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Hon. Edward Stelmach
Image:Ed Stelmach.jpg <small/>
Premier-Designate of Alberta
Preceded by	Ralph Klein
Born	May 11, 1951 Lamont, Alberta
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Spouse	Marie Stelmach

Edward Stelmach (Born May 11, 1951 in Lamont, Alberta) is the current Premier Designate of Alberta, Canada. He was elected Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives on Sunday, December 3, 2006. He sits in the Alberta legislature as the Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (previously Vegreville-Viking). Stelmach served in Cabinet as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations until March 2006 when he resigned in order to clear the way for his candidacy in the leadership election to select a successor to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.

Stelmach was the first minister to resign from Cabinet in accordance with Premier Klein's order that all prospective leadership candidates resign from Cabinet by June 2006[1].

Stelmach was first elected to the legislature in the 1993 provincial election. He entered Cabinet in 1997 serving as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development until 1999. Subsequently, he was Minister of Infrastructure and Minister of Transportation before becoming Intergovernmental Relations Minister in 2004.

Before entering Cabinet, Stelmach served as Deputy Whip and then Chief Government Whip and had served as chairman of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and a member of the Standing Policy Committees on Community Services and Health Restructuring. He has also served on Treasury Board, the Agenda and Priorities Committee and the Standing Policy Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Prior to entering provincial politics, Stelmach served variously as Lamont County Reeve, a school trustee and chair of the Vegreville Health Unit board.

Stelmach attended the University of Alberta, then worked in the retail business for 11 years before returning to the family farm.[2]

Stelmach's grandfather, Nicholas, arrived in Alberta from the western Ukrainian district of Radekhiv with his wife, Theodora Kuchera and settled on the homestead south of Andrew, Alberta in 1898. Ed Stelmach grew up on the farm as the youngest of five children. Stelmach has raised his own four children on the farm his grandfather established[3].

[edit] Sources

• Official website
• Official biography
• Alta. cabinet minister Stelmach quits position Canadian Press, March 21 2006
• Son of Ukrainian homesteaders becomes Alberta's agriculture minister Ukrainian Weekly, April 27 1997

Preceded by: New District	MLA Vegreville-Viking 1993-2004	Succeeded by: District Abolished
Preceded by: New District	MLA Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville 2004-present	Succeeded by: Incumbent
Preceded by: Ralph Klein	Premier of Alberta-Designate Due to take office, 2006	Succeeded by: Incumbent

2006 Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidates
DeLong | Dinning | Doerksen | Hancock | Morton | Norris | McPherson | Oberg | Stelmach

Premiers of Alberta	Image:Flag of Alberta.svg
Rutherford | Sifton | Stewart | Greenfield | Brownlee | Reid | Aberhart | Manning | Strom | Lougheed | Getty | Klein | Stelmach (Designate)

Image:Flag of Alberta.svg	Politics of Alberta v • d • e</div>
Lieutenant-Governor: Norman Kwong | Former lieutenant-governors
Premier: Ralph Klein (Incumbent), Ed Stelmach (Designate) | Former premiers
Opposition Leader: Kevin Taft | Former Opposition Leaders
Executive Council (Cabinet)
Legislature: Current members | Former legislatures | Current electoral divisions
Speaker of the Assembly: Ken Kowalski
Political parties: Progressive Conservatives | Liberals | New Democrats | Alliance
Alberta Party | Communists | Greens | Separation | Social Credit
Elections: 2004 general election | Past elections | Electoral districts
Current issues: Equalization payments | Prosperity Bonus | Same-sex marriage | Separatism