the coming onslaught of PC nominations.
However, St. Albert, Morinville and Sturgeon County's MLAs have all already been acclaimed as the PC candidates in the next election, so the Spruce Grove-St. Albert contest was the only nomination selection that was a race.
St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan, Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson and Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec were all acclaimed in recent weeks after no one mounted a challenge to their nominations.
The PC party appears set to nominate the majority of its candidates in the coming weeks.
A spring election has not formally been called.
