UCP candidate Brian Jean wins Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection, CBC News projects
CBC
Brian Jean, the United Conservative Party candidate and former leader of the Wildrose Party, will claim victory in the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection Tuesday night, CBC News projects.
Read our earlier story below.
Voters are heading to the polls for the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection, with one candidate hoping to use the vote as a step toward unseating Premier Jason Kenney.
The Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche seat was left open after MLA Laila Goodridge jumped from provincial to federal politics in August.
Polls open at 9 a.m. Tuesday and close at 8 p.m.
Running in the byelection are eight candidates: Marilyn Burns, Advantage Party of Alberta; Brian Deheer, Independent; Paul Hinman, Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta; Abdulhakim Hussein, Alberta Liberal Party; Brian Jean, United Conservative Party of Alberta; Michelle Landsiedel, Alberta Party; Ariana Mancini, Alberta NDP; and Steven Mellott, Independence Party of Alberta.
The main concern for the byelection is the sustainability of the region and how that can be achieved, said Mark Young, political science instructor at Keyano College.
"One way of course would be to sustain, maintain oil production, mining in the region," Young said.
"When politicians speak to that … then that will be appealing to a lot of voters in Fort McMurray," he said.
Many people are afraid that Fort McMurray could turn into Uranium City, a northern Saskatchewan mining town that disappeared, he said.
In 2015, when the NDP won the provincial election, Fort McMurray was one of the areas that stayed conservative and voted for the Wildrose Party. Jean defeated Mancini, whom he is again running against.
"Even when the NDP had momentum, and people wanted to shift away from conservatism, Fort McMurray did not follow that trend," said Young.
And since that election, "it seems like the region has become even more conservative," he said.
Young sees Jean as a front runner for the election.
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