Key information about UCP leadership race

The party announced Friday that it had registered 61,670 party members who will be eligible to vote.

The United Conservative Party may have been formed this summer when Progressive Conservative and Wildrose members voted to form a new party, but the really big decision is looming. Next week, UCP members will choose either former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, former PC leader Jason Kenney or Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer as the fledging party’s first leader. As the contest enters its final week, here’s five things you should know about the UCP race.

Numbers game — The UCP’s membership picture is finally becoming clearer.

The party announced Friday that it had registered 61,670 party members who will be eligible to vote for the party’s new leader between Oct. 26 and 28, with the results being announced next Saturday.

It’s a pretty impressive number, though not as impressive as it could be, as about 106,000 party members could have registered to cast a ballot.

The UCP electronic voting system, which required members to register and provide proof of identity either by mail or online, attracted criticism from all the leadership campaigns to varying degrees as overly complex.

Party executive director Janice Harrington acknowledged that the process was complicated due to the agreement between the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties to found the UCP.

But she said she was confident that people who wanted to vote ended up being registered, since the party worked with those stymied by the system. The party expects about 95 per cent of those registered will vote.

Mr. Wonderful weighs in — Schweitzer is undoubtedly the leastknown candidate in the UCP leadership race and he trails the other two candidates in endorsements, with MLA Wayne Drysdale the only caucus member backing his leadership bid.

But Schweitzer got some glamour behind his campaign on Friday.

In a video posted on Facebook, Kevin O’Leary — businessman, reality TV star and one- time front-runner for the federal Conservative leadership — endorsed Schweitzer in the UCP leadership race as the best choice to deal with Alberta’s economic issues.

“I think he’s the dark horse. I think he’s the guy who understands it. And he’s very inclusive,” said O’Leary. “Schweitzer’s the guy.”

O’Leary’s endorsement isn’t necessarily surprising, given that Schweitzer backed the former Dragon’s Den denizen in the Conservative race before he dropped out.

The two men also share policy stances that mix moderation on social issues with hard conservative fiscal policies.

The big question, of course, is how much weight O’Leary carries. In the federal race, the horse he ultimately backed — Maxime Bernier — was pipped at the post by Andrew Scheer.*

Who’s backing who? — Jean and Kenney are seen to be in a pitched battle to take the new party’s leadership and their endorsement numbers from the UCP caucus show them evenly matched.

Both Jean and Kenney have the endorsement of 11 UCP MLAs.

If you count Derek Fildebrandt, who is hoping to be reinstated to the UCP caucus after leaving due to an expense controversy and a court case over an alleged hit-andrun of a parked vehicle, Kenney has 12 MLAs.

Kenney backers note that he has the support of MLAs who came from both the PC and Wildrose branches of the UCP, while Jean only has former Wildrosers in his caucus support.

At last Tuesday’s final leaders debate in Lethbridge, Jean pointed out that at least all the Wildrose MLAs supported unity and stuck with the party.

Two PC MLAs chose not to join the UCP caucus after the summer referendum, while a third left the party last year over Kenney’s unity push.

Whither Fildebrandt? — Fildebrandt’s future is a bit of a question mark at the moment.

In an interview this week, Jean said he’d be prepared to bring Richard Starke and Rick Fraser, the PC MLAs who rejected the UCP, into the caucus if they identify themselves as fiscal conservatives.

But after repeated clashes with Fildebrandt, Jean is not necessarily so willing to extend the olive branch.

Jean wouldn’t comment when asked whether he would welcome Fildebrandt back into the UCP caucus if he wins the leadership and the Strathmore-Brooks MLA seeks reinstatement.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

Kenney also played it cool on Fildebrandt.

He said the MLA would need to have his “outstanding issues” resolved before anything took place. If that happened and Fildebrandt asked to rejoin the UCP in the legislative assembly, it would be up to the caucus. Schweitzer also said the caucus would have to make the decision.

Kenney was surprisingly amenable though to the notion of Starke and Fraser coming back to the UCP.

“The door is always open,” he said.

Green for blue — The UCP received some good news this week.

Party financial statements for the third quarter of 2017 were posted by Elections Alberta this week.

While the UCP trailed the NDP in fundraising in its first period of fundraising, it wasn’t far off — raking in $397,552 to the New Democrats’ $439,701.

And when the PCs and Wildrose are added into the mix, the total rises to $534,344. (To be fair, none of the parties can transfer money to each other under Alberta law, but even the NDP acknowledged it was a moral victory for the UCP as it asked its own supporters in a fundraising email to dig deeper.)

The Liberals meanwhile raised $43,371 and the Alberta Party brought in $25,271.