appointed interim mayor by city council after the death of William Hawrelak—and four other candidates. Interval Decore stayed out of electoral politics for the next six years, but was active in many community organizations. He was president of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Men's Club, secretary of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee,president of the Professional and Business Men's Association of Canada, a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (1977–1981), president of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation (1979–1981), and chairman of the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism (1980–1983). It was in this last position he led a national lobby for a constitutional amendment acknowledging Canada's multicultural nature. The result was that he helped to draft Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For this work he was awarded the Order of Canada. Mayoralty He returned to politics in the 1983 mayoral election when he defeated Purves in a landslide, more than doubling the incumbent's vote count and establishing a new historical plurality record. He was re-elected by a similar margin in 1986. As mayor, Decore eliminated the city's Board of Commissioners - handing more power to its elected city council - put in place a fiscal program that would eliminate the city's debt, took key major steps which began downtown revitalization and won a high-profile battle with the Province of Alberta over the city-owned telephone company's right to a fair share of long-distance revenue. He also oversaw the city's recovery after 1987's Edmonton Tornado and expressed the city's sadness over the Edmonton Oilers' trading Wayne Gretzky (the hockey team had won its first four Stanley Cups during Decore's time as mayor). On October 17, 1988, he resigned to enter provincial politics. Provincial politics As 1988 opened, the Alberta Liberal Party was led by Nicholas Taylor, who had served in this capacity since 1974. For most of those years, the party had been shut out of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, but in the 1986 election it won its first four seats (including Taylor's) in more than a decade. This wasn't enough for some party faithful, however, and a 1987 leadership review resulted in a 1988 leadership convention (some have suggested that Decore helped orchestrate this result). Taylor contested the convention, as did Edmonton Meadowlark MLA Grant Mitchell, but Decore won a decisive first ballot victory. In the following year's snap