Colleen Marie Soetaert is a former provincial politician from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. She served as a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from singl ...

from 1993 until 2001 sitting with the Liberal caucus in opposition.

Political career

Soetaert ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature for the first time in the

1993 Alberta general election The 1993 Alberta general election was held on June 15, 1993, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Conservative government was re-elected, taking 51 seats out of 83 (61 percent of the seats) but only having support of 45 per ...

. She won the new electoral district of

Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 1993 to 2012. Spruce Grove-Stur ...

just north of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

picking up the district for the Liberals. Soetart won the tight race finishing 1,400 votes ahead of second place Progressive Conservative candidate Norm Kluthe. There were two other candidates rounding out the field. Soetaert was re-elected to her second term in the Legislature increasing her vote total in the

1997 Alberta general election The 1997 Alberta general election was held on March 11, 1997, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ralph Klein's Conservatives were re-elected, with increased number of seats in the Legislature. Liberal Official Opposition los ...

. Despite winning a larger vote, her percentage of the popular vote dropped as she won with just under half of the popular vote. Progressive Conservative candidate Gary Swinamer finished a close second and two other candidates rounded out the field. Soetaert ran for a third term in office in the

2001 Alberta general election The 2001 Alberta general election was held on March 12, 2001 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The incumbent Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, led by Ralph Klein, won a strong majority for its tenth consecutive term i ...

. She was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate

Doug Horner Douglas Alan Horner (born January 17, 1961) is a former Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Spruce Grove-St. Albert in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2001 until January 31, 2015. He was the President of t ...

who won by a margin of almost 3,000 votes. She was shocked about her defeat and told supporters in her campaign office that "God must want me somewhere else,".

Late life

After her defeated from provincial politics Soetaert founded the ''West Sturgeon Aging in Place Foundation'' which raised 8 million dollars to build the West Country Hearth retirement home. She also performs in live theater productions.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soetaert, Colleen Living people Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Women MLAs in Alberta 1956 births