Ukrainian Ed Stelmach becomes Alberta's 13th premier
EDMONTON—He learned to write with either hand after breaking both legs, climbed to the political summit by staying true to his roots, and, like his predecessor, never lost an election in a province where everyone calls him by his first name.
Ed Stelmach won the right to be Alberta's 13th premier because he relies on self-help and on helping others, said Health Minister Iris Evans, the highest-ranking of the few legislature members who backed what everyone agreed was his long-shot bid in the race to replace Ralph Klein as Progressive Conservative leader.
Evans said Stelmach looked worn on the night of his greatest triumph not because of the politics but because he'd been up all night fixing a furnace on the fritz.
And she said when her car broke down in bitterly cold temperatures in the first round of party voting last weekend, it was Stelmach's children who gave her a ride home.
"That's the Stelmach way — helping other people," said Evans.
The 55-year-old third-generation Ukrainian will soon add premier to the lengthy list of cabinet portfolios he has held, including agriculture and intergovernmental affairs.
He was the soft-spoken dark horse from the riding of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville — farm country north of Edmonton, where Stelmach and wife Marie still raise Angus cattle.
While pack-leading opponents Jim Dinning and Ted Morton fought highly publicized campaigns, Stelmach quietly toured the hustings in a bus plastered with his confident grin, drawing hundreds at one point to a $45-a-plate fund-raising dinner.
The man known as Steady Eddie and Honest Ed seemed to capture the hearts of party voters before swaying their minds.
When he finished a surprising third in the first round of balloting to move on to Saturday's decisive vote, he first thanked his brother for staying on the farm to look after the cows.
In his acceptance speech Saturday, he credited the birth of his grandson with giving him the inspiration to fight on to help future generations of Albertans.
When a newspaper asked the candidates to name their political heroes, others answered Lincoln, Churchill, and former Tory premier Peter Lougheed.
Stelmach replied: his grandparents, for settling in Alberta and not Saskatchewan.
His answers were often brief and succinct. Surrounded by a moving cocoon of well-wishers chanting "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!" after his triumph, he credited his success to "sticking with the message and hard work."
Even Gene Zwozdesky, a cabinet colleague, who backed Dinning, and fellow member of the Ukrainian community, said he's now ready to work with a Stelmach team and called the win "a silent wave that nobody anticipated."
The odds of victory seemed daunting at first. Stelmach seemed wooden and nervous during the televised debates, hands chopping the air in self-conscious robotic gestures.
But the seeds of victory were there. When Stelmach finished a distant third in the first round, three rivals who finished even further back could have covered their political bets by backing Dinning, who was in front.
But Dave Hancock, Lyle Oberg and Mark Norris went instead to the guy at the back.
"His integrity is beyond reproach," said Norris.
But then Stelmach, like Klein, never lost a political contest, dating back to his days as the county reeve in Lamont in the late 1980s. He was elected to the Alberta legislature in 1993 and has never left and never quit, a legacy that may have started when, as a child recovering from a playground fall that broke both his legs, he taught himself how to write with both hands. Today he's a voracious reader who stays grounded through Marie, four children and Ukrainian-Catholic faith.
And the loyalty of his friends.
When asked Saturday about those who supported him, he never hesitated: "All of those MLAs and ministers that helped me will play a prominent role."
DEAN BENNETT, CANADIAN PRESS