Wildrose picks leader Saturday

Wildrose members will select a new leader Saturday in a vote that could signal whether the party is positioned to maintain its official Opposition status or be relegated to a marginal player in the legislature.

Political analyst Faron Ellis said that a poor voter turnout in the leadership contest to replace defector Danielle Smith would suggest the party is no longer a threat to challenge Jim Prentice’s Tories.

He said the campaign that began about two months ago has been “pretty low key.”

“It certainly hasn’t generated the normal amount of enthusiasm that an official Opposition leadership contest should,” said Ellis, a political science professor at Lethbridge College. “People aren’t talking about it a lot.”

He said that if the contest between Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, former Conservative MP Brian Jean and former Strathcona County mayor Linda Osinchuk doesn’t draw the participation of more than half the party’s 25,000 members, it will show that many of the members have disengaged.

“I will be looking at that 50 per cent number as a litmus test,” said Ellis, who had considered running for the party at one point last year.

The Wildrose led Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative party in the polls midway through the 2012 election, but faltered at the polls.

It elected 17 members — enough to form a capable official Opposition — but was whittled down to just five members through defections last year. The biggest blow came Dec. 17 when Smith led eight colleagues across the floor to join Prentice’s governing PCs.

Ellis said the party would benefit from having time to showcase the new leader before the next election, set by legislation to be held in spring 2016, but Prentice is expected to call an early election.

The Wildrose had planned to go into the election with interim leader Heather Forsyth at its helm, but decided to hold an abbreviated leadership campaign to have a permanent leader in place for an early campaign.

“While this situation is not good, the alternative was guaranteed to be a disaster,” said Ellis. “Campaigning with an interim leader who is not even seeking a seat just symbolizes to everybody your fringe party status.”

Wildrose president Jeff Callaway said there has been a lot of interest in the leadership race and the forums held to showcase the candidates.

“We’re the official Opposition in this province,” he said. “I am confident that whoever ends up winning the leadership race will be a leader that I think Albertans will find attractive and who could potentially form government at some future point in time.”

He noted that the Wildrose is the only party advocating holding the line on spending, rather than raising taxes.

Membership sales were cut off March 14 and telephone voting began two days later.

It ends at 3 p.m. Saturday and the leader will be announced in Calgary around 5:30 p.m., Callaway said.

“It has been a pretty slick and easy process,” he said. “I haven’t heard any complaints about the telephone voting system itself.”

Callaway said the contest is “a party building exercise.”

“It’s been a sprint but our constituencies, our candidates, and everyone has been up to the challenge.”