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All-candidate debate held in Fort McMurray

The Alberta Liberal Party held their all-candidates debate in Fort McMurray.

Leadership candidate Hugh MacDonald, who is the MLA for Edmonton-Goldbarr, says that if he was chosen to lead the Liberals, and voted Premier, he would eliminate the Alberta Health Services Superboard, and let each region run itself.

Candidate Bill Harvey says that if he was the leader, he’d do what it takes to solve the province’s problems, even if he has to borrow ideas from other political organizations.

All of the candidates seemed unified on one topic — that Alberta should look at other places to export oil, given protests about the Keystone XL pipeline. They say that the oilsands should focus more on the Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, and then the oil should be shipped to China.

Four of the five leadership candidates were present at last night’s debate — Laurie Blakeman was absent. Outgoing Liberal leader Dr David Swann was also absent from the debate.

The four remaining candidates also support the idea of diversifying the provincial economny. They say that the oilsands should “refine it where they mine it” in terms of exporting more end-products, rather than raw bitumen.

The party will select their new leader on September 10th. Only a few residents were are the debate last night at the Legion Hall.