The Alberta Liberal Party has spoken and a Calgary-based attorney will be at the helm as the party prepares for the 2019 provincial election.
On Sunday, party members gathered in Calgary and selected lawyer David Khan as leader by a narrow margin over his lone opponent, Kerry Cundal.
“I’m so excited about the energy in this room,” said Khan following his victory. “There’s so many liberals, old and new, that are of our party now and I’m really excited about moving liberalism forward in Alberta.”
“I’m focused on rebuilding this party, reenergizing it, running candidates in 87 constituencies, being a real force in the next provincial election and we’re gonna win a bunch of seats.”
Khan, who will replace the party’s interim leader David Swann, says he is not concerned by a possible united right in Alberta.
“Whatever comes out of the unite the right movement, I’ll be ready to counter them with fairness for future generations, for equality of opportunity, personal freedoms, fiscal and economic prudence and social progressiveness,” said Khan. “We’ll be there ready to go.”
The leader of the Alberta Liberal Party says the liberal values of Albertans have surfaced in recent elections and he expects that trend to continue.
“We elected two liberal MPs here in Calgary, Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang, we’ve got two more in Alberta and we’re going to elect a lot more liberals federally and provincially.”
“Politics are volatile and I could be the next premier.”
The party was victorious in only one riding in the 2015 provincial election as David Swann, the outgoing leader, was elected to represent Calgary-Mountain View. Khan was the Liberal candidate for Calgary-Buffalo in 2015 but finished third behing the NDP and PC candidates.
