PC race gets two new names INSIDE POLITICS
Kennedy-Glans, Starke launch bids for leadership of provincial party
The starting gate for the Progressive Conservative leadership race is filling out with candidates opposed to Jason Kenney’s unite-the-right plans.
On Thursday, former cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans launched her campaign in Calgary, while Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke announced his candidacy in Edmonton.
Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson threw his hat in the ring earlier this week.
All have come out against Kenney’s five-point plan to unite the PC party with the Wildrose in a new “Conservative Party of Alberta.”
“Hopefully, (Kenney) will realize there are a lot of people with similar views in this province,” Kennedy- Glans said outside a coffee shop in the Calgary-Varsity riding she represented as an MLA from 2012 to 2015.
“And perhaps we can have a really healthy conversation about what really is going to work.”
In a rejoinder to Kenney, the former Conservative MP who launched his leadership bid in July, Kennedy-Glans unveiled her own five-point plan that calls for rebuilding the PC party to win the next provincial election in 2019.
“Step 1, elect a PC leader who is a Progressive Conservative,” said Kennedy-Glans, who did not run in the last election.
“We need a permanent leader committed to this party who will continue building on that foundation.”
The 56-year-old lawyer and former oilpatch executive also pledged to win back former PC voters who’ve drifted away to both left- and right-leaning parties, rebuild PC constituency associations, mount an effective opposition and lead the party to victory in 2019.
Starke, who was also elected in 2012 and served briefly in Alison Redford’s cabinet as culture minister, said the way forward is fixing the PC party, not merging it with the Wildrose.
“They’re two different parties; they’re two different cultures,” said Starke, who made the announcement in front of friends and supporters at a community hall in north Edmonton.
“A pursuit of a merger with the Wildrose is putting power ahead of principle. It is solely a mechanism to try to seek and gain political power.”
The Tories governed Alberta for more than four decades but were reduced to third party status in last year’s provincial election as the NDP swept to power.
Former Tory MLA Linda Johnson is backing Kennedy-Glans, who is perhaps best known for leaving the PC caucus and resigning as associate minister of electricity and renewables over concerns about Redford’s leadership in 2014.
“I’m impressed with her experience and integrity,” said Johnson, who lost her Calgary-Glenmore seat by only six votes in the 2015 election and believes there is still strength in the PC brand.
“I’m in agreement that Albertans are not attracted by other options that are on the table.”
The leadership campaign officially begins on Saturday, with the party holding a kickoff event in Lethbridge. The new leader will be selected at a delegated convention in March 2018.
While Starke and Kennedy-Glans disagree with Kenney on where to take the PCs, they all agree that the NDP’s economic policies, particularly high debt loads, have made a bad economic situation in Alberta.
Alberta’s deficit this year will be almost $11 billion and the debt will be about $58 billion by the end of the decade.
Starke, a retired veterinarian, said a measured approach is needed.
“If you’re driving a car on glare ice, you don’t start hitting the gas and hitting the brakes and steering all over,” he said. “You just hold her steady.” Kennedy-Glans said she keeps hearing concerns over the NDP’s “callous” approach toward business and the province’s red ink.
“You limit your choices when you start to get into the kind of debt we’re in right now,” she said.
“It’s horrifying.”