FILDEBRANDT’S POLITICAL STOCK TAKES A BEATING

MLA who made himself a force in Alberta quits UCP caucus amid week of turmoil

Derek Fildebrandt’s political career began to skid last week. On Tuesday, it dropped right off the cliff.

The young MLA for Strathmore-Brooks abruptly quit the UCP caucus at 9 p.m. as more troubles piled up around him. He will sit as an independent MLA.

His announcement was typically bombastic but, also, I thought, honest and almost touching.

“I’m a flawed man, and I can do better,” he wrote.

“If I have let anyone down, know that I have let myself down, and I will prove that I am the man that I hold as the standard for trust and integrity.”

Some people who know Fildebrandt, even those who don’t particularly like him, say he’s been so agonized over the past few days that they feared for his well-being.

He has peppered friends and colleagues with phone calls from Europe, where he is on vacation, seeking advice and offering explanations.

But by Tuesday night it was common knowledge that if he hadn’t quit, he would have been forced out.

His party seemed relieved to dodge the role of executioner.

Interim UCP Leader Nathan Cooper, who earlier had sent Fildebrandt a strong message about his unacceptable “larger pattern of behaviour,” said the 32-year-old MLA might be able to win his way back into caucus at some point.

“If Derek can live up to the expectations he has outlined in his statement, to the satisfaction of the UCP caucus and to Albertans, there would be consideration for a future path for him back to the UCP caucus,” Cooper wrote.

Fildebrandt plunged into trouble last week when Postmedia revealed that he was renting out his taxpayer-subsidized Edmonton condo via Airbnb.

That seemed to go against every cost-cutting, waste-busting fiscal virtue Fildebrandt has preached since he first came on the scene as a fiscal scold for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Some people in his growing base, which he cultivates artfully on Facebook, began to doubt and then turn against him.

On Monday, the problem escalated with reports that he claimed the cost of meals twice on nine separate occasions, both through per diem allowance and specific expenses.

He has offered to repay in both cases — including $2,500 from the condo rental — but his caucus mates worried that he was branding the new party as hypocritical.

And on Tuesday, it all got much worse.

Both Postmedia and the CBC reported that he’s facing a hitand run charge from June 2016.

Fildebrandt is alleged to have thumped another vehicle in his condo parking lot, and taken off without reporting the damage.

According to the CBC, a woman testified in court that she was sitting on her balcony when she saw his Ford F150 pickup back into her company truck with a bang. He drove away, she said. The woman also told the court that Fildebrandt offered to settle with her just before the start of the trial.

Fildebrandt told the court that 22 “relatively important people” could say that he was with them at the time.

At that time, there were 22 MLAs in the Wildrose caucus.

Many won’t be thrilled at being dragged into the case.

Fildebrandt has pleaded not guilty and the trial is scheduled to resume in September, when he’s expected to give his evidence.

As that story was breaking, Postmedia’s Emma Graney reported that after the 2015 election, Fildebrandt roomed in Edmonton with fellow Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon.

The record shows that both MLAs claimed a housing allowance during an extended period, nearly $1,700 per month each.

For part of that time, it appears, there was only one dwelling.

Did both MLAs make the subsidy claim for one place?

In a statement provided to Postmedia by the UCP caucus, Nixon acknowledged that he “shared accommodation with Mr. Fildebrandt for a period in 2015-2016.”

“Mr. Nixon can only speak to his own accommodation expenses, but both during and after his shared accommodation with Mr. Fildebrandt, Mr. Nixon ensured proper paperwork was filed and approved with the LAO (Legislative Assembly Office) and that all filings were in accordance with expenditure guidelines.”

Fildebrandt didn’t respond to questions.

It’s fairly common for MLAs of the same party to share a residence in Edmonton. It’s probably usual, as well, for both to claim the allowance.

But as with the Airbnb rental, the fact that this isn’t prohibited doesn’t make it right.

A pair of MLAs could rake in more than $3,500 when the rent is likely to be less than $2,000.

Behind all this lurked a rumour, first advanced by the satirical magazine Frank, that some of Fildebrandt’s Airbnb renters staged a porn shoot in his apartment.

Sources say Fildebrandt had unwisely talked about that to some people at the July 22 unity vote event in Red Deer.

On Aug. 10, I asked him about the Frank report in a text message. He never replied. At 32, Fildebrandt has probably had more public impact than any rookie MLA elected in 2015.

He made himself one of the most famous politicians in the province in just over two years.

But as some of his colleagues note, a nose for publicity has to come with good judgment and humility that didn’t seem to come naturally.

He finally showed those qualities in his resignation letter. Derek Fildebrandt may be back, but it will take time.