Barred PC hopeful to contest election
A longtime Tory barred by the Progressive Conservative party from seeking a nomination intends to run as an Independent.
Jamie Lall, who was disallowed as a candidate in Chestermere-Rocky View by the PC party for undisclosed reasons earlier this month, said Thursday he is getting back into the race as an Independent and believes he has a shot at winning.
Lall had been challenging incumbent MLA Bruce McAllister — who crossed the floor from the Wildrose Party to the Tories last year — for the Tory nomination in Chestermere.
When he was disallowed, McAllister was acclaimed.
“This isn’t about me going out trying to have any kind of vendetta,” Lall, who resigned as president of the Tories’ Calgary- McCall constituency association Thursday, said in an interview.
“I said I wanted to give people a choice. I’m going to give them a choice.”
Lall, who ran as the PC candidate in Calgary- Buffalo in 2012, has said he was given a particularly stringent vetting process to run this time around — including being interviewed by a private detective.
But he said he has been given no official explanation for why the party excluded him from running.
Lall was disallowed on the same evening three other former Wildrose MLAs were defeated for PC nominations.
However, PC party president Kelley Charlebois said Lall was fully informed why he could not be a candidate.
Premier Jim Prentice has said he fully supports the party’s decision in the matter and that it was made for “good reasons.”
Wildrose is also expected to target the Chestermere- Rocky View riding with candidate Leela Aheer.