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By 'Editor, LDSCaNews'
4 Latter-day Saints Get Elected, 1 in Cabinet
EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA -- With the Alberta PC Party winning this
week's election by a landslide, it wasn't surprising that half of the
eight Latter-day Saints reported running were elected in.
Both Ian Mclelland of the Edmonton-Rutherford riding and Greg Melchin
of the Calgary North West riding ran not only as PC candidates in
their respective ridings, but as the incumbents as well. McLelland
recently left his federal position as a Member of Parliament in the
Edmonton South West riding this fall to run provincially.
Melchin, son of a stake patriarch who has also served as the second
president of the Toronto Ontario Temple and as president of the
California Arcadia Mission, appears to be the only Latter-day Saint
called into Ralph Klein's cabinet. Melchin is the first Latter-day
Saint cabinet minister since the Hon. Jack Ady resigned as Minister
of Advanced Education and Career Development in 1997. He will be
operating as Minister of Revenue.
Cindy Ady, daughter-in-law to the Hon. Jack Ady PC, won her seat in
the Calgary-Shaw riding. She too was running as a PC candidate.
Perhaps the most intriguing constituency race was in the
Cardston-Taber-Warner riding. The general public and media was
interested in the riding for a couple of reasons. There was no
incumbent running and the leader of the newly-formed Albert First
party, John Reil, was also running in this riding. However, a
lesser-known element also made it a interesting race to watch.
Broyce Jacobs, the PC candidate who won the riding, Reil, and Ron
Hancock of the Liberal party are all members of the Church. Though
most of the rest of the province seemed to be a race between the PC
and Liberal parties, this riding, at least at the beginning, seemed
like a pretty close race between Jacobs and Reil. By the end of
Monday night, it was obvious that Jacobs would win. Yet Reil managed
to come in a solid second with nearly 1000 votes more than Hancock,
the highest amount of votes his party gained in any one area.
Brian Stewart, representing Alberta First in the Lethbridge West
Riding, and Patrick Ellis, running independent of a political party
in the Edmonton-McClung riding, were the other two Latter-day Saints
who were not elected in.
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