Deron Bilous nominated as the Alberta NDP Candidate for Edmonton – Beverly – Clareview

Tonight Deron Bilous was acclaimed as the Alberta NDP candidate in Edmonton – Beverly – Clareview. Deron is a teacher at Edmonton’s Inner City High School, and a member of various community organizations and volunteer boards. In the 2008 Alberta Election Deron carried the NDP banner in Edmonton – Centre.

I first met Deron in January 2007, shortly after he declared his intention to contest the Alberta NDP nomination for Edmonton – Centre. Deron ultimately managed to succeed in winning the nomination, and never stopped campaigning from then until the end of the 2008 election. I was definitely impressed by enthusiasm whenever I ran into him between his nomination and the end of the election. While I did not end up spending any time working on Deron’s campaign (I spent most of my time on Ray Martin’s campaign in Beverly Clairview) I heard a lot of great things about Deron from the people that were involved with his campaign. Even though he lost his first campaign in Edmonton – Centre, Deron made it clear that he intended to run again, and ultimately selected Beverly – Clairview as the constituency he would be running in.

Deron’s campaign already appears to be off to a good start. He has a great core of volunteers behind him, including experienced campaigners from his previous campaign, a number of experienced individuals who worked on Ray Martin’s campaigns in Beverly – Clareview and many new faces. Tonight’s nomination meeting drew approximately 85 people, which is impressive for an uncontested nomination meeting. Deron also has the opportunity to build upon an already strong NDP base in the constituency, where Ray Martin was only narrowly defeated in 2008, and an advantage in the fact that incumbent Tory MLA Tony Vandermeere is virtually unknown in the riding, having done pretty much nothing since his election.

Deron is the Alberta NDP’s first nominated candidate for the next provincial election, and as far as I know the first nominated candidate for any party in any constituency. The NDP will likely be nominating candidates in a number of other constituencies in the next few months.