THANK YOU

Thank you to the hundreds of people who helped us fight the election in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock.

You put up signs, hosted coffee parties, organized meetings, donated money – on and on. And by doing all that you brought us seven thousand one hundred and six votes.

It’s incredible that a party brand new to this constituency took almost half the vote.

So thank you to all our members and helpers, and thank you to the 7,106 new Wildrose voters who live in our constituency.

Unfortunately, that old bunch we were so eager to defeat hung on by a squeaky thin 2% margin – 341 votes more than us. A technical win, but a win nevertheless.

I have offered the winner, Maureen Kubinec, the obligatory congratulations.

The opposing candidate who actually earned praise and congratulations is the Liberal, Leslie Penny. What a warm, thoughtful and wonderful person!

The many Wildrose people I have talked to since Monday night, here and around the province, see clearly that this result – though short of what the polls promised – amounts to an astonishing success. We went from 7% of the provincial vote in 2008 to 34%, and the PCs shrank from 53% to 44%. To hold even that much ground they had to buy Liberal votes with promises they can’t possibly keep, lie about what we stand for, and introduce Albertans to Chretien-style gutter campaign tactics.

We now have four years to finish communicating and expanding our vision of Alberta’s future, so Albertans will know what we stand for, and there will never be another hysteria-driven, pre-election stampede. With your continued help we will succeed and form the next government.

As a personal note, Joanne and I are thrilled to have met so many fine new friends. Together we can all be proud that we fought a clean campaign, we almost won, and we will win next time.

Good work!

Link Byfield

Wildrose Candidate 2012