Walter Richard Szwender is a former provincial level politician and teacher 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He 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 1982 until 1986.

Political career

Szwender ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature and was elected to the electoral district of

Edmonton-Belmont Edmonton-Belmont 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 1971 to 1993. History The Edmonton-Belmont el ...

in the

1982 Alberta general election The 1982 Alberta general election was held on November 2, 1982, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premier Peter Lou ...

. He held the seat for the governing Progressive Conservative caucus. He ran for a second term in office in the

1986 Alberta general election The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

but was defeated in a closely contested race by

New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

candidate Tom Sigurdson. Szwender finished second out of six candidates. Szwender would face off against Sigurdson three years later in the 1989 election in an attempt to retake Edmonton-Belmont and he was once again defeated, this time by a larger margin. He would attempt another come back to the Alberta Legislature by running in the 2004 provincial election in

Edmonton Decore Edmonton-Decore is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. It was most recently conte ...

as a last minute replacement after it was revealed that the nominated candidate Ray Hajar was a convicted criminal, and had years of unpaid alimony. Swzender ran against incumbent MLA Gary Masyk. Both Masyk and Swender were defeated by Liberal candidate

Bill Bonko Bill Bonko is a Canadian politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. He was first elected in the 2004 election as a Liberal in Edmonton Decore, but was defeated in his 2008 re-election bid by Progressive Conservative ...

. Szwender is a high school teacher.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szwender, Walter 1950 births Living people Politicians from Edmonton Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs