Landslide win for Barlow in Foothills
By Trevor Busch LETHBRIDGE HERALD on September 21, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtbusch@lethbridgeherald.com
Incumbent MP John Barlow has reasserted control of the Foothills riding for the Conservative Party of Canada in a landslide showing on Monday night where he took 69 per cent of the vote.
Despite an easy margin of victory in Foothills, Barlow said the campaign was hard-fought.
“We never take anything for granted. Any election is a grind, and very happy with the result. We had a great team, honestly we had a great group of volunteers that made a big difference for sure.”
The NDP’s Michelle Traxel trailed a distant second with 11 per cent, while People’s Party of Canada candidate Daniel Hunter secured eight per cent. The Liberal’s Paula Shimp weighed in with seven per cent, followed by Josh Wylie with the Maverick Party at four per cent. The Green Party’s Brett Rogers brought up the rear with one per cent.
“We work every single day to earn the confidence and the trust of our constituents,” said Barlow late on election night. “I think that hard work – not only during this campaign – but the work we do throughout the year, certainly showed through in the results today.”
Turning to the national results and a projected minority government for the Liberals, Barlow spoke in terms of a missed opportunity on the part of the CPC.
“I think this was a chance for us to win – I think we had an opportunity, a window there. But I think this is an election no one wanted, and I was hoping for a better result nationally, but now we have to get back to work and hold a Liberal government to account. It’s a minority, and hopefully we can continue to do the work that we did as the official Opposition before. We’ll continue to hold the Liberal government to account and do the best we can for our constituents here in southern Alberta.”
Elected in a by-election to the previous riding of Macleod in 2014, Barlow was re-elected in the riding of Foothills in 2015 and again in 2019.
-2
Ho hum, the Cons again…..Still, 11% for NDs, 8% for the PPCs, 7% for the Libs and 4% for the Mavericks is significant, which means that 1/3 of the electorate did not vote Con. Years ago, when I was disillusioned with the provincial AB Conservatives, I, a rural voter, went into town and voted for the Rhinos as a protest vote. The Rhino candidate got 11% of the vote that time, which was considered significant. The Rhino candidate, that year, would buy rounds of beer for everyone at the local hotel and he suggested putting marijuana in the drinking water. 🙂