Adriana LaGrange said she is humbled to be nominated as the United Conservative Party candidate in Red Deer North.
LaGrange found out today she was voted in as the party candidate after almost 900 party members voted on Saturday.
She ran against fellow party members Cole Kander and Lawrence Lee.
“It’s very humbling,” she said after the announcement at 6:30 p.m. which took place at the Balmoral Bible Chapel.
“There were two other good candidates up against me and all three of us are good people who want to do good things for the party, so it’s just a real honour to be chosen and be elected to represent the UCP for Red Deer North.”
A handful of UCP members came out to the announcement, including members of LaGrange’s family. The gathering was visibly overjoyed to hear of LaGrange’s win.
“We know Adriana, we love her,” said Loretta Cotee, who helped on LaGrange’s campaign. “I’m very happy to put my support behind her and I am obviously ecstatic she has won today.”
After a quick recovery from the nomination campaign, LaGrange said she is looking toward the provincial election in the spring.
“We’re going to start to get the word out that the UCP is able to deal with these issues,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of putting a team together and running a really good, positive campaign that will take us into the next provincial election.”
She said her priorities are healthcare including the Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion and ensuring the hospital gets a cardiac catheterization lab.
She said she plans to also look at issues in education as well as doing something about the crime rate and drug use in Red Deer.
United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney in a press release congratulated LaGrange on winning the “hotly contested race.”
“Adriana is a passionate advocate for education, currently serving as the Vice-Chair of Red Deer Catholic Regional School Board of Trustees,” he said in the release. “She brings a wealth of experience from working directly on education policy, as well as her time raising her seven kids and three grandkids. This experience was also reflected during her tenure as President of the Alberta Catholic Trustees’ Association and the Vice-President of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees’ Association. I am pleased to welcome Adrianna to the United Conservative team.”
