Lightning struck twice for a new Alberta MLA when she scooped a seat in the recent elections followed by a $100,000 lottery win just two days later.
Janis Irwin told CTV Edmonton that her electoral win was down to hard work, but her lottery win was just unexpected good fortune, finding the golden ticket she bought last month after a “hectic campaign.”
“The electoral win was based on a lot of hard work,” she said Wednesday, speaking at the Alberta legislature.
“Many, many months in the cold and dark nights, knocking on doors and pounding the pavement.”
Irwin succeeds the NDP’s Brian Mason as the MLA-elect for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
Two days later, the former teacher and government worker was surprised again.
“I was trying to get my life sorted after a hectic campaign and found a lottery ticket in my wallet from March and checked it out at a gas station in my neighbourhood,” she recalled.
“I saw the six figures show up and I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ So a few people kind of gathered around and the two ladies working at the gas station were super excited. It was a huge shock.”
Irwin plans to put the cash towards her mortgage and help her niece and nephew pay for school.
Gas station employee Estrella Gantalao was working when Irwin bought the ticket.
“She just said, ‘Oh my God,’” Gantalao told CTV Winnipeg.
“That's a lucky girl because she won the election and at the same time like $100,000,” added co-worker Jun Libero.
--- With files from CTV Winnipeg's Alex Antoneshyn
