Decision day for Alberta PCs
Graham Thomson, Emma Graney, James Wood and Stuart Thomson report on the vote.
CALGARY Progressive Conservative leadership candidates Jason Kenney, Byron Nelson and Richard Starke rallied their troops in Calgary Friday night, preparing for the vote that will see one of them wear the PC crown.
The hall in the Calgary Convention Centre was packed with cardcarrying members, some wearing white Unite Alberta cowboy hats, others ringing blue Richard Starke cowbells.
Before the candidates took the stage, party president Katherine O’Neill told the standing-roomonly crowd that Progressive Conservatives are best when they are fighting for something — not against something.
For Kenney, the rally was another chance to reiterate his Unite Alberta message.
“New Democrats aren’t bad people,” he said. “They just have bad ideas.”
Starke cited his record of service and never walking away, saying, “You will have to pry my Progressive Conservative membership card from my cold, dead hands.”
Finally, Nelson explained he isn’t worried about unity itself, but the lack of a concrete plan — doing it wrong will invite another four years of NDP rule, he said.
“I don’t want to be the one standing here after the NDP is re-elected saying, ‘I told you so,’ ” Nelson said.
In a matter of hours, delegates will cast their votes. Here’s a look back at the race so far.
AND WE’RE OFF
The leadership race hadn’t even officially started last summer when Kenney, then-Calgary Midnapore member of Parliament, galloped out of the gate.
Rumours of Kenney leaving Ottawa with a scheme to unite Alberta’s conservative parties swirled for months before he announced his five-point Unite Alberta plan on July 6 in Calgary.
Days later, former prime minister Stephen Harper endorsed his former immigration minister and his plan. For the rest of the summer, Kenney toured Alberta in his blue pickup truck, peddling the unite message.
The next three candidates leaped into the fray in September — Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson, former PC cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans (with her own five-point plan for rebuilding the party) and Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke. The race officially began Oct. 1. Calgary-North West MLA Sandra Jansen confirmed her leadership bid on Oct. 12, and former St. Albert MLA and cabinet minister Stephen Khan jumped in on Nov. 4.
DEFYING CONVENTION
Playing nicely together was never going to last — this is politics after all. Cue the PC policy convention from Nov. 4 to 6. There, Kenney’s team flexed its organizational muscle, busing young supporters to the event and bringing former prime minister Stephen Harper to speak to them. The unexpected flood of Unite Alberta support was a wakeup call for the other candidates and the party’s centrist voices who wanted to rebuild the PC brand.
NOPE, WE’RE OUT
Two days later, on Nov. 8, Jansen and Kennedy-Glans abruptly announced they were dropping out of the race, Jansen citing harassment and intimidation at the convention. Although she didn’t name names, Jansen’s lack of love for Kenney was no secret — she earlier declared she would never serve as a PC MLA under the former MP.
Kennedy-Glans left because of the polarizing nature of Alberta politics and a “limited opportunity for centrist voices.” The women bowed out just two days before the deadline to file nomination papers, drawing what seemed like a pointed barb from Kenney, who said in a statement he hoped the $50,000 race fee wasn’t a hindrance.
Jansen ended up filing a formal complaint about the harassment, as did Kenney. As a result, the PC party engaged IRIIS LLC out of Calgary to investigate. It found there was rampant harassment and intimidation at the convention, but it could not be directly linked back to any specific leadership campaign. Jansen crossed the floor to the NDP on Nov. 17.
A GOLF COURSE KERFUFFLE
For the first time since 1985, the PC Party is using a delegate voting system to elect its new leader. Each constituency will send 15 delegates, who were elected at local selection meetings. The first delegate selection meeting in Edmonton was on Nov. 16 at the Mill Woods golf course. According to leadership rules, candidates were not allowed “in or near” the meetings, so when Kenney’s campaign hosted a hospitality suite with free food and booze in the same building — and the man himself turned up to thank supporters — murmurings of disquiet morphed into an argument.
The party’s chief returning officer, Rob Dunseith, investigated, and Kenney’s campaign was hit with a $5,000 fine. Dunseith found two “aggravating factors” around the incident — Kenney organizer Alan Hallman said the campaign could afford a fine, and the “inescapable appearance” that the campaign had deliberately pushed the boundaries. Hallman was later suspended from the party for a year for breaching its leadership code of conduct by posting inappropriate tweets.
MERGERS AND COALITIONS
Jan. 26 was a busy day for the leadership race.
First, Richard Starke announced a “necessary adjustment” to his campaign — a coalition-like agreement between PC and Wildrose, but not a party merger.
Hours later, Wildrose’s Jean posted a video message for supporters that set the stage for a head-to-head battle with Kenney. If Wildrose members approved a unity agreement with the Tories, he said, he’d stand down as party leader and seek leadership of the new united conservative party this summer.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer Glen Resler has said from the beginning that financial assets can’t be transferred between parties, so Jean made it clear he sees the only way forward as absorbing a weakened PC party into the financially stable Wildrose. He then hit the road on a Alberta tour to sell his vision for unity. The next day, Stephen Khan dropped his leadership bid as his dream of reviving a moderate, centrist party, collapsed around him.
The same week, PC party director Denise Brunner, accused of bias by Kenney supporters, resigned from the party’s board so as not to be a “distraction.”
A LAST-DITCH EFFORT
Critical of Kenney’s bid to run for leadership of a party he wants to dissolve, Calgary lawyer Jeff Rath filed a complaint on Feb. 9 against the former MP with the PC Association of Alberta.
He alleged “numerous violations” of the PCAA constitution and leadership election code of ethics, which states that candidates must avoid causing harm to the party brand. On Feb. 16, a special meeting of the board that could have led to Kenney’s disqualification was quashed by party president Katherine O’Neill.