Alberta Party candidates pledge to soldier on with, or without, Mandel SAMMY HUDES
Alberta Party candidates vying for Calgary seats in the upcoming provincial election say the party is moving full steam ahead, after its leader Stephen Mandel and five other hopefuls were disqualified from running due to missing a crucial filing deadline.
Mandel, who plans to run in Edmonton-McClung, said over the weekend he didn’t learn until two weeks ago that he was facing a five-year ban for failing to file his nomination financial report on time. News emerged Friday that Mandel along with Calgary-Lougheed candidate Rachel Timmermans and four others running in the Edmonton area were disqualified.
The Alberta Party leader said he took full responsibility, but noted the task had been delegated to his chief financial officer, who resigned due to illness and “missed some of the dates” as a result.
He said he planned to challenge the ban in court on the grounds the stated deadline rules from Elections Alberta are fuzzy and open to misinterpretation.
Calgary-South East MLA Rick Fraser, who ran against Mandel for the party’s leadership last year, called the development “concerning.”
“Certainly it’s a mistake, it’s not helpful. But we’ll get through it and we’ll carry on,” he said. “Stephen does follow the law. This is part of the law and it was definitely an oversight on his behalf but he’s accepted that. He’s doing everything he can to correct it and I support him fully.” Letters were sent in advance informing candidates of the filing deadline, according to Elections Alberta.
Mandel’s financial statement was dated Sept. 24, 2018. But he acknowledged he received a letter from Elections Alberta last July which indicated the financial report was due Sept. 12.
He claims the Elections Alberta documents are contradictory on whether the four-month financial filing deadline begins when a candidate is nominated or when the nomination vote is concluded.
The latter would have allowed him up to November to file the documents.
“That process is going to play itself out and I think we have to have faith in our system,” said Calgary-Elbow MLA Greg Clark. “I’m confident that Stephen and the other candidates have a really strong case.”
Clark, who led the party until Mandel won the leadership in February 2018, said he had no intention of reprising his role.
“I have total faith in Stephen as leader. We’re going to get through this and he’s going to lead us into the next election,” he said.
Fraser said “there’s no excuse for what happened,” but called the timing of the decision suspicious.
“I just find the timing curious, on behalf of Elections Alberta,” Fraser said.
“They probably could have dealt with it four months ago and then that way it could have been explained or the court challenges could have taken place. An election could be called tomorrow and that really puts the third party — a viable party with almost 87 candidates — without a leader,” he added.
Calgary-North East candidate Nate Pike said the news took him by surprise but he said he was optimistic the issue would get resolved.
“One of the things that I’m proudest about with the Alberta Party is that the quality of candidate and the quality of people that we have running is incredibly high, so it’s not like there’s a shortage of people who would be able to step up and fill that role if need be,” Pike said. “But, I just don’t think that is going to be necessary.”
For Fraser’s part, he said he hasn’t yet considered taking a second swing at the party’s leadership should Mandel be unable to lead it into the election.
“Of course, if (Mandel) was unable to be the leader I’m sure that would change the landscape a bit,” he said.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I’ve always said in politics you never keep anything off the table, but I don’t even know if that’s something the members would want, to tap me as the leader.”
“It appears to be coming down to technicalities as to when an actual deadline is,” agreed Angela Kokott, the Alberta Party candidate for Calgary-Mountain View.
“When you look at all the different deadlines for nominations, it becomes a bit of a confusing thing that a lot of candidates could face.”
She said she’s not worried about the news putting a damper on the Alberta Party’s chances going into this year’s election.
“You could say that at least we’re getting publicity,” Kokott said. “At least people are talking about the Alberta Party.”