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Hinman remains deeply rooted to this region |
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Written by Delon Shurtz LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 |
If home is where the heart is, then Paul Hinman will never be far from his southern Alberta roots.
However, Hinman, out-going leader of the Wildrose Alliance party, will be spending more time in Calgary after narrowly winning the seat in Calgary-Glenmore over Liberal contender and psychiatrist Avalon Roberts. The Tory candidate, former city alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart, came in third behind the Liberals.
“I wouldn’t say I’m leaving,” Hinman said Tuesday, the day after winning the seat in a byelection, which became necessary when former deputy premier Ron Stevens resigned prior to his appointment as an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench justice.
Although living and working in another riding, Hinman said he has no intentions of selling his home near Welling south of Lethbridge, or abandoning the people in the Cardston-Taber-Warner constituency for whom he was MLA until his defeat in 2008.
“I can still be friends with the constituents,” he said, adding he’ll also miss those he met and worked with in the Cardston-Taber-Warner constituency.
“I’ll miss the people. It’s the people that you meet that’s awesome.”
Hinman did what no other candidate has been able to do since the 1960s; unseat the constituency’s Conservative MLA. Most political observers had largely expected the riding to stay Tory blue. However, some had suggested that discontent over the Alberta government’s handling of the economic crisis could sway voters away.
The final results had Hinman with 37 per cent of the vote compared to Roberts’ 34 per cent. Colley-Urquhart finished with 26 per cent while the remaining candidates — independent Tony Grochowski, Len Skowronski of the Social Credit and Eric Carpendale of the NDP — had one per cent each.
Hinman, who represented the riding of Cardston-Taber-Warner from 2004 until his loss last year against Broyce Jacobs, had been a formidable presence during the campaign. Raised in Calgary-Glenmore, Hinman has worked as a farmer and entrepreneur. He learned politics from his grandfather, Ted Hinman, who was provincial treasurer in the Social Credit government of Premier Ernest Manning from 1955 to 1964.
Now as MLA for Calgary-Glenmore, Hinman said the first thing he wants to do, is also the same thing he’s been doing all along; and that’s stand up for Albertans and the services they want protected, like healthcare. He also wants Albertans to realize how “irresponsible” the Tories have been by ignoring the concerns of the electorate and trying to paint a rosy, but fabricated, picture, particularly during Conservative events.
“Everybody’s always spruced up and made pretty for the king. They never want to hear the real story.”
If there’s one thing Hinman learned while he was MLA in the south, it’s how to listen to his constituents. He plans to use those skills in Calgary.
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