Fourth Calgary MLA backs Kenney
Tory leadership candidate Jason Kenney gained another MLA endorsement Tuesday, even as conflict continued to flare within Progressive Conservative ranks.
Calgary-Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney said in an interview he is backing Kenney, who is running for PC leader on a platform of merging the party with the Wildrose to take on the NDP government.
Rodney, the current longestserving PC MLA, said he believes the Tories and Wildrose can come together and that conservative unity — as was seen in the PC party under premiers such as Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed — is what his constituents want.
“The message has become very, very clear. The vast majority of them are really excited about getting back together,” said Rodney, the PC caucus house leader.
Kenney now has the support of half of the eight-member PC caucus, as Rodney joins fellow Calgary MLAs Mike Ellis, Prab Gill and Richard Gotfried in endorsing the former MP.
PC interim leader Ric McIver has not ruled out making an endorsement but would likely face blowback from within the party if he backs a candidate, while CalgarySouth East MLA Rick Fraser is pledged to be neutral as a member of the party’s leadership election committee.
Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Wayne Drysdale endorsed Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke, who is also running for the leadership, in December.
Kenney’s rivals in the race, Starke, Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson and former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan, opposed the former MP’s merger plan and want to rebuild the party under the PC brand.
Rodney’s endorsement comes in the midst of a new round of PC infighting spurred by the Tory board’s weekend suspension of Kenney field organizer Alan Hallman over two insulting Twitter posts aimed at other party members.
That prompted PC Youth Association president Sonia Kont on Monday night to announce, in a letter signed by herself and five other members of the PCYA executive committee, that Hallman, a longtime PC operative, had been named honorary chair of the youth association.
Yet other members of the PCYA board said there had been no meeting on the issue as required, they knew nothing about the decision and that, in any case, the honorary chair must be a party member in good standing.
There will be an emergency meeting of the PCYA executive committee Wednesday night, but Kont said Tuesday she stands by the decision to back Hallman, whom she believes was treated unfairly.
She said the move to honour Hallman was not meant to disrespect the party board, but she said the board “is not really in touch with the general membership.”
“I understand why people are angry,” Kont said.
Sierra Garner, the PCYA vicepresident for southern Alberta who has taken issue with the Hallman move, said there are “huge divisions” within the party that are being reflected in the youth association.
There is no doubt Kont was taking a shot at the party board, Garner said.
“It’s so disrespectful,” she said.