The constituency of Sturgeon River-Parkland is less than one week away from filling the seat left vacant by former interim Conservative Party leader Rona Ambrose. The four candidates vying for the seat are Conservative Dane Lloyd, Liberal Brian Gold, Shawna Gawreluck of the NDP and Ernest Chauvet of the Christian Heritage Party. Gawreluck and Gold were acclaimed for their nominations while Chauveat beat out Parkland County native Kevin Schulthies. Gold, a 53-year-old professor and business owner said he wants to run to keep Canada strong and free and help foster a strong middle class. “I want to make sure this economy that is growing the fastest of all the G7 countries keeps growing,” Gold said. Gawreluck is a medical laboratory technologist works in transfusion medicine and also owns a small business. Gawreluck owns an outdoor construction company with her husband where she does payroll and other paperwork. “That provides me the opportunity to really speak for small business in Sturgeon County because often our voices get lost in big business,” Gawreluck said. Chauvet said that he decided to run because of moral issues and his party holds a pro-life stance. Chauvet said he is against the carbon tax and wants to see more of a focus on preventative medicine. Lloyd, a former staffer to MP Michael Cooper, beat out former Conservative leadership candidate Rick Peterson, Rona Ambrose’s former constituency assistant Luke Inberg and former public relations staff for Stephen Harper’s office, Jamie Mozeson. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer made a stop in Morinville on Tuesday Oct. 10 to campaign with Lloyd. The Sturgeon River-Parkland riding was created in 2011 by combining Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Westlock-St. Paul and Yellowhead. Each of those ridings have been Conservative strongholds with members being elected from the Conservative, Canadian Alliance, Reform and Progressive Conservative parties dating back to 1979. During the last election incumbent Conservative MP Rona Ambrose earned 70 per cent of the vote. Election day is Monday Oct. 23.
