The United Conservative Party candidate for Grande Prairie-Wapiti saw the third largest margin of victory in Alberta’s provincial election. Based on unofficial totals, Travis Toews received 74.8 per cent of the vote in his riding, meaning nearly three out of every four voters cast their ballot for him. Toews says he’s grateful for all the support.
“It’s humbling to actually recognize that we’re going forward recognizing the great people here in Grande Prairie-Wapiti… I take that extremely seriously, the confidence that residents have put in me going forward and representing them.”
His number follows the UCP candidates in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre with 81.7 per cent and Drumheller-Stettler with 76.9 per cent. Toews also eclipsed the total number of votes both local Conservative parties received in 2015 with 15,999 with 91 of 93 polls reporting.
In the 2015 election, then two-time incumbent Wayne Drysdale won the riding with 6,229 votes, while the Wildrose Party candidate Laila Goodridge earned 4,175. Toews’ next closest competition in 2019 is the NDP’s Shannon Dunfield, who has received 3,191 votes so far.
“I think there was two clear choices in front of Albertans in this election and Albertans have spoken… I do want to congratulate my colleagues from other parties that ran. They ran a good positive campaign.”
In the Grande Prairie riding, the UCP’s Tracy Allard took home the win with 10,965 votes, equalling 61.7 per cent. That doubles the 33.2 per cent of the votes Todd Loewen received in 2015 when he won the Grande Prairie-Smoky riding. The NDP’s Todd Russell is the runner-up in that riding with 3,923 votes.