By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

#ELXN43

Dreeshen re-elected in Red Deer-Mountain View

Oct 21, 2019 | 2:29 PM

Conservative candidate Earl Dreeshen has been re-elected as Member of Parliament for Red Deer-Mountain View.

With 244 of 244 polls reporting:
Earl Dreeshen – CON 54,111
Logan Garbanewski – NDP 4,836
Gary Tremblay – LIB 3,724
Paul Mitchell – PPC 2,609
Conner Borlé – GRN 1,997

The 66-year-old was first elected to office in 2008 as MP for the former federal of riding of Red Deer. This is the second time he has been voted to represent Red Deer-Mountain View since the electoral map was redrawn prior to the 2015 election.

“We’re excited about what is happening here in Red Deer-Mountain View, we’ve had such a great team of people volunteering for us,” Dreeshen said as results rolled in Monday evening.

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“Quite frankly, we know how important it is that we help bring this country together. There’s been a lot of polarization this last while, and that’s why we think it’s important to continue to hold the Liberals’ feet to the fire.”

Dreeshen also touched on the continuing effort to find national unity as it relates to support for Alberta’s natural resources.

“We know there are divisive forces out there and people looking and saying they think that we shouldn’t be developing them, but when you look at the global picture, that’s shortsighted if we want to have all the good things like hospitals, education and a good social safety net,” he added. “We have other countries doing the same thing for themselves and shipping the product to us. When you hear the NDP and the Greens saying they don’t want pipelines, or Alberta’s oil, that’s the most frustrating part.”

Meantime, runner up Logan Garbanewski, who spent the early part of election day in classes at Red Deer College, called the experience a positive one.

“I’m very pleasantly surprised with the result. I knew it would be a Conservative majority here,” he admitted. “Running in this election meant really speaking up for a minority group in this area — New Democrats and progressive people all over central Alberta — giving them a voice, and standing up when everybody else says to sit down.