South Peace News was alerted through our sister newspaper in Slave Lake, the Lakeside Leader, the nomination meeting mentioned in a column in our print edition dated Wednesday, June 6, is in error.

There is a meeting of the United Conservative Party set for Slave Lake on Monday, June 11th, but it is not a nomination meeting. A nomination meeting is for members of the party to nominate a candidate for the next provincial election. That election is expected some time in the first half of 2019.

The meeting was mentioned in The Page column in the print edition. It was also mentioned in the online copy of that column. This is now corrected.

The News apologizes for the error which appears to have originated within the UCP itself. The News hopes to have further clarity on this in the near future.

UCP on search for Lesser Slave candidate

Richard Froese
South Peace News

A candidate for the newly-formed United Conservative Party for the Lesser Slave Lake riding will be selected later this summer.

South Peace News inerrantly reported in the June 6 issue that the meeting was set for June 11.

“A nomination meeting date has not been determined at this time,” says Paul George, UCP vice-president of communications.

“We will come to some conclusions shortly.

He says he expects the meeting to be held some time during the summer and a location has yet to be considered.

The party will duly announce the meeting as the date approaches, he says.

“We are looking for candidates,” George says.

He says Garrett Tomlinson has announced his nomination as the first candidate.

However, all applicants are required to meet criteria set out by the party to be eligible to run.

“The provincial UCP will do the final vetting under the local constituency association,” George says.

After the nomination meeting, the winning candidate will carry the UCP banner into the next provincial election that must be held by May 31, 2019.

UCP will be out to unseat current MLA Danielle Larivee who was elected as the NDP swept to a majority government in the last election May 5, 2015 to end a 44-year dynasty of PC power.

Larivee captured 3,908 votes, ahead of Wildrose candidate Darryl Boisson with 3,196.

PC candidate Pearl Calahasen finished third with 1,950 votes to end a career of 26 years as the

UCP was formed after the former Progressive Conservative party and the Wildrose party amalgamated in July 2017 and became the Official Opposition.