Days after Ken Kowalski announced his retirement, the first candidate wanting to replace outgoing Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA has come forward planning to seek the Progressive Conservative party's nomination.
David Truckey, a three-term Westlock town councillor, has announced his intentions to run, saying he has had an interest in provincial politics for some time now and has spoken about it with Kowalski previously.
"I indicated to him that when he was ready to retire that I would be interested in running for the position."
He said when rumours flourished earlier this year that Kowalski would not seek another term; he had a long time to think about whether he wanted to run.
Truckey said because he had already had the time to consider it, when Kowalski announced his retirement he was quick to announce his candidacy.
"My decision at that point was very quick because I had a lot of time to think about it."
Truckey, who is also the chair of the Westlock Foundation that provides seniors' housing in the region, said if he should win both the nomination and the election, seniors' issues would be a priority for him.
"That would be something that I would like to stay focused on, because I have a lot of experience on it, but that is a long ways down the road right now."
Truckey is a restaurant owner in Westlock and also ran for the federal Conservative nomination in 2006 for the Westlock St-Paul riding, which current MP Brian Storseth ultimately won.
Kowalski announced his retirement last Friday, shocking many after announcing only in August that he would seek another term. He said shortly after initially deciding to run he started to realize just how much time he was sacrificing to the job.
"I don't have a life other than this," he said. "I am going to have time to visit with people and talk with people. I am going to have time to do more than the four rounds of golf I did this year."
Electoral landscape
Kowalski said one of the factors in his decision was that he believes the PCs are in a good political position, ready to contest the next election.
"Things have really settled down politically in Alberta. The party I am a member of has found its foundation again, is growing, is settling down," he said. "The premier is very impressive, all the polls and all the numbers are saying we are doing really, really well."
Link Byfield, the Wildrose candidate for the riding. said he doesn't know if Kowalski's retirement will have a big impact on the spring election.
"We still have a challenge ahead of us in the Wildrose party of converting people from one voting pattern to another. I think this might be a bit easier now, but I don't know."
Byfield said he has always thought Kowalski was a good constituency MLA, but the issue was about where his party was taking the province.
"People in our riding have voted PC for every election since 1971 and they won't stop doing that easily. They have to have a reason and we have to give them that reason."
