economy from its traditional reliance on smelting (WFP, 28 February 1998). In 1998, he was elected to the Red Cross council for northeast Manitoba (WFP, 27 May 1998). He sought re-election as Mayor of Flin Flon in the 1998 municipal elections, but was defeated (WFP, 29 October 1998). , he is a city councillor in Flin Flon and is chair of Flin Flon Housing Co. Ltd. (Seniors' Housing). He finished fourth in the 2006 election. In 2005, Ahmad announced his support for the federal government's program to cultivate cannabis in an abandoned mine near Flin Flon (the harvested plants are used for medicinal purposes). Conservative Health Critic Steven Fletcher had previously called for the program to be shut down. Elmwood—Transcona: Linda West West received 10,720 votes (32.13%), finishing second against New Democratic Party incumbent Bill Blaikie. Winnipeg Centre: Helen Sterzer Sterzer was born on July 30, 1934. She was a secretary and clerical worker from 1951 to 1957, and was a computer systems designer for Air Canada from 1957 to 1991. She ran for the House of Commons as a Reform Party candidate in 1993 and 1997, losing to veteran New Democratic Party incumbent Bill Blaikie on both occasion. In 2006, she lost to Pat Martin. Sterzer has written several Letters to the Editor since 2005, generally on political topics. In 2006, she wrote a letter arguing that NDP leader Jack Layton was encouraging the Taliban and endangering the lives of Canadian soldiers by calling for Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. As of 2006, Sterzer was president of the Winnipeg Centre Conservative organization. Winnipeg North: Garreth McDonald McDonald joined the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives at age twelve, and served for a time as secretary of the Manitoba PC Youth Association. He first campaigned for political office in the 2003 provincial election as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, when he was eighteen years old and still a high-school student. He was killed in a traffic accident in October 2007, when his car sideswiped a taxi and careened into oncoming traffic, striking an SUV. A married couple was killed and Garreth later died at the hospital. He was 22 years old. Saskatchewan Brad Farquhar (Wascana) Farquhar was born in Toronto and raised in the Newmarket area in Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree at Providence College, studied political science at Carleton University, and completed a