Byelection set for Alberta to replace Conservative MP who died in March

OTTAWA — A date for a federal byelection in Alberta has been set following the death of Conservative M-P Jim Hillyer.

The vote in the Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner riding will be held on Monday, Oct. 24.

Hillyer, a Conservative, had represented the riding but died of a heart attack in his Parliament Hill office.

Hillyer was first elected to the House of Commons in 2011 and was re-elected in a landslide last fall in the new riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner.

There are other vacancies in the House of Commons.

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Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s riding in Calgary-Heritage is now unrepresented following Harper’s resignation last month, and Liberal MP Mauril Belanger’s seat in Ottawa-Vanier is open following his death from Lou Gehrig’s disease last month.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney is running for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives and is expected to relinquish his Commons seat this fall.

Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner was a new riding in the 2015 election, it was formerly Medicine Hat.

The last time Medicine Hat voters elected an MP who was not from a right-of-centre party was when Bud Olson, originally elected as a member of Social Credit, crossed to the Liberals and was re-elected when the party swept to power under Pierre Trudeau in 1968.

Olson lost in 1972, and the riding has been Progressive Conservative, Reform, Canadian Alliane or Conservative ever since.

Hillyer took 68 per cent of votes cast in October 2015, far ahead of the Liberals, who took second place with less then 18 per cent.

Glen Motz, a retired Medicine Hat police officer, was nominated in June to be the Conservative candidate for the riding.

Liberals on Sunday emailed a plea for campaign donations for the byelection campaign to support their candidate, businessman Stan Sakamoto.  

The Canadian Press