ED STELMACH

'Edward Michael Stelmach', MLA, (born May 11, 1951 in Lamont, Alberta) is the current Premier of Alberta, Canada. He was elected Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party on December 3, 2006. He sits in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as the Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (previously Vegreville-Viking). Stelmach served in Cabinet as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations until March 2006 when he resigned in order to clear the way for his candidacy in the leadership election to select a successor to Premier Ralph Klein.

Contents

Background

Leadership

Comparisons to past politicians

Cabinet

Criticism

Initiatives

Sources

Background

Stelmach was first elected to the legislature in the 1993 provincial election. He entered Cabinet in 1997 serving as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development until 1999. Subsequently, he was Minister of Infrastructure and Minister of Transportation before becoming Intergovernmental Relations Minister in 2004.
Before entering Cabinet, Stelmach served as Deputy Whip and then Chief Government Whip and had served as chairman of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and a member of the Standing Policy Committees on Community Services and Health Restructuring. He has also served on Treasury Board, the Agenda and Priorities Committee and the Standing Policy Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Prior to entering provincial politics, Stelmach served variously as Lamont County Reeve, a school trustee and chair of the Vegreville Health Unit board.
Stelmach attended the University of Alberta, then worked in the retail business for 11 years before returning to the family farm.[2]
Stelmach's grandfather, Nicholas, arrived in Alberta from the western Ukrainian district of Radekhiv with his wife, Theodora Kuchera, and settled on the homestead south of Andrew, Alberta, in 1898. Ed Stelmach grew up on the farm as the youngest of five children. Stelmach has raised his own four children on the farm his grandfather established[3].

Leadership

Stelmach was the first minister to resign from cabinet in accordance with Premier Klein's order that all prospective leadership candidates resign from cabinet by June 2006 [4].
In the first round of voting on November 25, 2006, Stelmach came in third place, winning 15.3 per cent of the vote to Jim Dinning's 30.2 per cent and Ted Morton's 26.2 per cent. As the top three finishers, Stelmach, Dinning and Morton advanced to a second ballot on December 2. Of the five candidates who were dropped from the second ballot, three endorsed Stelmach, one endorsed Dinning and one offered no endorsements. Several newspapers also endorsed Stelmach as a compromise candidate between the relatively progressive Dinning and the socially conservative, democratic reformer Morton.
The second round was done by preferential ballot, with voters indicating both their first and second choices. When the first choices were tallied, Stelmach had a very narrow 0.3 per cent lead over Dinning, but with Morton eliminated, Stelmach overwhelmingly won the second choice preferences of Morton's voters.

Comparisons to past politicians

Ed Stelmach's rise to power in the long standing Progressive Conservative government, and recent troubles have led to comparisons with historical political leaders. Harry Strom has often been compared to Ed Stelmach due to common rural background, isolation from urban voters and the ability to decline the popularity of a long term ruling party despite record revenue and spending.[5]
[6]
[7]

Cabinet

On December 13, 2006, Stelmach announced that cabinet would be reduced from 24 ministries to 18. On December 15, 2006, he named his new cabinet, of which nine members of the legislature were new to their positions, and nine were former cabinet ministers.
Stelmach's Cabinet team (in order of precedence):

★ Ed Stelmach (Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville) Premier, President of Executive Council, Chair of Agenda and Priorities, Vice-Chair of Treasury Board

★ Lloyd Snelgrove (Vermilion-Lloydminster) President of the Treasury Board, Minister of Service Alberta, (Minister Responsible for Personnel Administration Office)

★ Doug Horner (Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert) Minister of Advanced Education and Technology

★ Iris Evans (Sherwood Park) Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry

★ Mel Knight (Grande Prairie-Smoky) Minister of Energy

★ David Hancock (Edmonton-Whitemud) Minister of Health and Wellness, Government House Leader

★ Ray Danyluk (Lac La Biche-St. Paul) Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing

★ Ron Liepert (Calgary-West) Minister of Education

★ Janis Tarchuk (Banff-Cochrane) Minister of Children's Services

★ Rob Renner (Medicine Hat) Minister of Environment, Deputy Government House Leader

★ George Groeneveld (Highwood) Minister of Agriculture and Food

★ Lyle Oberg (Strathmore-Brooks) Minister of Finance

★ Luke Ouellette (Innisfail-Sylvan Lake) Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation

★ Ron Stevens (Calgary-Glenmore ) Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Deputy Government House Leader

★ Greg Melchin (Calgary-North West) Minister of Seniors and Community Supports

★ Guy Boutilier (Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo) Minister of International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations

★ Ted Morton (Foothills-Rocky View) Minister of Sustainable Resource Development

★ Fred Lindsay (Stony Plain) Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security

★ Hector Goudreau (Dunvegan-Central Peace) Minister of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture
Stelmach's choice of cabinet appointments have been criticized by some as favouring rural white males over women, visible minorities, and residents of cities.[8] For example, only one member of cabinet is from the City of Edmonton even though the city has nearly one third of the population of Alberta (although only three of its 18 MLAs are Progressive Conservatives). Perhaps even more controversial is the fact that only three members of the cabinet are from Calgary, a city that represents one third of the population of Alberta and has Progressive Conservatives representing 20 of its 23 ridings. Ted Morton, a rival for the leadership was also appointed to cabinet. He lives in Calgary and represents a riding adjacent to the city boundaries (Foothills-Rockyview). Iris Evans, Doug Horner, and Fred Lindsay are ministers from ridings adjacent to Edmonton (Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert, and Stoney Plain, respectively).

Criticism

Since becoming the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, Ed Stelmach has been criticed for both his cabinet choices and policies. When he announced his 2007 budget, many large groups, as well as notable people, complained and/or criticized his budget as well as his environmental policy. The most notable of these are Dave Bronconnier (mayor of Calgary), Al Gore and David Suzuki. He has been viciously criticised by various arts and environmental groups in Alberta, and has been criticised by the city of Calgary in general.

Initiatives

Since becoming Premier, Ed Stelmach has championed various initiatives related to increasing the transparency and accountability of government. One of the first bills to be put forward into law included a Lobbyist and Contractor Registry act. Mr. Stelmach also formulated all-party committees to review various new legislation, and required records of government minister expense accounts and flight logs of government aircraft to be made available on-line to the public. The 2007 Alberta Budget, which is the largest in history, allocated $18.2 billion to be spent over the next three years to attempt to catch up on a backlog of infrastructure projects spurred by substantial growth in Alberta. The 2007 Budget also began the phase-in of $1.4 billion of new direct transfers to municipalities. Most recently, the Alberta Progressive Conservative caucus voted to introduce sweeping no-smoking legislation.

Sources

★ Alberta's Office of the Premier

★ Official website

★ Official biography

★ Alta. cabinet minister Stelmach quits position Canadian Press, March 21 2006

★ Son of Ukrainian homesteaders becomes Alberta's agriculture minister ''The Ukrainian Weekly'', April 27 1997