NDP gains support in leadership race
EDMONTON — Alberta’s New Democrats are bracing for a record turnout at their leadership convention Oct. 18 after a two- month leadership race that has drawn three candidates and more than $ 115,000 in donations.
Provincial Secretary Brian Stokes said the party has been bolstered by strong polls — the NDP is leading in Edmonton — and is seeing more members and bigger donations after years of working to identify supporters.
“We’ve been spending the last couple of years working our prospect lists and signing a lot of people up, and I think we’re seeing the fruits of that work,” Stokes said.
“Couple that with the state of the PC party and the state of the Liberals, who are floundering, and we’re picking up a lot of supporters.”
Candidates Rachel Notley, David Eggen and Rod Loyola wrapped up membership sales on Sept. 21 and the party has hired three additional staffers to enter all the names into the voting database.
Advance polling starts Oct. 3, with a preferential ballot. Stokes said the party is expecting more than 500 people to attend the leadership convention on Oct. 18.
The first round of voting will take place after candidate presentations at 11 a. m., he said, with runoff ballots to follow.
Outgoing leader Brian Mason said he’s pleased with the organization-building aspects of the campaign — more members, more money — but has been disappointed the race didn’t get more media attention as it competed with the Tory leadership race and the first weeks of the Prentice administration.
“It has been a very agreeable campaign. … I do wish there was perhaps a little more disagreement or controversy among the candidates,” Mason said.
“We do have a fairly well- accepted set of policies in our party, and that’s one thing I’m very proud of, that we’ve built a strong consensus about what we stand for. But if everyone is always agreeable, it doesn’t make for good headlines.”
He said rebuilding efforts date back to 1993 when the party was “essentially wiped out” by Laurence Decore’s Liberals, who captured all of the NDP’s 16 seats.