Kenney pressed for report on voting irregularities

Opposition leader Jason Kenney reiterated Friday that an internal UCP report into alleged voting irregularities hasn’t been made public to protect whistleblowers, but he hinted the party may consider releasing a summary.

“I’ll go back and talk to our party board about this,” he said Friday in Edmonton, speaking at a United Conservative Party pancake breakfast ahead of the K-Days parade. “This is not an unreasonable question.”

UCP MLA Prab Gill, member for Calgary-Greenway, left the caucus last week after an investigation into allegations of ballot stuffing during a June 30 constituency meeting. He also resigned as deputy UCP caucus whip following the controversy that arose during the Calgary-North East constituency association founding annual general meeting.

A video posted online after the event showed shouting and arguments among party members.

The UCP commissioned an internal investigation by retired judge Ted Carruthers, a former Progressive Conservative party president.

“That whole report is based on evidence given by party volunteers who are effectively whistleblowers,” said Kenney.

“These are people who had the courage to come forward and offer evidence about an incumbent MLA, and we don’t think it’s appropriate to be publishing the identities.”

But the NDP has called for the report to be made public.

“Did (Gill) in fact stuff ballots in a box in order to change the outcome of a board election that would have had — and, ironically, did end up having — a profound effect on his future electability in Calgary-Greenway?” Infrastructure Minister Sandra Jansen told Postmedia Saturday.

The former PC member worked with Gill before she crossed the floor to the NDP in 2016.

“The people of his constituency deserve to know,” she said.

Gill won’t be seeking a UCP nomination for the 2019 election.

Kenney said a redacted report would still identify volunteers.

“This is an event with 100 people ... anybody could figure out who was talking, providing evidence in that report,” he said.

“What matters is that there was a very serious consequence as a result of that report, and Mr. Gill is no longer in our caucus.”

Kenney said he will speak at a UCP rally Sunday night at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton to mark the party’s first anniversary.

“It’s a big opportunity for us to celebrate one year of success,” he said.

“I’ll be starting to frame our message before the next election ... so I’ll be talking about our nominations, our platform development.”

What matters is that there was a very serious consequence as a result of that report, and Mr. Gill is no longer in our caucus.