Ed Stelmach

Ed Stelmach

Edward Michael Stelmach is a Canadian politician. He served as the 13th Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 2006 to 2011. His premiership was heavily focused on management of the province’s oil reserves. He lost his seat in the 2011 provincial election to New Democrat Derek Fox.

About Ed Stelmach in brief

Summary Ed StelmachEdward Michael Stelmach is a Canadian politician. He served as the 13th Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 2006 to 2011. He was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and speaks fluent Ukrainian. He entered politics in 1986 with his election to the council of Lamont County. In the 1993 provincial election, he was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Vegreville-Viking. His premiership was heavily focused on management of the province’s oil reserves, especially those of the Athabasca Oil Sands. His government attracted controversy for awarding itself a 30% pay increase shortly after its re-election, and featured strained relations with Calgary, one of Ralph Klein’s former strongholds. His successor, Alison Redford, was succeeded as Premier on October 7, 2011, after the Alberta government’s first budget deficit in 16 years. He is the grandson of immigrants from Zavyche, Ukraine, who settled near Andrew, Alberta in 1898, after bypassing Saskatchewan because they did not care for the terrain. As a teenager, he met Marie Warshawski at the wedding of a mutual friend. They married in 1973, and have three sons and a daughter. His parents had five children, of whom Edward was the youngest, ten years younger than his closest sibling. During his first term as Deputy Whip, he sponsored a bill that dissolved the then-existing Lloydminster hospital board in preparation for an arrangement with the Saskatchewan Lloydminster government’s new system of regional health authorities.

He also sponsored the Repealal of the Lloydminster Hospital Act Act, which was passed in 1998. He became a member of the Deep Six, a conservative group of MLAs. He has a son, Michael, who is a lawyer, and a son-in-law, Michael N. Stalmach, who works as an executive at the University of Alberta. He currently sits on the board of directors of the Alberta Institute of Technology, where he is a professor of political science and public policy. His wife, Nancy, is a former member of Alberta’s Board of Regents, where she worked as an assistant manager at Woodward’s, until her death in 2011. She is also a former Member of Parliament for Calgary-Lloydminster-Vegreville, and served as a backbencher in the Alberta House of Commons from 1998 to 2008. He lost his seat in the 2011 provincial election to New Democrat Derek Fox in the riding of Vegreve-Vikings. He continues to farm the land he grew up on in Lamont, Alberta, and continues to attend church regularly, sing in the church choir, and act as volunteer caretaker for the cemetery. His son Michael is a physician, and he is the father of two sons, Michael and Michael N., who works at the Calgary General Hospital. He lives in Calgary with his wife, Mary, and has a daughter, Victoria, who lives in Lethbridge, Alberta.