Stelmach Becomes Premier

Ed Stelmach, a 55-year-old farmer from northeastern Alberta and a long-time member of the Alberta Legislature, was elected as the leader of the ruling provincial Progressive Conservative Party at a leadership convention on December 2.

Reportedly a deeply religious man who sings in his church choir, Stelmach is Alberta’s first premier of Ukrainian descent.  Stelmach’s grandfather, Nicholas, immigrated to Alberta from Radekhiv, Ukraine, with his wife, Theodora Kuchera, in 1898.