Opposition parties lashed out at the PC government over its recent decision to reverse course on its plan to require agencies, boards and commissions to disclose salaries and severances of employees making more than $100,000.

Government officials confirmed late last week the province did not have the legal authority to apply its existing sunshine list policy to include roughly 200 arm’s length organizations, such as Alberta Health Services, school boards and post-secondary institutions.

Shane Saskiw, house leader and justice critic for the Wildrose party, said the decision to exclude agencies, boards and commissions was a “major step back” from Premier Jim Prentice’s commitment to run the “most ethical and transparent government in Canada.”

“The sunshine list was long overdue when it was finally introduced over a year ago with the expectation it would extend to all arms of the PC government,” Saskiw said in a news release. “This will only mean more of the same secrecy, waste and mismanagement Albertans have become accustomed to.”

In Dec. 2013, the province, under former premier Alison Redford, unveiled the disclosure list policy, which details salary and severance information of deputy ministers, senior officials appointed by an Order in Council, staff of ministers and the premier, and departmental employees.

While provinces like Ontario and B.C. have sunshine lists, Alberta’s was hailed as the gold-standard by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation because of the level of detail it provides to the public.

The premier’s office said an ongoing review of government agencies could lead to “future policy changes … that would require greater public disclosure of salaries.”

But NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Alberta remains one of two provinces that refuses to report salaries of arm’s length bodies and that the PC’s broken promise would protect the high salaries of “government friends and insiders.”

“These are salaries that are being paid with public dollars and the only way for Albertans to know that what these employees are being paid is fair, is to report it,” Notley said in a release.

thowell@calgaryherald.com

Jason Kenney says ousted MLA Derek Fildebrandt is wasting his time as he makes noises about fighting for a United Conservative Party nomination.

The UCP Leader in February barred Fildebrandt, the Independent MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, from returning to the UCP caucus or running for the party in the 2019 provincial election because he had not disclosed that he faced illegal hunting charges.

But Fildebrandt said in an interview last week that he may seek the UCP nomination in the redrawn riding of Chestermere-Strathmore in any case.

Kenney told Postmedia Monday that Fildebrandt is welcome to try, but he won’t get anywhere.

“If he’s a party member, he could always submit his paperwork, I suppose. But like every candidate he has to go through the pre-screening process and I’ve already indicated he would not be approved at the vetting stage because he lied to me about outstanding legal issues,” said Kenney.

Kenney said he promised during his run for the UCP leadership that the new party would have a rigorous screening process for candidates.

He said he had to maintain a consistent standard in how potential candidates are treated.

“This is an important principle we are applying about the need for people to be honest and forthcoming in the candidate vetting and he wasn’t, so he would not be green-lighted. He could always make an application, but frankly I think he would be wasting his time,” said Kenney.

Under rules adopted by the UCP’s joint interim committee, candidates are vetted and confirmed by the party’s nomination committee.

Deputy chief returning officer Drew Westwater said Fildebrandt could be blocked from the nomination from the start, by the party refusing to endorse his registration with Elections Alberta as a potential UCP candidate.

That’s a relatively new process under recent provincial legislation but parties have always had broad authority over who runs for them, he said.

“They have full control and they set the rules,” said Westwater.

But Fildebrandt said Monday he’s consulting with lawyers about the UCP’s ban, noting that the party was founded through first registering as an association under The Societies Act.

“They have to apply their rules fairly,” he said.

“The party has a legal obligation to its members. It’s not a private club owned and serving its leaders and the backroom operators. It’s owned and responsible to its members.”

Fildebrandt has also said he could run as an Independent in the 2019 election.

On Monday, he announced that Speaker Bob Wanner had agreed to designate him as an “Independent-Conservative” in the legislature.

Fildebrandt said he’s not going to go quietly on the issue and believes he has support of his constituents in his riding who are unhappy being stymied by “central party elite.”

Continuing to call lots of UCP members in my constituency today. I haven't talked to one yet who believes that Party HQ should be allowed to veto candidates before the grassroots get the right to vote. #ableg

— Derek Fildebrandt (@Dfildebrandt) April 27, 2018

“I’ve tried diplomacy. I’ve reached out and been reasonable and proposed compromises,” said Fildebrandt, who hasn’t decided yet whether to attend this coming weekend’s inaugural UCP convention.

The MLA insists that the real reason he was blocked from running is that Kenney did not want him to fight Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Aheer for the UCP nomination in the new riding, a suggestion dismissed by the party and Kenney’s office.

Fildebrandt was first elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2015 and was one of the most high-profile members on the Opposition benches as the party’s finance critic. But the outspoken MLA ran into a series of controversies over the past year including renting out his taxpayer-funded apartment on Airbnb, double-dipping on meal expenses and being fined $402 last December for backing into his neighbour’s van and driving away.

He left the UCP caucus last summer shortly after the new party was formed by the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives.

Kenney dropped the hammer on Fildebrandt in February after he pleaded guilty to the illegal hunting charge, saying Fildebrandt had “misled” him and “exhibited a pattern of behaviour” that did not live up the standards expected of an MLA.

With files from Emma Graney

jwood@postmedia.com

The course of Alberta politics dramatically shifted Saturday as members of both the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties overwhelmingly approved a plan to end hostilities and join together in a new United Conservative Party.

Each party announced 95 per cent support for the unity agreement in separate votes among their members, with Wildrose reporting shortly after 4 p.m. at a special meeting in Red Deer and the Tories announcing just before 7 p.m. on the Calgary Stampede grounds.

Though they were 150 kilometres apart, both Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and PC Leader Jason Kenney told jubilant supporters that the unity agreement was a first step in restoring conservative governance in Alberta and removing Rachel Notley’s NDP government.

“This is a great day for Alberta. Hope is on the horizon,” said Kenney , who stepped down as an MP last year to run for the PC leadership on a platform of unifying the parties.

“We are renewing the Alberta Advantage with this democratic decision made today.”

Kenney announced that 25,692 out of 27,060 Tories who voted had supported the unity agreement, with 55 per cent turnout among members during the three-day period of phone and online voting.

While the Tories needed a simple majority, Wildrose faced a 75 per cent threshold for approval. Party returning officer Sam Magnus announced the results had smashed through that barrier, with 23,466 voters in favour and 1,132 opposed. Turnout in Wildrose was 57 per cent.

“Thank you for yes,” an excited Jean told the crowd in Red Deer.

“Today is not the end of Wildrose but a new beginning where we are one step closer to putting power back in the hands of the ordinary working people of Alberta.”

Alberta has seen a conservative civil war over the past decade between the Tories, who governed the province for 44 years, and the Wildrose, which has been powered by distaste over PC fiscal practices and a streak of social conservatism.

The mass floor-crossing of most of the Wildrose caucus to the then-PC government in 2014 appeared to herald reunification, but a widespread backlash to the move was a factor in the fall of the Tory dynasty in the 2015 election.

Yet the shocking arrival in power of NDP in that vote soon fuelled talk again of healing the breach between Alberta’s fractured right.

After Kenney’s leadership victory in March, negotiating teams appointed by him and Jean hammered out a deal in May for members of each party to form the new UCP.

The creation of the new party will almost immediately set off a leadership race. Kenney and Jean have each indicated they will run for the leadership.

Kenney said he would wait at least until Sunday before talking about his leadership aspirations but Jean was not so reserved.

“I plan on being Alberta’s next premier,” Jean said in his speech.

Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer has already thrown his hat in the ring, while Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt is also considering a run.

Fildebrandt, who has clashed with Jean in the past, said that no matter what, he would not support Jean in the contest.

“I’m not going to get into it right now,” Fildebrandt told reporters.

“We’ll have plenty of time to beat the crap out of each other in the coming weeks and months.”

While Kenney described the NDP as “panicking” at the prospect of the united party, deputy premier Sarah Hoffman took her own shot at the new party.

On Twitter, she posted that the UCP combines PC “entitlement” and Wildrose “extremism and cuts.”

“This weekend was really about the parties being ready to embrace the worst in each other,” she said from Edmonton.

The massive margin of victory for unity is likely to dampen concerns about defections from the UCP and a further potential split in the vote. However, some Wildrose members already plan to hold a meeting next weekend to discuss starting a new party that would hew to the party’s principles.

“The path is clear. We’ve laid out the plan and it’s going to go,” said Edmonton-South West riding president Marilyn Burns.

For the PCs, the successful unity deal means the end of the party that had the longest run in power of any in Canadian history and boasted Alberta icons such as Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein at the helm.

But some prominent Tories have already left the party and have been working to build up a centrist alternative for the 2019 election.

One question mark is whether Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke, who finished a distant second to Kenney in the PC leadership race, will join the UCP caucus. He said recently he still had major reservations about the unity agreement and would decide his future after the vote results were known.

Starke could not be reached for comment Saturday.

But Sierra Garner, a vice-president of the PC Youth Association who supported Starke, said the unity vote was “like a bad breakup” for moderates in the party.

She said she would see what the UCP was like down the road but wouldn’t be involved in its creation.

“It’s too far right from what I’ve seen and the tone is way too negative,” said Garner.

But Kenney, known as a red-meat conservative in Ottawa, reiterated that he doesn’t want to build a “narrow ideological enterprise” as he appealed to both Tories and Wildrose who had voted against the agreement.

“We need you. We want you in the United Conservative Party,” he said.

“If you have concerns about what the new party will end up standing for, then, please, the best way to express that concern is through your active involvement.”

— With files from The Canadian Press

jwood@postmedia.com

The day of decision for conservative unity in Alberta began with the airing of dramatically different views among Wildrose members about what joining with the Progressive Conservatives will mean.

Wildrose is holding a special general meeting in Red Deer Saturday to vote on the party’s unity deal with the Tories, with members also able to cast their votes remotely by telephone or online.

The unity agreement needs 75 per cent of the vote from Wildrose members to be approved.

In the livestreamed hour-and-a-half of debate that began the meeting in Red Deer, those backing the deal outnumbered those opposed, but there were passionate feelings expressed on both sides of the issue.

“Make no mistake, this is not a merger. This is a takeover by the PC party,” said Eugene Eklund, a Wildrose member from the Whitecourt-Ste. Anne riding.

“The PC party does not want us. All they want is our vote so they can win again.”

We have a team of reporters and columnists covering the vote live, follow along here:

Alberta has seen a conservative civil war over the last decade between the Tories, who governed the province for more than four decades, and the Wildrose, which has been powered by distaste over PC fiscal practices and a streak of social conservatism.

But the shock election that saw the NDP rise to power in 2015 spurred talk of conservative unification.

Former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney won the PC leadership in March on a platform of joining the two parties together. Negotiating teams appointed by Kenney and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean hammered out a deal in May for members of each party to form a new United Conservative Party.

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Norman Wiebe, a Wildrose member from Red Deer in favour of the agreement, said there shouldn’t be fear of joining with the PCs.

“The PC party is just a shell of what it once was. We’ve been recruiting conservative-minded people out of the PC party for years,” he said at the meeting.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re just about to eat their lunch. This is not a PCAA takeover of the Wildrose, it’s quite the opposite.”

Wildrose MLA Grant Hunter echoed many of the speakers at the event when he said Wildrose members can ensure the party’s principles are continued by showing up for the new UCP’s leadership race, founding convention and constituency association events.

Another recurring theme at the meeting was that conservative unification is necessary to ensure the defeat of Rachel Notley’s NDP government.

“Vote yes for this please, for our children’s sakes and our grandchildren’s sake,” said Hunter.

Gord Elliott, who will serve on the new UCP board if it’s approved, said the unity deal isn’t perfect.

“But it’s one I can live with moving forward,” he said.

But a member from Edmonton-McClung, Jake Turner, compared reuniting with the PCs to dating an ex.

“It sounds fun at first but it might go off the rails after a while,” he said.

Voting closes for Wildrose at 4 p.m.

PC members have been voting online and by telephone since Thursday, with their polls closing at 6 p.m. That party requires only a simple majority for the deal to be approved.

jwood@postmedia.com

With more than 50,000 Progressive Conservative members signed up to cast a ballot, even some Tories leery of the party’s unity deal with the Wildrose fully expect it will be approved by PC members in next week’s vote.

Midnight Thursday was the deadline for Albertans to buy a membership in the party in order to be eligible to vote on the unity agreement, which, if passed by PC and Wildrose members, will see the creation of a new United Conservative Party.

Jason Kenney — who left federal politics last year to run for the Tory leadership on a platform of uniting the Tories with the Wildrose — said in an interview Thursday the party has sold approximately 18,000 memberships since the unity agreement was announced in May.

While no final count is available, the party ranks now number more than 50,000, he said.

“There was a deluge in the past few days,” said Kenney.

“It suggests huge momentum and interest in the unity proposal. Obviously, not every one of those new members is going to be voting for the agreement but it does show enormous interest in the process.”

Read our continuing coverage of Alberta’s “unite the right” vote

The Wildrose Party said Thursday its membership stood at over 43,000 following its earlier Sunday cut-off for sales. With each party allowing its members to hold memberships in another party, both Kenney and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean have urged supporters to buy both PC and Wildrose memberships.

There is no information available on how much overlap there is in the membership numbers for each party.

The PCs need only a simply majority in the online and phone vote the party will hold from July 20 to 22 for the unity deal to be approved. Wildrose requires 75 per cent support from its members who are in person or participating remotely at a July 22 special meeting in Red Deer for the deal to go ahead.

In an interview earlier this week, former PC premier Dave Hancock said he had little doubt the deal would be approved by Tory members.

“The people who’ve been engaged with this have been working very hard to ensure that it’s successful,” said Hancock, a longtime Tory cabinet minister who served as premier on an interim basis in 2014 after the resignation of Alison Redford.

“There’s nobody out there recruiting people to vote against it that I’ve seen. But there are lots of people out recruiting people to vote for it. So I have to presume they’re going to manage to be successful.”

Hancock would not say how he will vote on the unity question but said joining with the Wildrose was “a very difficult piece for someone like me to imagine.”

“They spent a lot of time attacking our integrity and our commitment to the province and that sort of thing, and it became very personal,” he said.

Hancock said that if the UCP goes ahead, he will be watching to see if there is an attempt to reach out to those, like himself, on the progressive end of the PC party.

While Kenney has talked about building a big-tent, free-enterprise coalition, Hancock said he’s seen little outreach from him since he became PC leader in March.

“The focus has been more on the uniting process and that’s been looking right, not centre,” he said.

“Maybe that’s a natural thing, but it has left a bit of a void for those who consider themselves to be in the centre.”

Hancock said that’s resulted in the departure of some longtime Tories from the party, and the efforts of some, such as former party president Katherine O’Neill, to develop a stronger “centrist” alternative to the UCP ahead of the 2019 election.

But Kenney said Thursday he’s always been clear that he conceives a united party as recreating the broad coalition that existed under Tory premiers Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed, which had room for all parts of the conservative spectrum.

“We need the involvement of folks, including those who define themselves as ‘progressive’ conservatives,” he said.

“I don’t know what else to say, the invitation is wide open.”

Kenney has repeatedly said that healing the decade-old divide between conservatives in the province will guarantee the defeat of Rachel Notley’s NDP government.

But NDP Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier, who won his Whitecourt-Ste. Anne constituency by fewer than 500 votes in what was close to a three-way split between the NDP, Wildrose and PCs, said Thursday he isn’t losing sleep over the effect of a united right at this point.

“I still think it’s too early to tell,” he said, suggesting the NDP retained more support than conservatives believe.

“The voters are never wrong and if they choose to go wherever they choose, then the more power to them. But I’m going to continue concentrating on what I hope is doing the best job I can.”

jwood@postmedia.com

While political watchers are focused on whether the deal to unite the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives will actually go ahead, some potential candidates to lead the hypothetical new party are trying to garner attention with dramatic policy proposals.

Doug Schweitzer, the Calgary lawyer who has already announced he will run for the leadership of the new United Conservative Party, called last week for massive cuts to Alberta’s corporate and personal income tax rates, as well as the elimination of the province’s carbon levy.

The tax policy comes on top of Schweitzer’s earlier plan to slash salaries of public sector workers across the board.

Meanwhile, Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who is mulling a run for leadership of the UCP on a libertarian platform, put out a news release last week called “Rolling Back the Nanny State” that suggested easing provincial rules on alcohol licensing, flavoured tobacco and helmet use on ATVs.

Lethbridge College political scientist Faron Ellis said both Fildebrandt and Schweitzer will need to build up their profiles and stake out their territory in a potential leadership contest where Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney have already made clear they intend to run.

“There’s no doubt that any candidate is going to have to put in more time gaining name recognition — and from there, support — than is either Jean or Kenney,” said Ellis this week.

“They have a very healthy head start.”

Wildrose members will vote at a special meeting in Red Deer on July 22 whether to approve the agreement that would create the United Conservative Party, with 75 per cent the threshold for success. Tories will vote July 20-22 whether to ratify the deal, with a simple majority sufficient for it to be approved.

Ellis said the policy proposals of Schweitzer and Fildebrandt shed further light on what shape the proposed new UCP will take.

“It’s dedicated to being a more fiscally conservative party than certainly the PCs were … Wildrose never got a chance to prove whether it was going to live up to its pronouncements,” he said.

While Schweitzer has positioned himself as a moderate on social issues, his fiscal stance is firmly on the right, said Ellis.

His policy includes eliminating the current progressive income tax rates between 10 to 15 per cent for those making over $100,000, reducing their rate to a flat 10 per cent. Schweitzer would reduce the tax rate for those making under $100,000 from 10 per cent to nine per cent, while corporate rates would be cut from 12 to 10 per cent.

The longtime PC says he would pay for the tax cuts in part by chopping wages and benefits for all public sector workers making under $120,000 by three per cent. Those making over that level would see a six per cent cut.

“Lowering both personal income and corporate taxes, while holding the line on new spending is critical to stimulating our economy, ensuring Alberta’s finances are in order, and getting Albertans back to work,” Schweitzer said in a news release.

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• Kenney has no fear of disgruntled liberal Tories in Alberta Party
• Fildebrandt's United Liberty movement takes aim at 'vanilla conservatism'
• Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt launches 'United Liberty' group

Ellis said that while Schweitzer may be establishing his fiscal conservative bona fides with his policy measures, it’s a high-risk strategy because it could make him less palatable as an alternative to Jean and Kenney.

Fildebrandt, meanwhile, in his first policy pronouncement, is taking aim at areas such as liquor laws, which he said should be loosened around bar closing times and consumption on public property and at festivals.

The Strathmore-Brooks MLA also affirmed his support for legal marijuana and for lifting restrictions on flavoured tobacco aimed at adults. Fildebrandt also said a blanket requirement for ATV riders to wear helmets is “not reasonable.”

“It is not the legitimate role of government to protect self-sufficient adults from themselves,” he said in his release.

jwood@postmedia.com

Alberta Progressive Conservatives will vote online or by phone over three days in July to decide whether to merge with the Wildrose Party.

The PC party announced on the weekend that members will vote between July 20 and July 22 whether to ratify the agreemen t with Wildrose that would create a new “United Conservative Party.”

Voting will be done either online or by telephone and Tories will receive personal identification numbers to allow them to cast their ballots.

There is a July 12 cutoff for Albertans to buy or renew PC memberships to be eligible to vote.

For the deal to be approved, 50 per cent plus one of Tories must vote to ratify the agreement. In contrast, the agreement needs 75 per cent approval from Wildrose members at a special meeting to be held July 22.

Wildrose has not yet released the details of its voting plan. But the party is expected to use electronic voting at the site of the meeting in Red Deer, while also allowing members unable to attend in person the ability to log-in to the meeting remotely and vote.

jwood@postmedia.com

Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt is taking aim at “vanilla conservatism” but says he’s pushing an inclusive brand of politics.

The Strathmore-Brooks MLA, who is contemplating a run for the leadership of the potential new United Conservative Party if it’s goes forward, announced Thursday he was launching a new group called United Liberty .

The organization is dedicated to what Fildebrandt calls “liberty conservatism” — a libertarian stance that calls for minimizing the role of government in both the economic and social spheres.

Fildebrandt said the group will advocate for Wildrose and Progressive Conservative members to support the creation of the new UCP when members of each party vote on July 22 and will advocate for “bold” policies that contrast to “vanilla conservatism.”

United Liberty would also support Fildebrandt if he chooses to run for UCP leader and endorse candidates for nomination, said the MLA.

While the push may seem opposed to the plan for a big tent United Conservative Party, Fildebrandt said a focus on individual freedom can cut across traditional divides, such as those between the PCs and Wildrose, Red Tories and social conservatives.

“We have no ideological litmus test,” he said Friday.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, Tory Leader Jason Kenney and Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer have all indicated they will run for leadership of the UCP if it’s approved.

Fildebrandt endorsed Jean for the Wildrose leadership in 2015 but the two have had a rocky relationship at times since they were both elected as MLAs in that year’s provincial election.

Jean called Fildebrandt a “passionate and ambitious young man” on Friday but said he wouldn’t specifically comment on the United Liberty launch.

However, he said it would be “extremely troubling to actually have borders on what a conservative is in the province” ahead of the formation of the new party.

jwood@postmedia.com

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said Tuesday the deal to join his party and the Progressive Conservatives into a new United Conservative Party can’t be changed, despite growing unrest within Wildrose ranks over details of the agreement.

The president of the Wildrose party, Jeff Callaway, told Postmedia this week that there is increasing concern within the party over provisions that would see the Wildrose and PC leaders appoint the members of the new party’s interim joint board, policy committee, nomination committee and leadership committee.

Those concerns could be enough to sink the deal in the July 22 ratification vote, which requires 75 per cent approval from Wildrose members at a special meeting, said Callaway, adding that the provisions give Jean a leg up in the leadership race that will be immediately underway if the UCP is approved.

But speaking to reporters Tuesday, Jean said those details were hammered out by the negotiating team from each party and that neither he nor Tory Leader Jason Kenney were at the table during the talks.

He said he had wanted the board and committee positions to be elected, but each of the leaders are bound to honour the details of the deal.

“We need to follow through with those terms of the agreement. I understand that was part of the agreement in order to get an agreement,” Jean said after speaking at the Global Petroleum Show.

“I believe in unity and I hope that people don’t put obstacles in the place of unity.”

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• Kenney speaks to party faithful about unity plans
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• Braid: Fundraising PACs are a major force in conservative race

But Callaway said Tuesday that the idea of appointing the board and committee positions came from Jean’s leadership team.

The party president said the wording of the agreement doesn’t need to be changed. Rather, Jean should simply commit to appointing board and committee members who are elected by the party’s executive committee, said Callaway.

“It’s becoming a bit of a germ that can fester and grow, and it’s important that it be dealt with quickly and immediately because it is the absolute primary objection to this deal,” he said.

“I support this deal. I want it to pass. We can address this simply and Brian can agree to it simply as well, and we’re off to the races.”

Other prominent Wildrose members are also chiming in on the issue.

The Strathmore-Brooks constituency association recently passed a resolution calling for the positions to be elected by the Wildrose executive committee, not appointed by the leader.

Derek Fildebrandt, the Wildrose MLA for the riding, tweeted that doing so “will help us get a ‘yes’ vote on July 22.”

Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes said in an interview that the current provisions are a significant stumbling block for a large number of Wildrose members, many of whom were already skeptical about the unity plan.

While he’s prepared to hold his nose and support the deal at this point, Barnes would have liked to have seen a longer period of grassroots consultation to develop the new party before immediately moving into a leadership race.

“The leaders are saying, ‘trust us, trust us to get this right’ . . . have these two earned the trust?’” said Barnes, who believes the level of opposition within Wildrose might be enough to kill the deal if the vote was held today.

Lee Eddy, president of Wildrose’s Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency association, said party members in his riding are evenly split on the deal — with the leader’s power over boards and committees the major problem.

He, too, wants Jean to commit to appointing board members elected by the party executive.

“I’d be voting no, but if Brian came out with that I would switch my vote to yes,” said Eddy.

While the Wildrose must have three-quarters support for the deal to go forward, the Tories require a simple majority vote by its members.

Blaise Boehmer, spokesman for Kenney, said in an email that while some Tories have sought clarification about the leaders’ appointment powers in the new deal, no concerns have been raised by PC members.

He said there are no plans to change the wording of the agreement but “Mr. Jean is welcome to delegate his authority to anyone he chooses, and that would not require an amendment.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Jason Kenney says he’s concerned by what drove the surge of support for the Labour party in Thursday’s British election and he sees some parallels with what happened in Alberta in the 2015 provincial vote that brought the NDP to power.

The Progressive Conservative Leader spoke at a local Tory constituency association fundraiser Friday evening and was asked by a crowd member about the British campaign, which saw a loss of seats by the Conservative government and a hung parliament with no majority party.

Kenney said he was disturbed that Labour under the “unapologetically socialist” Jeremy Corbyn — “the most radically left-wing leader in the history of the Labour party ” — took over 40 per cent of the vote in the United Kingdom.

“It disconcerts me deeply that there are I think a number of first-time voters … who have not experienced economic deprivation or adversity and have no historical memory of it or knowledge of the catastrophic failure of socialism in the last century,” he told the crowd of about 75 people gathered at the University of Calgary.

“And who have been able to take for granted being born into the highest standard of living in all of human history and have little or no economic literacy and seem to think that wealth comes from a metaphorical ATM, and that when politicians offer free stuff you vote for it and you get it. ”

“I think we saw a little bit of that in May of 2015 here and sadly, I think we see a lot of young Albertans who since then have been mugged by economic reality.”

Kenney said Alberta NDP policies such as a tuition freeze and a $15 minimum wage look attractive to young voters but damage the economy and leave them struggling to find a job.

He said conservatives need to do a better job of selling the benefits and principles of their policies to youth, and a unified conservative government is needed to reverse NDP policies that hurt the economy.

In May, Kenney and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean unveiled a deal to join their members together in a new United Conservative Party.

Tories and Wildrosers will vote on July 22 whether to give the go-ahead to the agreement. The PCs require only 50 per cent plus one in a party-wide referendum but Wildrose needs 75 per cent approval from members at a special meeting.

While much work needs to be done, Kenney said he expects both parties’ membership will strongly endorse the deal, with the biggest hurdles being skepticism among some Wildrose members and complacency among Tories.

He’s encouraging Albertans to buy a membership in whichever of the two conservative parties they like best — or join both the PCs and Wildrose — to vote for the unity agreement.

“A lot of conservatives realize we’re probably going to end up in the same party anyway and they want to make sure we get to yes on both sides. If people are comfortable I think it’s perfectly legitimate because the two parties … have no major disagreement,” he said.

Both Jean and Kenney have indicated they will run for the leadership of the UCP, as has Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer.

In the crowd at the event was Wildrose MLA Grant Hunter, who said he was in Calgary and decided to stop by to hear Kenney speak.

The Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA said he won’t endorse anyone in the leadership race until there’s an actual party, but he’s confident Wildrose members will back the deal.

“I think we’re going to do it,” he said.

jwood@postmedia.com

The United Conservative Party doesn’t actually exist yet, but the race for its leadership is starting to heat up.

After announcing his run to become leader of the proposed new party last week, Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer spoke to more than 120 people at a formal launch on Tuesday.

The political action committee backing Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, meanwhile, confirmed it has hired a firm to spearhead social media efforts and voter outreach, though it says its efforts are currently aimed at passing the deal to unite the PC and Wildrose, not campaigning for the UCP leadership.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney’s camp has also set up its own political action committee, which will first push for ratification of the unity deal and then potentially support Kenney in a leadership race.

Schweitzer, Jean and Kenney have all made clear they intend to run for the UCP leadership, but there will be no formal contest unless the agreement to bring the Wildrose and PCs together is approved by members of each party on July 22.

Schweitzer, 38, said he will campaign for the unity deal over the next month-and-a-half even as he lays out platform items for his campaign.

“We’re going to be outlining what we’re for and how we’re going to turn this around in Alberta,” he said in an interview following his speech at the Kahanoff Conference Centre.

If the unity agreement is ratified by Wildrosers and Tories, a leadership vote will be held Oct. 28. Prospective candidates can’t raise money for their campaigns until a party officially starts the contest.

Schweitzer, who ran Jim Prentice’s 2014 PC leadership campaign, said that after consulting with Elections Alberta, his activities before the campaign start will be conducted through a non-profit organization.

In his speech, Schweitzer said he was “tired of the rhetoric” that comes from both the left and “hard right” in the province. He said that while the NDP government has mismanaged Alberta’s economy and finances, conservatives can’t just offer simplistic solutions.

The new party must be able to confront complex issues such as the environment, said Schweitzer.

“I’m tired of going into conservative circles and having to whisper things like, ‘I believe in man-made climate change,’ ” he said.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt on Tuesday said Schweitzer will face a big challenge as a moderate, relatively unknown candidate squaring off against conservative heavyweights Jean and Kenney.

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But one advantage Schweitzer does have is being able to openly campaign for the leadership, he said.

Bratt said there’s no doubt that Kenney and Jean are already actively running, but they have to be less “blatant” in their approach.

If the two leaders criticized each other on the campaign trail, that “would be disastrous for the unity vote,” said Bratt.

“So they have to be very careful here,” he said.

David Yager — chair of the Alberta Fund, a political action committee set up to support Jean in a leadership race — said there is little activity around the UCP leadership race and the organization has been “repurposed for the effort to win the (unity) vote.”

“Our main focus is just winning that vote on July 22,” said Yager.

The Alberta Fund has hired an Ontario firm, Campaign Support, to serve as the “mechanics” handling voter identification and social media efforts, said Yager.

Campaign Support is the affiliated direct market company of the firm Campaign Research. That company has been controversial due to one of its principals, Nick Kouvalis, who was a key architect of Kellie Leitch’s “Canadian values” campaign for the federal Conservative leadership before he resigned after insulting an academic on Twitter.

Yager said Kouvalis had no involvement with the Alberta Fund’s activities. The fund has been working with Richard Ciano, a former president of the Ontario PC party and adviser to Leitch’s campaign who is a principal in Campaign Research.

Blaise Boehmer, a spokesman for Kenney, said Tuesday that the “Alberta Victory Fund” political action committee had been created by Kenney backers to help “get to yes on unity.”

He confirmed that staff and vendors had been hired and that the fund will likely transition to a leadership organization for Kenney if the unity agreement is approved.

jwood@postmedia.com

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said Tuesday that the time for a unity deal with the Progressive Conservatives is now, while Wildrose is in a position of strength.

Earlier this month, Jean and PC Leader Jason Kenney announced that negotiators from each party had agreed on a deal to form a new “United Conservative Party.”

The deal will need 50 per cent approval by Tories but Wildrose members will need to back the deal at a level of 75 per cent support in an annual general meeting for it to go ahead.

At a local party event dubbed “Let’s Work it Out,” Jean told reporters he’s faced “tough questions” about the unification deal but he’s offering assurances to his members the agreement provides a “mirror image” of Wildrose’s constitution, bylaws and founding principles.

“This is a tremendous opportunity,” he told the crowd at Jubilations Dinner Theatre.

“If we’re going to unite some time these two parties, if we’re going to unite some time in the next 20 years, I think this is the time because Wildrose, because of you, is strong and they are weak.”

Jean said the “secret weapon” in the deal is that current Tories would have more rights as party members in the new party than they do now. He thanked the Tories who were in the room, including PC negotiating team member Sonia Kont and former MLA Christine Cusanelli, for being open-minded to the new party.

While he expects PC members to easily approve the agreement, Jean said the 75 per cent threshold for Wildrose is “the biggest hurdle we have” and he is working hard to sell Wildrose memberships.

“Ultimately, we believe the more Albertans that participate, the more likely unity is to happen. That is the biggest challenge in front of us right now.”

The Wildrose website says a special meeting has been scheduled for Red Deer on July 22. James Cole, a member of the party’s executive and its unity negotiating team, told the crowd that there will be provisions for electronic voting for members unable to attend.

The PC dynasty governed Alberta for more than 40 years before the NDP’s shock victory in the 2015 provincial election.

Wildrose was founded nearly a decade ago by conservatives disgruntled by the Tory government’s energy royalty review and big-spending ways

Under the agreement, the old parties would amalgamate as societies but the UCP would be a new party starting from scratch under Elections Alberta rules.

In a question and answer session with the crowd, Jean faced questions about what would happen if the deal narrowly fell through and suggestions that NDP members would join Wildrose to try to sabotage the deal.

Jean said he had seen no evidence so far that was happening.

One Wildrose member in the crowd said there are still lingering questions among some members about why Wildrose would join with a “corrupt” PC party and said he would have liked to see a provision in the deal barring former MLAs from running for the new party’s nominations.

Brandon Swertz, a Wildrose negotiator, responded that the UCP agreement includes the formation of a new nomination committee that will include two Wildrose representatives and two PC representatives.

He said that will keep former Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor to the then-PC government in 2014 from being nominated.

“If you walked the floor on the Wildrose Party in the past, you’re not going to get your nomination,” said Swertz.

A successful unity vote will also kick off a leadership race, with both Jean and Kenney having said they will seek the party’s top job.

The Wildrose leader said he’s not running for the leadership while selling the unity agreement.

“I recognize the fine line. I’m certainly trying to stay on the right side of that line,” he said.

“But I also recognize that if nobody sells this agreement . . . nobody’s going to find out which way they should vote”

Jean brushed off a question about how he and Kenney get along.

“I don’t think that really comes into play here,” said Jean.

“It’s not about relationships between myself and Mr. Kenney, it’s about what my job is.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean says he’s not confident members of his party are ready to support a unification deal with the Progressive Conservatives, as some MLAs warn of concerns within party ranks.

Jean and PC Leader Jason Kenney announced Thursday a tentative agreement to join together in a new “United Conservative Party.”

To go forward, the deal needs to be ratified by members of both parties, with the Tories setting a threshold of 50 per cent plus one for approval. Wildrose, however, requires 75 per cent support from its members at a special meeting for the UCP to go ahead.

“I’m not confident of that and that’s why I’m out making sure,” said Jean, when asked whether the deal has three-quarters support among Wildrose members.

“Some people are not prepared to forgive and forget. Also, a lot of people believe we can go it alone and win.”

Jean noted the unity idea is strong in Calgary but has less support in other areas of the province. He said he’ll campaign hard to win his members over to the plan.

“I don’t want to bring in 75 per cent of my members, I want 99 per cent of them,” said Jean.

Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes said Friday he supports the unity plan at this point, but he and many other Wildrose members will need to be sure when they vote on July 22 that the new party will carry on Wildrose’s values and be truly conservative.

“Parts of this agreement, there’s still a lot of work for Albertans and fiscally conservative Albertans to get involved and make sure the United Conservative Party comes out in the way it should,” said Barnes, one of five Wildrose MLAs who stayed with the party during a mass floor-crossing to the then-PC government in 2014.

“I’m there, but I want to make sure that the next 60 days it stays on track. Albertans everywhere have told me they’re in favour of conservative unity, but they do not want to reinvent a wasteful, entitled PC party as they had become at the end of their tenure.”

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The PC dynasty governed Alberta for more than 40 years before the NDP’s shock victory in the 2015 provincial election. Wildrose was founded nearly a decade ago by conservatives disgruntled by the Tory government’s energy royalty review and big-spending ways.

Kenney won the PC leadership with about 75 per cent of the vote on a platform to unite with the Wildrose, so the PCs’ 50 per cent plus one threshold to merge may be less of a challenge. Nonetheless, Kenney spoke cautiously on Friday about the potential for his members to support the new agreement.

“We can’t take anything for granted. I think the key is to give people enough time to actually read the agreement, to jaw over it, to talk about it at Coffee Row, to have town halls and respond to their questions,” said Kenney.

“Let them come to their own decision. I’m sure for the vast majority, the decision will be yes.”

Barnes, who finished second to Jean in the party’s 2015 leadership race, said some areas of the agreement that are to be determined after the party is formed — such as the development of the new party’s constitution and the nomination process for potential candidates — could prove to be a stumbling block for some Wildrose members.

Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt, a staunch proponent of the unity plan who is considering a run for the leadership of the united party, acknowledged there are “skeptics” within Wildrose that will need to be won over.

“If there’s a yes side, there will always be a no side,” said the Strathmore-Brooks MLA.

“I certainly expect there will be some who disagree with this. I welcome that disagreement and I hope they’ll make themselves heard and fully participate in the democratic process of this vote. But at the end of the day, I think the overwhelming majority of Wildrose members and voters understand this is the direction we need to go.”

Fildebrandt said “people don’t want a new united party to look like an old Progressive Conservative party,” but he believes the UCP will retain the best of both Wildrose and the Tories.

He said the 75 per cent threshold is necessary given the importance of the decision facing Wildrose members.

“I would not recommend an agreement to our members I didn’t believe could get 75 per cent,” he said.

But Paul Hinman, a former Wildrose leader who helped oversee the party’s merger with the Alberta Alliance, said he’s repeatedly told Jean 75 per cent is much too high.

“I said, ‘Brian, you’re actually going to tell me that 28 per cent, if that’s the number who say we can’t merge, are going to tell 72 per cent what to do?’ . . . I don’t think that’s democratic and you know darn well that 72 per cent will leave.”

Many Wildrose MLAs are confident the deal will go through. Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt, who will support Jean in a leadership race for the combined party, held three town halls where she asked her constituents if they support a merger. She says her constituents overwhelmingly support the idea. Don Macintyre, who represents Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, also thinks there’s enough support to hit 75 per cent.

“I’m confident that we will reach it. Is it going to be straightforward? I really don’t know. We have a very large membership and, as with any grassroots movement, everyone has an opinion.”

— With files from Rick Bell

jwood@postmedia.com

zschwartz@postmedia.com

As the Progressive Conservative board meets this weekend for the first time since the party’s March leadership convention, there will be a number of empty places around the table.

The party confirmed this week that five board members have resigned since Jason Kenney won the party leadership nearly two months ago on a platform of uniting the PCs with the Wildrose in a new party.

Connor Turner, Kim Krushell, Stephanie Shostak, Bud James and Jordan Lien have stepped down as directors, with Kenney’s plans for the party a factor in the decisions of some of them.

In an interview this week, Turner said he resigned as a Calgary regional director because he opposed the push for unification with the Wildrose.

“There’s a lot of differences between the PCs and the Wildrose,” he said, citing areas such as social issues. “All the work that was done by the (PC) members and the policy conference seem to have gone out the door and I just don’t like the direction it’s going in anymore.”

Turner said he hasn’t found a new political home but is leaning toward the Alberta Party, which announced this week that former PC party executive director Troy Wason — who resigned the day after Kenney’s leadership victory — was now under contract to review operations.

When Shostak departed from the board last month, she posted on Facebook that she had joined the Alberta Party.

“My values, principles and beliefs are unable to align with the current leadership of PC Alberta,” she wrote.

James said in an email that personal commitments had kept him from putting the time in at the board level but also acknowledged that “politically I am not in the same place as the leader and therefore have resigned.”

The PC website lists 35 current board members.

Katherine O’Neill, who resigned last month as party president, remains a member of the board. She said her resignation was not prompted by Kenney’s victory.

The board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting in Red Deer on Saturday, with one of the items on the agenda being the selection of a replacement for O’Neill to serve until the party’s annual general meeting in November.

Kenney declined an interview request to speak about the board resignations, with a spokesman saying in an email that he would not comment on “internal party matters.”

But PC party interim executive director Janice Harrington said the departures from the board are not unusual.

“I’m surprised it’s only six,” she said, counting O’Neill.

“It’s normal after any leadership (election) for there to be a change in board members, especially board members who supported different candidates than the person who won. But I know there was a few who left for very personal reasons.”

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Harrington said there have also been resignations of some PC constituency association presidents, but she did not have a number.

A unity discussion group of representatives of both the PC and Wildrose parties continues to hold talks. Under a deadline set when the group was formed, it is supposed to report back to members by Friday.

Kenney, known as a strong social and fiscal conservative during his time as a federal MP, has said he wants to build a broad coalition that will include moderates. However, he has also said he expected some PC members would leave if he took the party helm .

Krushell, a former Edmonton city councillor, said she stepped down from the board for family reasons.

But she said that as a member of the progressive wing of the PC party she will be watching how Kenney proceeds as leader.

“I think whoever the party is that’s going to win power, they have to demonstrate they are in the centre,” said Krushell. “The question is right now, what does that look like?”

Lien could not be reached for comment.

jwood@postmedia.com

As talks around conservative unification head toward their initial deadline, Brian Jean says he’s still behind the idea a new united party should be built on Wildrose’s legal framework.

Jean, the Wildrose leader, and Jason Kenney, the new Progressive Conservative leader, agreed in March to form a discussion group with representatives of each party, who were to report back to members in four to six weeks.

This Friday will mark six weeks since the group, which does not include Jean or Kenney, was named.

Speaking to reporters at the legislature Tuesday, Jean downplayed the looming target.

“We were quite flexible in relationship to the timeline … this is in the range,” he said.

“We’re very hopeful, we’re very positive right now and we’re looking forward to their work being completed and an agreement being put toward our members. We’re certainly not going to rush something so quickly as to do it wrong.”

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Jean said in January he was behind the idea of pursuing unity of the two right-of-centre parties — and that he would step down to run for the new entity’s leadership — but with the caveat that “ we must preserve Wildrose’s legal framework as the foundation for a single consolidated conservative party.”

He said at the time it made sense for PC members to join Wildrose, which would likely be rebranded, since it had more assets and a better constitution.

Jean said Tuesday he still believes Wildrose should serve as the legal structure for the new entity.

“I think that’s the way it will be best accepted by our members,” he said. “Ultimately, I do believe that structure protects the members of the new entity, even if they are, for instance, previous PC members or previous other members from other political parties.”

Wildrose later issued a clarification, saying that Jean was referring to Wildrose’s incorporation under the Societies Act, as opposed to the PC’s unincorporated status.

“That type of structure should be preserved,” said Jean in a statement.

“I trust the work of the unity discussion group and the wisdom of the members to decide the future of our party and the Wildrose team, and I remain committed to negotiating in good faith and not through the media in public.”

Kenney, who won the PC leadership in March on a platform of uniting the two parties, declined an interview request but issued a statement.

“Progress is being made on a prospective unity agreement. I will not be negotiating in public, as that would be counter-productive. My commitment is to achieving a unity agreement that will win the support of a strong majority of members of both parties.”

— With files from Emma Graney

jwood@postmedia.com

A merger of the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties would be complicated but legal, says a group of lawyers dubbing themselves the Alberta Conservative Consolidation Committee.

Elections Alberta has said there is no legal mechanism to merge provincial political parties and provincial law forbids transferring assets between two parties.

However, in a memorandum released Monday, the lawyers said the two parties could legally amalgamate as registered societies or non-profit corporations — similar to a corporate merger — in a move the group says would allow the parties to keep and combine their assets as a single entity.

“We have concluded a merger can be done,” said spokesman Andy Crooks, a former chair of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and signatory to the famed Alberta “firewall” letter.

“Moreover, it is our opinion it can be done without the consent of the chief electoral officer of Elections Alberta.”

Other lawyers on the committee include PC board member and Kenney supporter Tyler Shandro, former Wildrose candidate Richard Jones, Rick Breen and Julia Loney. Former Wildrose president David Yager, who is not a lawyer, is involved as an organizer of the group.

Jason Kenney pledged on his first full day as Progressive Conservative leader to move full speed ahead on his plan to unite the Tories with the Wildrose in a new party.

A day after winning the leadership with 75 per cent support from delegates at the party’s leadership convention, the former Conservative cabinet minister met with the party board on Sunday.

“I look forward to moving quickly with the mandate I have to pursue unity,” Kenney told reporters following the meeting.

Kenney will meet Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in Edmonton on Monday. He said he hopes to have negotiators appointed by each party in short order to begin talks on uniting.

He will not immediately seek a seat in the legislature and will leave former interim leader Ric McIver in place to lead the party in the house. In the meantime, though, Kenney will encourage the PCs and Wildrose to begin co-operating in the legislative assembly.

Elections Alberta says provincial parties are not legally allowed to merge, so Kenney is advocating a new party through a deal ratified by each party’s membership. Under his plan, the united party would select a new leader in early 2018, just over a year before the next provincial election is scheduled.

Jean — who phoned Kenney to congratulate him Saturday — has backed the conservative unity concept but has said it should be done with Wildrose as the legal framework.

Kenney reiterated Sunday there can be no preconditions on the table in negotiation, and that he will lead the PC party into the next election if an agreement can’t be reached.

“I believe that voters in Alberta are going to punish any party that obstructs unity amongst free-enterprisers,” said Kenney.

“So if a unity agreement ends up being vetoed by either party, that will send a strong message to voters about which direction to go.”

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Kenney’s victory marks a sea change for the Tories, who governed Alberta for more than four decades before losing to the NDP in 2015. Some PCs have said they will leave the party because they don’t like the idea of uniting with Wildrose or out of concern that Kenney will move the party to the right, especially on social issues.

But Kenney said there was no pushback from PC directors. A motion to consider disqualification of Kenney for damaging the party’s brand that had been launched weeks before the leadership convention was not put on the agenda.

“Everyone seemed to come together behind our new leader,” PC party president Katherine O’Neill told reporters.

“After a leadership race there’s a lot of emotion, a lot of anxiety. But you could tell around that table today that people want to work with our new leader, that there are a lot of unanswered questions still but people want to be at the table helping us move to that next step.”

However, PC party executive director Troy Wason — who had opposed Kenney’s unity plan — did tender his resignation Sunday morning.

“It is sad. But I’m not tearing up my membership card tomorrow. I’m going to see how it goes,” said Wason, who admitted to skepticism about Kenney’s stated commitment to a “big tent” party.

“I’m not sure the will is there to bring everyone together.”

Kenney won 1,113 votes out of 1,476 ballots cast by delegates to the PC party’s first delegated convention since 1985. Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke finished second with 323 votes and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson took 40 votes.

In his convention speech, Starke warned Tories about the logistical difficulties of unifying and the risks of linking the party with the Wildrose, citing a number of past and present controversies for that party.

Starke, along with other members of the PC caucus, attended the Sunday board meeting. He said he’s hopeful Kenney will reach out to centrists and progressives in the party.

“He certainly indicated that in his acceptance speech. I take him at his word,” said Starke.

Kenney vowed in his Saturday victory speech that his win was the beginning of the end for Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP government and promised that the period after the 2019 provincial election would be a “summer of repeal,” devoted to getting rid of “each element of the disastrous NDP legislative and regulatory record.”

He has already pledged to repeal the NDP’s signature carbon tax and farm-safety legislation, which requires agricultural operations to carry Workers’ compensation coverage for employees.

On Sunday, he faced questions of whether he would also reverse other NDP actions, such as the banning of union and corporate donations, or guidelines for protecting LGBTQ students in Alberta schools.

But Kenney said his repeal promise is aimed at policies that he believes damage Alberta’s economy, and will include lowering tax rates when possible and reversing NDP electrical system policy.

“This is not a carte blanche repeal of everything that they’ve done,” he said.

Jason Kenney’s positions

With Jason Kenney sweeping to victory in the Progressive Conservative leadership on a platform of uniting the party with the Wildrose, other policy areas have been given short shrift throughout the six-month campaign. Kenney has said he wants members of the hypothetical new party to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to making policy, but the former MP has put forth some markers.

• Carbon tax — Kenney has been most definitive on the NDP government’s carbon levy, which came into effect on Jan. 1. He has vowed that if he becomes premier he will scrap the tax and launch a legal challenge against federal carbon pricing. When it comes to fighting climate change, he has suggested he likes Alberta’s levy on large greenhouse gas emitters, introduced by the former PC government.
• Education — Kenney has attacked the NDP government’s curriculum review as an attempt at “radical social engineering.” He wants a back-to-basics approach to teaching literacy and numeracy and has called for strengthening of standardized testing.
• Health — Kenney wants to bring more competition into provincial health care, with an expansion of the role of private clinics to provide certain services within the publicly-funded system.
• Agriculture — Kenney has pledged to repeal the NDP government’s Bill 6 farm safety legislation, which requires agriculture operations to have WCB coverage for their employees.

jwood@postmedia.com

Most Albertans are in favour of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties joining together, according to a new poll that also shows both of those parties more popular than the governing NDP.

The Mainstreet Research survey conducted for Postmedia shows 54 per cent support among respondents for merging the two parties, with 37 per cent opposed.

The support is highest among PC voters, at 72 per cent, while 65 per cent of Wildrose supporters were in favour of bringing the two parties together.

Mainstreet president Quito Maggi said that with former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney pushing the idea of uniting the right as a PC leadership candidate and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean declaring himself open to the idea , conservative unification is seen as increasingly desirable.

“The longer that goes on, the more the general population becomes comfortable with that notion,” he said in an interview.

Maggi said the slightly lesser amount of support for unity among Wildrose supporters compared to Tories may spring from Wildrose’s anti-establishment roots.

“I think the PC supporters are more establishment, they’ve been in government a long time and they’re looking forward to getting back there,” he said.

“It’s more of a pragmatic opinion.”

The poll shows Wildrose as the most popular party in the province, with 38 per cent support among leaning and decided voters, followed by the PCs at 29 per cent and the NDP at 23 per cent.

The Liberals and Alberta Party each have five per cent support provincewide.

But the major variance at the regional level scrambles the picture of what would happen in an election.

In Calgary, the Tories are ahead at 38 per cent support, followed by the NDP at 26 per cent and Wildrose at 22 per cent. In Edmonton, the NDP has a wide lead at 43 per cent, compared to 26 per cent for the Wildrose and 21 per cent for the PCs.

Wildrose dominates in the rest of Alberta, with 48 per cent support, while the Tories come in at 27 per cent and the NDP at a mere 16 per cent support.

“Wildrose have a lead, but it’s largely based on a huge lead outside the two major urban centres,” said Maggi.

“It’s really three Albertas . . . how that plays out in terms of seats, it’s really, really hard to say.”

Maggi noted there will be a redistribution of the province’s 87 legislature seats before the next election in 2019, likely furthering the power shift to urban centres.

In more sour news for the NDP, Premier Rachel Notley’s performance was disapproved of by 57 per cent of respondents, compared to 37 per cent approval.

Jean, in contrast, had an approval rating of 64 per cent, with only 22 per cent disapproving of his performance as Opposition leader.

The Wildrose leader recently came out in favour of forming a single conservative party if it was approved by members and said he would step down to contest the leadership of the new party if it goes ahead.

Jean could end up squaring off against Kenney, who has pushed conservative unity on to the provincial agenda in his run for the PCs’ top job.

The poll shows Kenney as the favourite for the PC crown among Albertans, with 32 per cent support compared to rivals Richard Starke at six per cent and Byron Nelson at three per cent. The tally among PC voters has Kenney at 61 per cent, with 11 per cent for Starke and six per cent for Nelson.

Kenney was viewed favourably by 41 per cent of those surveyed, while 32 per cent had an unfavourable opinion of the former federal cabinet minister.

Most Albertans don’t know the other two candidates, with 81 per cent of respondents saying they were unfamiliar with Nelson, a Calgary lawyer , and 63 per cent unfamiliar with Starke, the MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster .

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said there is little in the poll that is surprising.

He noted that while there are obstacles to unification — provincial law doesn’t allow official party mergers, so Kenney wants a new party while Jean wants unification to occur with Wildrose as the legal mechanism — but the prospect of a united party is looking likely.

“I thought this was going to be much more difficult before Kenney launched it, but every indication that I’ve seen now is that it’s going to happen,” said Bratt.

The poll also shows strong support for the federal Conservatives in Alberta, with 67 per cent support among leading and decided voters, compared with 24 per cent for the Liberals, six per cent for the NDP and four per cent for the Greens.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a disapproval rate of 58 per cent, while 38 per cent of Albertans approve of his job performance.

Mainstreet polled a random sample of 2,589 Albertans using automated phone calls on Feb. 9 and 10.

The margin of error is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin for Calgary-specific results is 3.28 percentage points and for Edmonton is 3.56 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

jwood@postmedia.com

There’s never a dull moment in conservative politics in Alberta. With the Progressive Conservative leadership in the home stretch and talk of uniting the right in the air, here are five of the latest twists and turns:

1. Good news, bad news

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean shook things up last week when he released a video statement saying that he supports the idea of a single united conservative party and that he would step down to run for leadership of such a party if it’s approved by members.

The news heartened proponents of uniting the provincial right, with Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney — who has been driving the issue for months — saying it opens the door for unification if he wins the Tories’ top job.

But Kenney’s opponents in the leadership race, who want to rebuild the party under the PC brand, say Jean is actually closing off the possibility of unification.

Since provincial law prevents the merger of parties, Jean wants unification to happen with the Wildrose as the legal mechanism, meaning PC members would join his party.

Kenney has called for the formation of a new party — à la the Saskatchewan Party or federal Conservatives — with the approval of both Wildrose and PC members.

Tory leadership candidate Richard Starke said Kenney’s plan calls for the two parties to vote to destroy themselves.

“Brian Jean has made it clear that’s not going to happen,” said Starke.

Parker Hogan, campaign manager for leadership hopeful Byron Nelson, said either unity plan would require the PCs to turn their assets over to Elections Alberta. The PC party estimates the net assets of the party and its constituency associations at over $1 million.

2. Coalition conundrum

On the same day Jean made his announcement, Starke himself pitched the idea of the PCs and Wildrose co-operating, rather than coming together.

That idea faced immediate criticism from Kenney and others that the plan was vague and won’t work.

Starke’s opponents have also suggested that the Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA launched the plan in expectation that Jean would back a similar scheme.

But Starke said the last time he had a one-on-one conversation with Jean was in late November or early December of last year.

“The suggestion we had some sort of a backroom deal cooked up, I would suggest to you … Mr. Jean’s comments last week should put an end to those discussions,” he said. “There was absolutely no deal.”

3. Wildrose thorns

Jean’s video address was saluted by Wildrosers who back a single united party.

But the Wildrose leader’s subsequent comments, where he outlined his plans to have PCs join the Wildrose and laid out an accelerated time frame for the process, caused consternation.

Wildrose insiders who spoke to Postmedia on condition of anonymity were concerned that Jean went further in his remarks than was agreed to by the caucus and executive committee. They worried his conditions could be a poison pill that would sabotage unity talks and suggested he did not have the authority to set terms and handle negotiations.

However, by the end of the week, one Wildrose source who supports conservative unity said he believed the controversy had blown over and they were on the same page again.

Jean declined an interview request this week, but the Opposition caucus said he will roll out “the next step in his unity plan” on Monday.

4. Victory march?

The PC leadership race is being fought in meetings in each of the province’s 87 ridings to select delegates to vote on the new leader at the party’s March 18 convention.

The Kenney campaign caused a stir this week by claiming to have a majority of the elected delegates.

“Huzzah! #uniteAlberta hits the magic number. We’re not done yet,” Kenney spokesman Blaise Boehmer posted on Twitter.

Not so fast, Kenney’s opponents tweeted back.

“They should check their numbers, they haven’t been accurate in weeks. #allhype This is a closer race,” posted Darren Cunningham of Starke’s campaign.

One twist in the race is that delegates are not bound. While they may have been elected because of their stated support of Kenney or Starke or Nelson, they can vote for whomever they like at the convention.

5. Dark Horse

While political observers are already laying odds on a Kenney-Jean battle for the leadership of a new united conservative party, others are wondering if there could be other options.

Some have touted interim federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose as a contender who could bridge the divide between the Wildrose and PC members jammed together in the hypothetical new party.

Asked to comment on the possibility of a foray into provincial politics, Conservative spokesman Mike Storeshaw noted in an email that Ambrose has said she intends to continue as an MP after the Tories select a new leader in May.

“‎Ms. Ambrose is focused as interim Leader of the Official Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, on holding Justin Trudeau to account and standing up for Canadian taxpayers.”

Ambrose, who has publicly supported conservative unification on the provincial level, will be in Calgary next Thursday to speak at an event put on by the Alberta Can’t Wait pro-unity group.

jwood@postmedia.com

The Wildrose is beginning candidate nominations for the next provincial election in 2019 despite potential talks on uniting with the Progressive Conservatives and an ongoing electoral boundary review.

Wildrose party executive director Jeremy Nixon confirmed Monday that at the request of the local constituency association, the party had last week opened the nomination process in Chestermere-Rocky View, a seat currently held by the Wildrose’s Leela Aheer.

A nomination meeting is scheduled for Feb. 25.

“We need to get through 87 nominations and so, we’re going to make sure all of our 87 candidates are in place before the next election so they can get on the ground, and campaign and introduce themselves to their communities,” said Nixon, adding that this would be the first in a series nominations that would be done over the next year-and-a-half.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said last week that members of his party want him to pursue unity with the Progressive Conservatives and, if an agreement can be reached, he is prepared to stand down as leader of Wildrose and run for the top job in a new united party.

Negotiations between the Wildrose and PCs would be predicated on Jason Kenney — the sole Tory leadership candidate running on a platform of merging the two parties — emerging victorious at the party’s convention on March 18.

Nixon said in a statement that if an agreement is approved by the members of each party, “we would expect the issue of completed nominations to be revisited at that time.”

The Wildrose move to begin nominating candidates also comes despite riding boundaries likely being redrawn.

The province’s electoral boundaries commission is currently holding hearings. It will issue a preliminary report in May and a final report in October on how Alberta’s 87 seats should be redistributed and riding borders redrawn.

But Nixon said it’s not unprecedented for parties to begin their work before the boundaries commission completes is done.

“If there are any major changes to the boundaries when the commission is done its work, any outstanding issues will be addressed,” he said.

jwood@postmedia.com

The Progressive Conservative party is likely the strongest it’s been since the Tory dynasty went down to defeat in the 2015 election, with the race for the PC leadership boosting membership and attracting attention from the media and public.

Yet as the campaign heads into the new year — and its climax at March’s leadership convention — the party is perhaps also wracked by deeper divisions than at any moment in its history.

The race has been marked by former Conservative MP Jason Kenney’s call for the PC party to merge with the Wildrose to form a new conservative party — a stance sharply opposed by the other three candidates in the race: Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke, Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson and former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan.

Khan — who has been perhaps the most vocal critic of Kenney among the contenders — said the party that governed Alberta for more than 40 years is facing a moment of truth in 2017.

“I trust we will see more of this as we come out of the Christmas break … people coming back and getting engaged and recognizing that should one candidate win, the PC party ends. It’s over,” said Khan, who suggested Kenney’s vision calls for an “ultraconservative” new party that would leave the Tories’ legacy in the dust.

Kenney, not surprisingly, disagrees with that negative assessment.

He said he’s aiming to reunite the same kind of inclusive conservative coalition that existed under legendary Tory premiers like Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein that has been split asunder into two warring factions for nearly a decade.

“As long as we’re divided, we’re weak,” said Kenney.

For the first time since 1985, the party is using a delegate system to pick its new leader. Tory members will vote for a slate of 15 delegates in each of the province’s 87 ridings, with the leader to be elected at a convention March 18 in Calgary.

There were 29 delegate selection meetings held in November and December, with the rest slated to be held between Jan. 9 and February 16.

“It’s going to feel really crammed with meetings, so the logistics are going to be crazy,” said Nelson.

Kenney said he’s won either a majority or all of the delegates in at least 25 of the 29 meetings held in 2016 and he’s hoping to win big at the convention to show that conservative unity is the product of a “grassroots consensus.”

But the former Calgary Midnapore MP acknowledges he’s been thinking about the split in the PC party, even as he’s focused on the divide between Tories and Wildrose.

“There will be a four-week period between the end of delegate selection meetings and the actual convention,” said Kenney.

“It’s my intention to spend that month reaching out to people from all campaigns and different views in advance of the convention.”

Other candidates in the race have different plans for that period, however.

Starke’s campaign believes it is not that far behind Kenney and the MLA notes that “there are going to be delegates who are going to change their mind between now and March 18.”

“We are very much speaking to the selected delegates and the alternates and that will continue to shift and for that last month … that will be a very concentrated period where we will reach out specifically to elected delegates,” said Starke.

Both Starke and Khan warn that a Kenney victory won’t mean a united party. Even if he succeeds in his attempt to get members of each party to vote in favour of a negotiated merger deal, there will be defectors from both Wildrose and the PCs, they maintain.

The race has had its share of tumult. Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen pulled out as a candidate — and later crossed the floor to the NDP government — citing bullying by supporters of Kenney at the party’s November convention.

A party report into the convention said Jansen had been harassed by some delegates but not at the instigation of another campaign.

The other woman who had been seeking the party leadership, former MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans, dropped out the same day as Jansen, though she said harassment was not the issue. She said she was uncertain there was room for a centrist voice in the party and that she expects Kenney to win.

Kenney’s campaign was also fined $5,000 for running a hospitality suite and having the candidate on site at the first delegate selection meeting, in Edmonton Ellerslie, which was annulled.

Nelson said he believes the party can emerge united after the campaign no matter who wins the leadership but the turmoil has taken a toll.

“I don’t want to have an overall race where the PC brand is negatively affected and I think it’s fair to argue it has been, certainly at times through the first two and a half months of this race.”

“You hope at the end there will be a party to win — I do think there will be.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean says he will soon present a better path forward for conservative unity than a party merger — even as one of his MLAs, Derek Fildebrandt, is calling for his party to amalgamate with the Progressive Conservatives.

The notion of uniting the right has become a key issue in Alberta politics, with former Conservative MP Jason Kenney running for the Tory leadership on a platform of merging the parties.

But Jean told Postmedia Thursday that Kenney’s initiative won’t fly and he intends to present a plan that will actually work.

He provided few details but suggested it could include ways for the Wildrose and PCs to co-operate without a formal merger.

“It has to be something palatable to both sets of members,” said Jean. “And I think that our plan is, quite frankly, much more palatable to both sets of members.”

Jean said a year ago his party was willing to reach out on the grassroots levels to the Tories in an attempt to form a “consolidated conservative coalition.” But he shelved the idea in the spring when the PC convention rejected the merger idea and he has been cool to Kenney’s campaign.

However, Fildebrandt became the first Wildrose MLA to back the merger idea, telling a Whitecourt radio station Wednesday that the public wants the two conservative parties to come together.

“The NDP are too dangerous, they are too ideological, they are too destructive to the future of this province to take chances,” the Strathmore-Brooks MLA told XM1o5.

“I’m willing to put everything I’ve accomplished in politics on the line for this.”

Fildebrandt refused to comment to Postmedia Thursday but a spokesman for the MLA confirmed the story as accurate.

In late afternoon, the Wildrose caucus issued a statement from Fildebrandt saying he stood by his comments, but that they were consistent with what he and Jean have been saying: “That we want to see all conservatives united going into the next election to defeat and replace the NDP.”

Fildebrandt’s Whitecourt remarks echo Kenney, who commended the MLA for endorsing the merger of the “free enterprise parties.”

“There are a lot more MLAs who feel this way,” he said.

Kenney’s agenda involves winning the PC leadership in March, then launching discussions with Wildrose about unifying. If the two sides agree and the party membership votes to approve the terms, a new party would be formed that would then select a leader.

The former MP’s three rivals for the Tory leadership, Richard Starke, Byron Nelson and Stephen Khan, all oppose the merger and want to rebuild the party under the PC brand.

Jean, who spoke to Postmedia before Fildebrandt’s comments were public, suggested Kenney’s plan is “gamesmanship.”

He said it doesn’t add up, especially since Wildrose has been leading in many polls since the 2015 election that brought the NDP to power.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me that we’re going to implode our parties to bring in a new party,” said Jean.

“We have to be very careful. There are so many things that could happen. You know, disillusioned voters could stay home. They could go to a different party.”

Jean said the merger proposal is much more complicated both legally and organizationally than it is being framed by its proponents. Elections Alberta has said there is no legal mechanism for parties to merge, and provincial law forbids one party from transferring assets to another.

Kenney said he did not want to engage with Jean on the issue through the news media but noted that mergers, such as the formation of the federal Conservative party, have overcome greater obstacles and “didn’t settle for half-measures.”

Jean and Fildebrandt have been at odds in the past.

Fildebrandt was briefly suspended from the Wildrose caucus in the spring over his apparent endorsement of a homophobic Facebook post targeting Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne — which the MLA had apologized for and said was inadvertent. The banishment set off a furor among some Wildrose members, and Fildebrandt was reinstated in a matter of days, with a party statement saying he had “fully accepted caucus concerns and criteria.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Tory leadership candidate Stephen Khan warned against the PCs becoming a socially conservative party as the four contenders for the party’s top job gathered in Fort McMurray for a candidates town hall.

The Progressive Conservative leadership race has been defined so far by the question of the future of the party posed by former Conservative MP Jason Kenney, who is running on a platform calling for the merger of the PCs with the more right-leaning Wildrose.

That position is opposed by the other three candidates in the race — Khan, Vermilion-LLoydminister MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson — who have defined themselves as socially progressive and fiscally conservative and called for the party to be rebuilt under the PC brand.

With the debate livestreamed on the party’s Facebook page, Khan, who served as a cabinet minister in the Redford and Prentice governments before losing his St. Albert seat in the 2015 election, said there is a “myth of the Alberta redneck,” when in fact he believes the province is the most accepting in Canada.

“That’s why Progressive Conservatives and the majority of Albertans cannot support the intolerance of a social conservative political party,” he said in his opening statement.

“That’s why the path to success in 2019 will be a strong vibrant PC party.”

Khan later took a run at Kenney, suggesting young voters wouldn’t like his do-nothing approach to climate change or support of an education policy that could lead to the outing of LGBTQ students in schools.

That’s a reference to a controversy at the party’s convention in November, that saw Kenney supporters push through a resolution in committee that appeared to repudiate policy set by the former PC government around gay-straight alliances in schools.

But Kenney said the party needs to be a coalition of many different interests built around core free enterprise principles, just like the federal Conservatives.

“I think it’s wrong for us to use and apply pejorative and ideological labels to marginalize people,” asserted the former Calgary MP, who said that Wildrose members generally are former PC supporters.

“This party has always been a big-tent, broad, diverse, tolerant coalition.”

Nelson — who described himself as a libertarian on social issues — said the PC party has distinguished itself by its social progressivism.

“Anyone that is thinking we suddenly had two conservative parties a couple elections ago, just is wrong. You don’t understand your history. Since 1922, every single election in Alberta has had more than one conservative party,” he said.

The Tories governed Alberta for four decades before losing to the NDP in 2015.

Starke said the PC party had been the political home for most Albertans in the past — and it needs to attract back those who left.

“Albertans want to come home,” he said.

“This is not time to tear down our home and try to design a duplex.”

The PC party is, for the first time since the 1980s, using a delegated system to select its new leader at a convention slated for next March in Calgary.

The contest also saw the early withdrawal of the two women running for leader, former cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans and MLA Sandra Jansen. Jansen cited harassment and bullying by supporters of Kenney, and subsequently crossed the floor to the NDP government.

jwood@postmedia.com

Some Tory leadership candidates are urging centrist Progressive Conservatives not to give up on the party after MLA Sandra Jansen warned of an attempted “extremist” takeover as she crossed the floor to the NDP government.

Jansen had been a candidate for the PC leadership herself before dropping out last week, citing harassment and intimidation by supporters of leadership contender Jason Kenney, the former Conservative MP running on a platform of uniting the PCs with the more right-leaning Wildrose in a new party.

In the Thursday news conference where the Calgary-North West MLA was welcomed into the NDP caucus by Premier Rachel Notley, Jansen said she’s concerned the party is taking a hard right turn on issues such as abortion rights and the protection of LGBTQ students in schools.

Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson, one of three leadership candidates running on a pledge to rebuild the party under the PC brand, said Jansen’s defection won’t silence progressive voices in the party but he is concerned about the public perception created by her departure.

“You can’t not worry after listening to Sandra’s presentation at the press conference yesterday. It will be up to the rest of us to reassure Albertans that’s not the case, that those views haven’t gone, but I think it’s a fair concern,” said Nelson on Friday.

Nelson said the party and leadership candidates also have to address fears the party is not welcoming to women after Jansen and the other female candidate for leadership, former MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans, dropped out of the contest on the same day last week. Kennedy-Glans says she was not bullied but has questioned whether she still has a place in a PC party that appears to be moving right.

Both Nelson and leadership hopeful Richard Starke said they understood Jansen’s concerns but disagreed with Jansen’s characterization of “extremists” entering the party.

Starke noted the leadership race has a long course to run before it concludes in next March’s delegated convention.

“Progressive Conservatives and progressive issues being carried forward by our party have always been carried forward by different individuals in the past and they will continue to be carried forward by individuals, including myself,” said the Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA.

Former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan, who is also seeking the PC leadership, could not be reached for comment. Kenney declined an interview request.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean meanwhile said Jansen’s move across the aisle exposes the deep divide within the PC party.

“They don’t know at this stage what they stand for or against,” said Jean.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has encouraged Wildrose members to join the PC party in order to back Kenney.

Wildrose party president Jeff Callaway said earlier this week the party has no official policy on whether its members should take out PC memberships.

But Jean said he is discouraging Wildrose members from taking part in the Tory race, saying Albertans don’t want any more “political games.”

“We don’t believe Wildrose members should get involved in these deals or dealings or divisive leadership battles,” he said.

Related

• Braid: Jansen jumps to NDP, Alberta's culture war starts in earnest
• 'It's a tremendous betrayal to those people who voted PC': Notley on 2014 floor-crossings
• Jansen's constituents unimpressed with PC MLA's defection to NDP

Jean also said that Jansen’s constituents should have recourse to recall legislation that could unseat her as an MLA and force a byelection if they’re unhappy with her crossing the floor to the government.

“We believe that’s the best way that constituents can assure that when they vote for somebody under a certain flag, that they continue under that flag right through their term.”

Wildrose first gained strength in 2010 by having three PC MLAs cross the floor to join the upstart party. But after forming the official Opposition, the party was rocked by a mass defection that saw 11 MLAs, including leader Danielle Smith, join the then-PC government.

None of the floor-crossers who ran in the 2015 election won their seats as the Tory government were swept from power by the NDP and the Wildrose again won Opposition status under Jean, a former Conservative MP.

jwood@postmedia.com

The Wildrose president says the party has no official position on whether its members should join the Progressive Conservative party to take part in the Tory leadership race.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper continued his unusual intervention in provincial politics this week, with a letter to supporters of leadership candidate Jason Kenney that included an appeal to Wildrose members to join the PCs to cast a vote for Kenney.

Wildrose president Jeff Callaway said in an interview Wednesday he would neither encourage nor discourage party members from taking on Tory memberships.

But he did say he would stress to Wildrose members thinking of joining the PCs that “our party has always been the conservative option working to unify conservatives across this province.”

“That choice is up to you, but don’t be a stranger to us,” Callaway said.

“Because there’s lots of water to go under the bridge before the PC election, however it may turn out.”

Kenney, a former Conservative MP, is running for the PC leadership on a platform of uniting the Tories and Wildrose into a new “Conservative Party of Alberta.” His rivals in the race, Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson, former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan and Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke are opposed to the merger idea and want to rebuild the party under the PC brand.

Neither Wildrose nor the PCs bar their members from holding memberships in other parties at the same time. In Harper’s letter, he points out that Wildrose members can stay with the party while also supporting Kenney.

On Harper’s intervention in the campaign, Callaway said he respects the former prime minister and his right to get involved.

“He’s now a private citizen. He can comment and support whom he pleases,” he said.

But Wildrose MLA Don MacIntyre thinks it would be better for Harper to keep out of provincial politics.

“I would have preferred that Mr. Harper retire and stay out of it, and not try to influence this whole thing one way or the other,” he said Wednesday.

“Let people sort this out for themselves.”

MacIntyre said he believes Wildrose members would be better off not getting involved in the PC race, leaving it up to Tories to figure out the direction of their party.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean — who, like Kenney, served as an MP under Harper — was not made available for an interview Wednesday.

Harper has already played a significant role in Kenney’s campaign since his last Stampede BBQ as an MP in the summer, when he endorsed his former lieutenant from the stage. At the PC convention earlier this month, Harper gave a closed-door speech to young Kenney supporters who had been bused in by the campaign to vote in PC Youth Association executive elections.

Harper’s efforts have also raised some eyebrows on the PC side, with leadership candidate Starke noting sardonically that it’s an “interesting departure” from his stance as PM, when he told his MPs to stay out of Alberta’s conservative civil war.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said there’s little precedent for a former prime minister to be involved in this kind of provincial party politics.

“But we haven’t seen a split in parties like this in other provinces,” he said.

“He’s not in office anymore, so why shouldn’t he throw whatever weight he has around something he believes in?”

Bratt said Harper’s continuing popularity with Alberta’s small-c conservatives makes his appeal to Wildrose members key to Kenney’s plan.

“He has to win the leadership and he has to also convince Wildrosers to join with this new party,” he said.

“So doing this now, bringing Wildrosers into the party to help elect Kenney, will help him further down the road.”

jwood@postmedia.com

You won’t see this every day — NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Derek Fildebrandt, the outspoken young Wildrose MLA, agreeing on how to keep the extreme fringe of the Trump movement out of Alberta.

They both say intolerance and bigotry were far from the only factors in Donald Trump’s victory. And they both have part of the answer — actually listening to opponents, and speaking respectfully.

If only their own parties would pay more attention to it.

Notley said Monday: “I think the alt-right was certainly part of President-elect Trump’s campaign. But certainly I think it’s fair to say that there were a number of people who simply voted that way out of frustration, out of fear because of their economic situation, and their inability to support their families.

“I think in Alberta, generally speaking, the vast majority believe in inclusivity, they believe in mutual respect, they believe in civil discourse, and they believe it’s absolutely appropriate to disagree, but to do so in a way that allows you to have a thoughtful conversation.”

Fildebrandt, as you’d expect, comes at it from a different angle. This is the MLA who tweeted last week: “hyper-sensitive, politically correct, victim-as-virtue culture is creating a leadership class of wimps. People are sick of it.”

That started an almighty uproar among progressives. Fildebrandt seems to enjoy that.

He said Monday: “There’s a lesson from the past week in the U.S. — it’s that overwhelming, condescending political correctness that tries to stifle legitimate debate and free speech, is going to cause a backlash.

“The left has cried wolf so often about being offended, by tolerant men and women acting in good faith, to really be believed anymore.”

Then he comes close to Notley’s point: “If we want to prevent a similar kind of backlash in Alberta and Canada, then we need to learn to have a straightforward debate on the issues, without putting a stop to it on grounds of political correctness.

“But those who want to fight back against political correctness should not consider this any kind of invitation to be uncivil, or rude to your neighbours, or to be disrespectful.”

Fildebrandt still doesn’t believe he was disrespectful to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne when he blasted her government’s record while she was sitting in the Alberta legislature’s visitor’s gallery.

He was talking about policy and its impacts, not Wynne herself, he says.

Obviously, definitions of civility will vary.

But if Wildrose and the NDP both lived by their thoughts, here’s what could happen:

The NDP would stop treating every question about the carbon tax, or the climate leadership policy, as an attack on the science of climate change and proof that the questioner is a Neanderthal denier.

That’s the kind of sneering condescension Fildebrant is talking about. It infuriates people who have legitimate concerns about some of the most dramatic policy shifts in Alberta history.

The NDP could also stop charging that critics of government deficits want to fire thousands of teachers and nurses. That’s absurd.

Wildrose, for its part, could cease the unending charge that the massive job losses in Alberta are the NDP’s fault. Everybody knows the main cause is the collapse in oil prices.

It’s equally ridiculous to insinuate, as Wildrose frequently does, that the NDP is intentionally destroying the economy. Notley’s government is desperately trying to create jobs and get new green industries rolling.

Some days, the legislature itself is the best training ground for those who like to deride and dismiss the opinions of others.

There’s tremendous anger in the land. The politicians have at least part of the answer — don’t roll out the rhetorical artillery unless the enemy really is at hand. Just listen, respectfully.

They could start with each other.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

dbraid@postmedia.com

Alberta’s NDP government laid out its case Monday that it’s helping to create jobs, but Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous acknowledged there are tough times in Calgary as the province continues to struggle with low oil prices.

While the province has seen job growth in each of the last three months — about 25,000 positions in total — October’s job force numbers show nearly 40,000 fewer Albertans working compared to April 2015, just before the NDP took office. The number of unemployed has grown by nearly 75,000.

Calgary, centre of the Canadian energy industry, has been hit particularly hard by oil prices that have hovered just under US$50 a barrel. The unemployment rate in October hit 10.2 per cent , the highest level in 23 years, while Edmonton’s rate was 6.9 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Bilous told reporters in Calgary that “we are starting to turn a corner,” even as he noted that the city “is in a more challenging position than much of the rest of the province.”

“The trend is a positive sign but by no means am I saying, ‘You know, we are out of the woods, and hey, it’s time to celebrate.’ We know it’s going to take some time to get those unemployment numbers down, but again, this is why we have a number of initiatives we are rolling out,” he said at an event held at Assembly Coworking Space, a hub for tech startups and small businesses.

The report issued Monday links job estimates to specific government policies. Using a figure previously cited, the province says that the NDP’s decision to ramp up spending on infrastructure as an economic stimulus will sustain an average 10,000 jobs over three years.

Incentives for new petrochemical facilities will add up to 3,000 construction jobs and a further permanent 1,000 positions, says the report.

Thousands of other jobs will be supported by new tax credits, support for renewable energy, a reformed energy royalty system and investments in technology companies.

Sean Languedoc, CEO of software company Payload, said the government’s new investors tax credit programs — which it says will help support 9,000 jobs — are key to developing innovative new businesses in Calgary.

The energy downturn, while painful, means new opportunities in a city full of both skilled workers and potential capital, he said.

“There’s lots of money, more money in this city than I’ve seen in any other city, ready to invest,” said Languedoc, whose company is housed at the Assembly Coworking Space. “It just needs a motivation to divert from its traditional knowledge base, which is oil and gas, into other sectors.”

Premier Rachel Notley’s government has come under fire from opposition parties who blame NDP policies, such as higher corporate taxes, high government spending and an increasing minimum wage, for exacerbating job losses in the province.

The job report issued Monday did little to deflect criticism, with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in question period accusing the government of having “taxed and regulated” jobs out of existence.

Jean said there are now 47,000 fewer full-time jobs compared to a year ago and noted that even the government has projected that its climate plan — including the carbon tax that comes into effect Jan. 1 — will slow economic growth by 0.05 per cent annually.

“This government has been in power more than 18 months and has overseen one of the most devastating periods of job losses in our province’s history and is totally unapologetic,” he said.

But Bilous said he’s confident in the government’s plan and the decision to put out Monday’s report was made “to show Albertans there is hope.”

University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe said the update was essentially a highlights package for the NDP.

The infrastructure job estimates are “reasonable” but difficult to prove, he said, noting the figures could range from 3,000 to 15,000 positions.

Tombe described the government’s $500-million estimate on the economic impact of the Alberta Investors Tax Credit as “a bit of a stretch.”

“It seems like far too good to be true and they don’t actually provide the analysis that allows them to arrive at that number,” he said. “So that’s one that jumps out at me as something to be skeptical about.”

With files from Chris Varcoe

jwood@postmedia.com

RED DEER – Tory leadership candidate Jason Kenney made a show of political force at the Progressive Conservative policy convention Saturday, with his opponents saying it’s a “wake-up call” for moderates in the party.

Supporters of Kenney — the former MP running on a platform of merging the PCs with the Wildrose — helped defeat several proposed constitutional changes and pushed hard conservative policies in areas such as environment and education.

The campaign also brought in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper to speak to youth delegates backing Kenney — bussed in en masse to vote for the PC Youth Association executive election — in a private meeting.

Kenney youth delegates getting back on busses after voting for Kenney youth slate. (Third bus hidden) #ableg #pcaa pic.twitter.com/rVmFUDDchg

— James Wood (@JamesWoodPress) November 6, 2016

Speaking to reporters, a pleased Kenney made no apologies for the show of strength.

“We saw this as an important opportunity to show support for my candidacy and the unity idea. I think we’re doing that on the floor, in the votes, at the youth election and so forth,” said the former federal cabinet minister.

On Saturday night, Kenney and the five other leadership candidates — MLAs Sandra Jansen and Richard Starke, former PC cabinet ministers Donna Kennedy-Glans and Stephen Khan, and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson — were on stage together for the first time in a forum .

All the other candidates in the race are opposed to Kenney’s unite-the-right pitch and favour rebuilding the party under the PC brand.

Khan said the number of new faces at the convention in support of Kenney and the campaign’s policy maneuvers are a “wake-up call” for longtime PCs.

“None of that surprises us. We know Jason Kenney hustles. That’s who he is. He’s a voracious politician and I have a lot of respect for that,” said Khan, the former St. Albert MLA.

“We have to motivate and activate what I’ve called the PC army — those people who have been with us, who share our values.”

The Tories, who governed Alberta for four decades before losing to the NDP in last year’s provincial election, will pick a new leader in a delegated convention next March. Having control of the PC Youth Association executive would mean Kenney supporters picking 20 delegates for the leadership vote.

While the Kenney slate was elected, the results have been challenged on an issue of whether all the voters were eligible.

Kennedy-Glans told reporters that “there is obviously something afoot” that needs a response.

“This is a clear call to action for people in this party who are concerned about the centre,” she said.

In policy sessions, a resolution supporting a revenue-neutral carbon tax was defeated while another motion supporting parental choice in education — and seemingly opposed to policy passed by the former PC government mandating gay-straight alliances where requested in schools — was passed.

Kenney, known as a social and fiscal conservative in his nearly two decades as an MP, is a staunch opponent of any carbon tax and has castigated what he calls “social engineering” in provincial schools.

In the constitutional debate, delegates shot down a motion that would bar PC party members from holding memberships in other parties, a policy that would have hurt Kenney’s conservative unity efforts.

A string of Kenney backers also came to the microphone to argue against changes to the constitution that would increase the power of the party president and board of directors and — some asserted — diminish the power of the caucus and leader.

Those proposals were also defeated.

Morgan Nagel — sporting the blue Unite Alberta/Kenney hat seen on some delegates — said Kenney supporters saw the constitutional amendments as aimed at strengthening a board opposed to unifying with Wildrose.

“It really looks like there are some people who have these positions of authority who are doing whatever they can to fight against unity,” said Nagel, a 26-year-old Cochrane town councillor.

But party president Katherine O’Neill said if that perception exists, it’s incorrect.

She noted the proposed constitutional amendments date back well before Kenney announced his candidacy and were not drawn up by the board in any case.

O’Neill herself spoke against the changes, saying measures that would remove MLAs as voting members and require the party leader to confer with the party president were an “overstep.”

She also said the idea of requiring PC members to not hold other party memberships is a perennial question that comes up at Tory conventions but it is always defeated as unenforceable.

But Edmonton-Meadowlark delegate Sarah Hamilton said keeping an individual’s membership to one party seems like little to ask.

“It’s asking people to take a stand for their own values, if you believe in Progressive Conservative values. You don’t get to be two religions at once,” she said in an interview.

Hamilton, a supporter of a renewed PC party opposed to the merger idea, acknowledged the Kenney camp had shown strength at the convention , which runs through Sunday.

“This should be the starting gun for people who believe in a centre-right Progressive Conservative party to renew their memberships, to come out to delegate selection meetings and mobilize good policy,” she said.

jwood@postmedia.com

The NDP beat out the Wildrose in the most recent political fundraising battle in Alberta, but the Progressive Conservative leadership campaign of Jason Kenney says it bested all the provincial parties in raking in cash.

According to financial statements for the third quarter posted on the Elections Alberta site this week, the NDP raised $425,437 in the period from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2016, compared with $330,666 for the Wildrose.

The Progressive Conservatives were a distant third, with $48,209, just ahead of the Alberta Liberals at $39,187. The Alberta Party raised $15,511.

But a spokesman for Kenney, Blaise Boehmer, said Tuesday that the Unite Alberta organization formed by Kenney had raised $497,000 in the same period during the run-up to the PC leadership race’s official start on Oct. 1.

The political action committee, which was operating with a $30,000 donation limit compared with the $15,000 cap faced by parties, is not allowed under provincial law to transfer the money it raised to Kenney’s leadership campaign.

The funds were therefore used up ahead of the race’s official launch, said Boehmer.

“We had a two-month unity tour where we’ve gone all over the province. We’ve got staff and a website. We’ve produced a lot of content,” he said.

“So it gets pricey.”

Kenney, a former Conservative MP known for his fundraising prowess, on Tuesday became the first candidate in the PC race officially certified by Elections Alberta, meaning his campaign can now raise and spend cash.

Boehmer said the campaign has kept in constant contact with the chief electoral officer to ensure it was in compliance with the rules around the grey area the race is in before it commences. It will voluntarily count donations to Unite Alberta against the $30,000 contribution limit set by the PC party, he said.

Meanwhile, the NDP’s first place finish in party fundraising breaks a streak of four consecutive quarters in which the Wildrose held the fundraising edge.

“It’s a good day, for sure,” NDP provincial secretary Roari Richardson said Tuesday.

“It’s inspirational for our members and for the team but, either way . . . you have a game plan and just want to focus on that. Some quarters we’ll be up, some quarters we’ll be down. As long as we’re moving toward our election readiness goals we’re OK.

The Wildrose still has raised the most money so far in 2016. Year-to-date donations to the party and its constituency associations top $1.4 million, while the comparable figure for the NDP is just under $1.2 million.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said he’s pleased with his party’s financial state, noting it took in considerably more than in the same period a year ago.

“The third quarter’s always a tough one,” he said.

Jean said he saw no effect on Wildrose’s finances from the fundraising by Kenney, who is campaigning on a platform of merging the PCs and the Wildrose.

And he noted that for the PC party itself, “there has been no significant uptake.”

“They’re still in essence trailing and not raising any significant amount of money,” said Jean.

jwood@postmedia.com

The NDP government says it can’t afford to put additional health-care dollars toward defraying the cost of parking at hospitals.

The high price of parking at health-care facilities has been an ongoing issue in Alberta and across the country, with a national petition campaign recently launched against what some advocates call a tax on the sick.

Alberta’s associate minister of health, Brandy Payne, said this week she is sympathetic to the concerns and noted Alberta Health Services has programs to subsidize the cost for needy patients and caregivers.

“We certainly understand that when families are dealing with a cancer diagnosis, the additional charges for parking can be an additional burden,” Payne said at the Wednesday announcement of details about Calgary’s planned new cancer centre.

“The real challenge that we have at the moment is, with a tight fiscal situation … I would really struggle with diverting resources from patient care to subsidizing parking.”

The Notley government is currently forecasting a $10.9-billion deficit in the current budget year.

Alberta Health Services provides and maintains parking at 31 facilities in nine communities provincewide.

In 2014-15, AHS took in $75 million in parking revenues, using $28 million to cover operating costs, $29 million to pay down debt and moving $18 million into a reserve fund that now sits at more than $60 million.

AHS provided the equivalent of about 20,000 days of free, compassionate parking .

The Wildrose Party has made hospital parking a signature issue, launching its own petition in August to make the first two hours of parking free.

“Visiting a loved one in hospital or having treatment or surgery should not be made tougher or discouraged by having to shell out for what can be very expensive hospital parking fees,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said in a news release this week.

“This hidden tax is hitting Albertans at a time of enormous emotional stress, and financial stress shouldn’t be an added anxiety.”

jwood@postmedia.com

The first week of the Progressive Conservative leadership race has been pretty quiet, but there’s lots of stuff bubbling just under the surface. As former MP Jason Kenney, former provincial cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans, lawyer Byron Nelson and MLA Richard Starke get their campaigns going, here are some of the interesting issues at play.

1. Capital Conundrum

It’s early, but so far there’s a glaring absence in the Progressive Conservative leadership race — no candidate from Edmonton.

Kennedy-Glans, Kenney and Nelson are all from Calgary, while Starke is from Lloydminster. Potential candidates from the capital city, meanwhile, are scarce.

Edmonton lawyer and former candidate Harman Kandola, who had been prepping for a leadership campaign, said this week he’s decided not to run because of family and work factors.

Some Tory insiders have been talking up Stephen Mandel as a possible standard-bearer, but the former Edmonton mayor and provincial health minister says that after briefly pondering a run, personal considerations will keep him out of the race.

Edmonton Coun. Michael Oshry, who said in the summer he was considering throwing his hat in the ring, could not be reached for comment, but most Tories spoken to don’t expect the municipal politician to jump into the race.

That leaves Stephen Khan as the most likely Edmonton-area contender. Khan was the MLA for St. Albert from 2012 to 2015, serving briefly in the cabinets of Alison Redford and Jim Prentice before losing his seat in the last election.

He couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, but talk among Tories is that he’s likely to run.

Mandel, who is serving as the PC party’s northern finance chair, said he thinks the party is in reasonable shape in Edmonton despite having no native son or daughter in the race so far.

“It’s always a concern when you don’t have representation from all of the areas of the province, but at this point of time I think the candidates who’ve put their name forward are good people,” he said.

“You can’t make people run if they don’t want to.”

2. Filling out the field

There’s still uncertainty on what the final lineup in the contest will look like, with potential candidates having until Nov. 10 to submit their nominations.

Adding to the Calgary-centric slant of the race, MLA Sandra Jansen is widely expected to run for leader. But the Calgary-North West MLA is still playing it close to the vest.

“I am officially close to making a final decision,” she said with a laugh on Friday.

Interim PC Leader Ric McIver, who ran for the party’s top job in 2014, also isn’t ruling out another kick at the can, though few Tories appear to expect him to run.

The Calgary-Hays MLA said this week he’s not too concerned about what part of Alberta candidates hail from.

“It’s more important that we get the right leader,” he said. “I think the more the merrier as far as who enters.

“More importantly, we really must have a fiscally conservative leader as the next leader.”

3. Drinking buddies

Kenney has defined — and polarized — the leadership contest so far with his platform calling for the PCs and Wildrose to merge into a new conservative party.

But some Tory and Wildrose MLAs have already tentatively sniffed around the idea of uniting the right. Last December, Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt and PC MLA Mike Ellis co-hosted a pub night to talk about conservative values.

Now the two are at it again, with an event Friday night at Wurst restaurant, only this time Ellis is backing Kenney and his unity pitch.

Fildebrandt said it’s only natural for conservatives to get together over a pint when “the future of the conservative movement is a pretty hot topic” in each party.

The Strathmore-Brooks MLA said it’s up to PC members to decide which way their party is going and, in the meantime, he’s helping to build Wildrose to win the next election.

But on Kenney’s run, Fildebrandt said, “I welcome any attempt to bring conservatives together.”

Ellis said events such as the pub night are important because they illustrate the common ground that Alberta conservatives share.

He said it’s also an opportunity to bring forward the unity message to both PCs and Wildrose members.

“I do reach out, I do talk to Wildrose supporters, and the consensus is, we’re really not that different,” said the Calgary-West MLA.

4. Crossing over

PC party ranks grew by about 5,000 members in the three-month run-up to the race’s formal start on Oct. 1, with current membership exceeding 30,000, said party executive director Troy Wason.

One twist to the Tory leadership race — and Kenney’s call for a united right — is that neither the PC nor Wildrose parties bar their members from holding memberships in another party at the same time.

Wason said many Wildrosers have been buying Tory memberships, whether they are motivated by the unite-the-right message or a renewed interest in the PCs

“Absolutely, they are; I know who they are,” he said.

But a Wildrose insider scoffed at the notion party members were moving to the PCs, suggesting Kenney was having little impact on the official Opposition.

5. Kenney may not have united the right yet, but he might be reuniting the old version of Wildrose

Former Airdrie MLA Rob Anderson, one of 11 Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor to the PC government in 2014, has publicly backed Kenney. He was slated to host a meet-and-greet for the former MP next week, but it was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, according to the Kenney campaign.

At least one other Wildrose defector, Bruce McAllister, is also supporting Kenney.

When the floor-crossing took place, five MLAs stayed on the Wildrose benches, with three of them re-elected as Wildrose members in last year’s election.

But the two Wildrose MLAs who chose not to run again in the 2015 election, Heather Forsyth and Shayne Saskiw, are both in Kenney’s camp.

Forsyth and Anderson were both originally elected as Tory MLAs before crossing the floor to Wildrose.

jwood@postmedia.com

Premier Rachel Notley said the heated national debates around oilsands pipelines are “challenging,” but dismissed the notion the NDP government’s strategy to win support for such projects is failing.

The review process for TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East project suffered a setback last week when three members of the National Energy Board stepped aside because of meetings held with the proponent last year.

That followed pipeline hearings in Montreal being disrupted by environmental protesters and ongoing skepticism toward the project from political leaders in Quebec, including Montreal’s Mayor Denis Coderre.

On the west coast, Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, environmental groups and First Nations have opposed the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s planned expansion of its Trans Mountain line.

Opposition parties maintain recent events have shown the Notley government’s efforts to garner public approval — or “social licence” — for pipelines through its sweeping climate-change plan aren’t working.

“That’s just wrong and it’s also quite silly,” Notley told reporters at McDougall Centre on Tuesday morning.

“Quite honestly, it’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight . . . I believe very strongly we are making progress and I will continue to make our case in forums across the country. And I believe, ultimately, we will see success.”

Notley’s government views a new pipeline as key for Alberta to open new markets for its oilsands crude, obtain a better price and help kickstart the ailing provincial economy.

The NDP government has moved to address Alberta’s Canada-leading greenhouse gas emissions by introducing a broad-based carbon tax that takes effect Jan. 1, 2017, putting a cap on emissions from the oilpatch and accelerating the phase-out of coal-fired power in the province.

When the NEB hearings in Montreal were cancelled by protests, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean issued a statement calling on the government to eliminate the carbon tax in response.

“It is crystal clear that there is no appeasement of these groups. There will be no “social licence” gained by taxing Albertans,” said Jean.

Last week, Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney vowed to scrap the carbon tax and derided the concept of social licence.

“If social licence means you get to trump the decisions by elected officials and quasi-official bodies and our courts, then that is a fundamentally undermining of our rule of law. We aren’t getting that ephemeral social licence through the NDP’s carbon tax,” he said.

But Notley said she supports the federal Liberal government’s efforts to rebuild public confidence in the NEB process and expressed her belief the project will get the green light.

“You’re not ever going to get the buy-in of 100 per cent of people. What you need to do is enjoy the trust of a significant majority. And that is, I think, the process we will see work forward,” she said.

Chelsie Klassen, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said surveys conducted for the oilpatch lobby group show a larger group of Canadians are supportive of the energy industry than those who are indifferent or opposed.

She believes that despite the “vocal” opponents of Energy East, there are increasingly constructive conversations happening around pipelines.

Klassen said many Canadians are still unaware about the NDP’s carbon tax, or that Alberta has had a carbon levy on large emitters since it was brought in by the former Progressive Conservative government in 2007.

“I hope if that message does get out there, it does help that discussion and that dialogue,” she said.

“But I guess time will tell.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Alberta political veterans say the NDP’s proposed changes to election financing rules will shift the landscape dramatically in future election campaigns, though they differ on how the impact will be felt.

As the special legislature committee on ethics and accountability has met over the last month, NDP MLAs have brought forward proposals that will limit donations, put a spending cap on campaigns and implement new taxpayer-funded rebates for candidates and parties.

Reducing Alberta’s $15,000 political contribution limit is broadly supported by the province’s other parties but plans for a spending cap and rebates — proposed as a 50 per cent refund of campaign expenses for candidates and parties who win at least 10 per cent of the vote — have drawn sharp criticism from the opposition.

Stephen Carter, who served as the Progressive Conservative campaign strategist in 2012, said the limits on campaign spending — initially proposed at about $1.6 million for parties and $40,000 for most riding candidates but later amended to around $2.1 million and $70,000 — will have unintended consequences.

If politicians are restrained in what they can spend during the campaign, that means they simply will be spending more outside the writ period, said Carter, who noted that rebates will ensure healthy war chests.

“There’s a fixed election date, kind of, so I know within a few months of when I need to put my spending in place. So I spend, and I spend, and I spend. So what you get is just a movement in spending, no reduction at all,” he said in an interview Thursday.

“And because it’s subsidized, you’re spending even more than you would have.”

At the same time, the spending cap would make it harder for parties to get their message across during a campaign, however, putting a crimp on advertising and direct mail messages, said Carter.

Opposition parties have suggested they are not opposed to an expenditure limit in principle but believe the NDP proposal is too low. The Wildrose has instead called for an amount higher than $3.5 million.

In last year’s election, the NDP shelled out nearly $1.7 million to upset the four-decade Progressive Conservative dynasty.

The Tories, who for years had a marked financial edge over their rivals, spent $4.3 million, while the Wildrose doled out nearly $1.2 million as the party formed the official Opposition. In the 2012 election, the PCs spent $4.6 million, while Wildrose doled out $2.9 million.

Nancy Furlong, who was president of the NDP in 2012 when the party spent just over $650,000 in the campaign, said that the Tories’ ability to outspend their rivals was hugely felt in Alberta politics for years.

She said spending limits are a needed step to ensure that a party doesn’t have an advantage over its rivals just because its supporters have deeper pockets.

“It’s important that people are heard equally and that to be effective at doing that, you need to make sure that no one group of people, with money for example, has a better opportunity to be elected in our democracy,” said Furlong.

“It’s way better that people earn it.”

The NDP’s proposal of election expense rebates has been the most controversial issue raised in the committee, with the opposition parties lined up against the idea as an inappropriate use of public funds, though such a system is used on the federal level.

Tom Flanagan, who served as Wildrose’s campaign manager in 2012, said the rebate system would give increased financial certainty to the major parties while the spending cap would cut some of the unnecessary spending of the past.

Both initiatives together would create a “rough equality” among the NDP, Wildrose, and PCs but would hurt smaller parties, he said.

Flanagan noted that under the NDP plan neither the Alberta Party nor Liberals would have been eligible for refunds in the last campaign because they received less than 10 per cent of the vote, which he believes is the government’s intention.

“One of the things the NDP is trying to do is consolidate its hold on the left side of the spectrum in Alberta,” said Flanagan.

“What I see is an attempt to make the situation as favourable as possible to the NDP.”

The first legislation passed by the NDP government after taking office last year banned union and corporate donations from provincial politics. No contribution limit has yet been set by the committee, though there have been suggestions of a cap of about $4,000.

jwood@postmedia.com

Would-be Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney unveiled his humble pickup truck earlier in August, and now Wildrose leader Brian Jean has responded with his own campaign wheels.

The tour truck was unveiled Friday morning for use in Jean’s “On Your Side” town hall series, where he plans to visit cities across Alberta and receive feedback from residents on which direction the Wildrose party should take.

“We’ve had incredible momentum during our summer tour,” said Jean. “I’ve truly never seen interest in politics in Alberta, like I have seen over the last few months.”

Kenney’s own Alberta-wide tour, where he plans to lodge in the homes of Albertan residents, is also currently underway.

The NDP is proposing to cap election spending by parties at about $1.6 million — a move that would reduce campaign expenditures by millions of dollars and could have a significant impact on the next provincial vote in 2019.

At a meeting of the legislature’s special ethics and accountability committee on Wednesday, Calgary-Shaw MLA Graham Sucha put forward a motion that would impose a campaign spending limit of approximately 60 cents per elector, indexed to inflation.

Based on Elections Alberta figures from April of this year, that would work out to nearly $1.6 million.

Sucha did not respond to an interview request Friday, but he told the committee earlier this week that the motion reflects the commitment of all MLAs “to getting big money out of politics.”

Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful Jason Kenney says dismal Tory fundraising numbers are a “wake-up call” for PCs, while Wildrose Leader Brian Jean says his own party’s haul of cash is a sign of its ongoing health.

Party fundraising documents for the second quarter of 2016 posted Friday by Elections Alberta show Wildrose with a strong lead, taking in $476,131 compared to the NDP’s $362,824.

The PCs, meanwhile, brought in only $27,376.

Kenney, the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore who is running for the Tory leadership on a platform of uniting the party with the Wildrose, noted the PCs’ fundraising difficulties are a continuing trend since the party was defeated in the 2015 provincial election.

“It’s a serious wake-up call for people in the Progressive Conservative party who are completely married to the status quo, who somehow believe that if we do more of the same the glory days are just around the corner,” said the former cabinet minister.

“The numbers say differently.”

Kenney said his Unite Alberta committee, which is sponsoring his campaign activities until the PC leadership contest formally begins this fall, “raised more yesterday than apparently the PC party did in the last quarter.”

“We’re generating the kind of support a viable centre-right coalition should be able to do in this province,” he said.

The MP has committed that Unite Alberta will follow provincial fundraising rules and disclose its fundraising activities, though he said Saturday it is still undecided when that disclosure will occur.

PC party executive director Troy Wason said Kenney is “welcome to make whatever comments he wants to make.”

Wason said the party is still building its fundraising capacity after being pushed out of government last year and the introduction of new financial rules barring corporate and union donations.

He said the party is getting a good response from initiatives such as a new monthly donation program.

“We’re going in the right direction as far as we’re concerned. Is it enough. Absolutely not,” said Wason, who noted the PCs still have $1.7 million in financial assets distributed through its constituency associations.

Kenney dismissed the idea the fundraising gap between the two right-of-centre parties would convince Wildrose to ignore unity efforts, noting that Jean has declared himself open to discussions.

But the Wildrose was touting its financial success in the most recent quarter, noting it had raised more than the other parties combined.

In a speech at a town hall rally Friday night in Airdrie that Wildrose posted on Facebook, Jean hailed the party’s fundraising.

“The Wildrose party is back. We are doing better than ever,” he said.

Year to date fundraising records posted by Elections Alberta shows that the Wildrose party and its constituency associations raised $1,046,060 in the first six months of the year, compared to the NDP’s $761,668 and the PCs’ $212,898.

Jean noted the most recent tally of the PCs — whom he initially called “former friends” before describing them as friends — came in the same quarter in which Tories voted at their annual general meeting to reject any unification efforts and go it alone.

However, the Fort McMurray-Conklin MLA reiterated that it is up to PC members to decide the future of their party in the leadership race, which will culminate in a delegated convention next March.

“So if they change their mind and want to work with us, we can meet as equals, not as winners, not as losers,” said Jean.

“Until the PC party decides for certain whether it wants to join with us and our movement, we can’t become distracted from the work we are doing.”

jwood@postmedia.com

Ric McIver is a Stephen Harper fan, but he wasn’t impressed with the former prime minister’s endorsement of Jason Kenney for the Progressive Conservative leadership.

At the ex-PM’s Stampede barbecue last Saturday, Harper and interim federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose in their speeches both publicly backed Kenney in the MP’s bid for the PC leadership and his plan to unite Alberta’s right.

McIver, the PC’s interim leader and a potential leadership candidate, and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean were among the crowd, which was filled with many PC and Wildrose supporters.

In an interview with Postmedia Friday, McIver described the way the endorsement was done as “rude.”

“It was really odd because two people that I like — Mr. Harper and Rona Ambrose — endorsed a third person that I like, Jason Kenney, but they did it in such a way that I just thought it was bad manners,” he said. “I didn’t think there was any need to offend other people in order to endorse somebody.

“I think there was other people diminished by the remarks and it was unnecessary.”

The PC party will select a new leader at a delegated convention in March.

Kenney, the Calgary Midnapore MP who served in numerous cabinet posts under Harper, has said that if he wins the leadership he will seek immediate unification talks with the Wildrose Party.

If an agreement is reached, it will be put to a vote by members of each party. The new entity, if approved, will then have a leadership race.

With files from Don Braid, Postmedia.

jwood@postmedia.com

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has thrown his political weight among conservatives behind Jason Kenney, endorsing his former lieutenant in Kenney’s run for the Progressive Conservative leadership and plan to unite Alberta’s right.

Speaking at Saturday evening’s Calgary Heritage riding association Stampede barbecue, expected to be his last as the riding’s MP, Harper said Alberta conservatives can no longer afford to be split between the PCs and Wildrose.

“I would ask all Alberta members of the Conservative Party of Canada to join me and work to elect as the next leader of the PC party of Alberta, the Honourable Jason Kenney,” Harper said to cheers as he made brief remarks before introducing interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.

Kenney, the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore and a longtime cabinet minister under Harper, announced this week he would run for the PC leadership seeking a mandate to unify the Tories with the Wildrose party.

“He has demonstrated time and again that he is a principled, thoughtful and highly capable conservative,” affirmed Harper, who said he believed members of Wildrose also wanted conservative unity and positive change.

Harper, who led the country for nearly a decade before his Conservatives were swept from power by the Liberals last fall, did not — as some had anticipated — announce he was stepping down as an MP. He is widely expected to resign his seat before the fall sitting of the House of Commons.

The ex-PM made the comments with Kenney, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and interim PC Leader Ric McIver among the crowd of over 700 gathered under a tent at Heritage Park.

Speaking to reporters, Kenney said Harper had offered to publicly endorse him when he learned Kenney was considering entering provincial politics to try and reconcile Alberta’s conservatives.

The plan outlined by Kenney last Thursday calls for him to win the PC leadership at the party’s March 18 delegated convention and then begin immediate merger talks with Wildrose. If an agreement is reached, it will be put to a vote by members of each party. Then, if the new entity is approved, there will be a subsequent leadership race, which would see Kenney as a candidate.

Kenney said it was moving for him that Harper had used likely his last speech as an MP to support him and he is certain the former PM is backing him to become not only PC leader, but head of the united right and the next premier.

“You couldn’t possibly come to any other conclusion,” said Kenney, who called Harper’s support “fantastic news.”

“What we heard tonight was an explicit endorsement of exactly the plan I have laid out. And I can tell you from my private conversations with Stephen Harper, that’s exactly what he believes.”

Jean, however, said he didn’t hear that vision of Kenney as premier in Harper’s speech.

Jean, himself a former Conservative MP who served under Harper, noted to reporters that he had suggested discussions last year between grassroots members of each party to talk about forming a consolidated conservative coalition.

“I’m not upset at all. I think this is great, this is a great step forward for Alberta and a great step forward for the conservative movement,” said Jean.

Wildrose had recently shelved the idea of pursuing discussions with the PCs, who in May at the party’s annual general meeting voted to rebuild the Tories under the PC brand.

Jean had said he would work through the summer to broaden Wildrose’s support under his leadership and on Saturday insisted nothing had happened in the last week to affect those plans.

He reiterated that he will take instructions from Wildrose members on how to proceed around the unity issue.

Ambrose also said in her speech she fully backs Kenney’s run for the Progressive Conservative leadership and plan for unity.

“I have for over a year now been unabashedly supportive of uniting the right in Alberta,” she told reporters beforehand.

“I’m incredibly proud and happy that Jason has stepped forward to help lead this movement and I’m behind him 100 per cent.”

Both Harper and Ambrose framed their support of Kenney as a necessary step to defeat Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP, which swept to power in the spring of 2015 by upending the four-decade-old PC dynasty.

The Tories are in third place in the legislature while Wildrose forms the official Opposition.

Ambrose said both Jean and McIver are friends and she has spoken to both urging them to get behind uniting conservatives.

McIver told reporters as he entered the event that he had “tremendous regard and respect for Mr. Harper.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that within the PC party of Alberta, the members get to decide,” he said.

jwood@postmedia.com

As Jason Kenney launches his bid to become Progressive Conservative leader — and attempts to mend the fracture between Alberta’s right-of-centre parties — he will likely have a fight on his hands on both fronts.

Read James Wood’s latest on Jason Kenney’s announcement Wednesday.

The Calgary Midnapore MP is making an announcement in Calgary at noon on Wednesday and sources have confirmed he will announce a run for the leadership on a platform of unifying conservatives in the PC and Wildrose parties.

The PC party will elect a permanent leader to replace interim chief Ric McIver at a delegated convention on March 18, 2017.

But Tories at the party’s annual general meeting in May, voted to rebuild the party under the PC brand, rejecting calls to unite the right.

There are also questions on how Kenney, a staunch fiscal and social conservative, will fit with a PC party with a strong contingent of moderates and Red Tories.

Susan Elliott, campaign manager of the PCs’ successful 2012 provincial election campaign, said there’s no doubt Kenney will be the front-runner if he enters the race.

“But he will have opposition. And that opposition, I think, will be strongly held,” said Elliott.

“Let’s call this what it is. In order for him to win, he has to take over the existing party. He will be brushing aside the people, for the most part, who are holding the party together during these tough times.”

Elliott said there will be an urgency for progressives, such as herself, to find a candidate with the ability to take on Kenney and “put up an alternate vision of the party.”

The prospect of Kenney running for the PC leadership has already set off a furious reaction among some Tories, with Calgary-North West MLA Sandra Jansen saying she would not serve under Kenney, and former cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk calling for him to be barred from the leadership contest.

But one PC activist who will have a role in Kenney’s campaign said he believes the MP is prepared to reach out to the disparate camps within Tory ranks, and can succeed in healing the divisions between the PCs and Wildrose.

“This will be a very big tent,” said the source.

Kenney’s entrance into the Tory leadership race will also raise major questions for the Wildrose Party, which recently announced it was dropping any notion of consolidating with other parties.

In a statement, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said the party “stands firm in its conservative identity” and will continue to build across the province.

“Over the next year, the PC party will be involved in a divisive battle as they debate their stated pledge at their recent AGM to go it alone,” said Jean, a former Conservative MP who served with Kenney.

“It would be wrong to speculate further on the leadership race for the third party until this is resolved.”

Wildrose was formed by conservatives disgruntled with the PC government in 2008, and the two parties have been engaged in a vicious political fight even as attempts have been made to reunite. In 2014, then Wildrose leader Danielle Smith led a mass floor-crossing of most of her MLAs to the Tories under Jim Prentice, another former Conservative MP.

But the four-decade PC dynasty was sent to third place by the NDP in last year’s provincial election, while the Wildrose rebounded to again form the official Opposition.

Smith, now a radio host after losing her bid for a Tory nomination in 2015, said Tuesday she still believes conservatives should unite, though she’s not convinced Kenney is the person to do it.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle for him … because of some of the positions that he has taken on conservative social issues in the past,” she said.

“There has to be a fundamental recognition that Calgary and Edmonton are far more progressive on social issues than the rural areas, whether it’s assisted dying, whether it’s abortion, whether it’s LGBTQ rights, whether it’s pot legalization.”

Kenney, 48, was first elected as a Reform MP in 1997. Under Stephen Harper, he served as minister for defence, citizenship and immigration, and employment. He has been viewed as a potential federal leader.

Following his Calgary event, where he will not take questions, Kenney will travel to Grande Prairie to make a speech. On Thursday, he will hold a news conference in Edmonton and do interviews.

While he will face obstacles, Kenney will also find a receptive audience for the message of merging parties. Since the NDP’s rise to power, organizations such as the Alberta Prosperity Fund and Alberta Can’t Wait have sprung up to push conservative unity.

The Alberta Prosperity Fund, a self-styled political action committee chaired by former Wildrose interim leader Heather Forsyth, announced Tuesday it endorsed Kenney for the PC leadership.

With files from The Canadian Press

jwood@postmedia.com

As Jason Kenney weighs his options, the Conservative MP and former cabinet minister isn’t ruling out a move to Alberta politics.

Kenney, who will decide by the end of summer whether to seek the federal Tory leadership, is a strong advocate for uniting Alberta’s provincial conservatives, currently divided between the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives.

In an interview Thursday, Kenney said he has been approached by a significant number of people to play a role in developing a “united alternative” to Alberta’s NDP government and he believes “something needs to be done.”

Asked whether his activities could include a possible leadership run for a provincial party, Kenney said he had made no decisions yet about his future but noted that “one thing I would not be interested in is maintaining the division amongst free-enterprise Albertans.”

“I haven’t ruled anything in or out,” Kenney said from Ottawa.

The Calgary Midnapore MP admits he is frustrated with the Wildrose and PC parties, which both intend to forge ahead on their own.

“It is frustrating not just for me but I think for a couple of million Albertans who want a competent, free-enterprise government and are frustrated that institutional stasis and egos and bad blood seem to be getting in the way of that,” said Kenney, who was first elected as a Reform MP in 1997.

“I would hope people would take a more tolerant, broad-minded approach to building a coalition, a diverse coalition, just like we did with the Conservative Party of Canada.”

Kenney said bringing together Alberta conservatives should be easier than the “infinitely more difficult” unification of the Canadian Alliance and federal PCs to form the Conservative party, given the multiple jurisdictions, two official languages and lengthier history that was involved nationally.

The veteran MP must still decide whether he will throw his hat in the ring for the leadership of the federal Conservatives, who will select their next leader in May of 2017.

While Kenney would likely be a formidable figure in the leadership race, he said he’s balancing out both personal and political factors as he decides whether to run.

He said he’s not concerned about whether there is a candidate from Alberta in the national race but believes the next leader must be fluently bilingual and able to transcend the regional divides in the country.

“I believe it’s important to have somebody with strong convictions, a conviction conservative in this race and I don’t think there’s much appetite in our party to go back to a sort of retro-’70s Joe Clark idea of Canadian conservatism,” he said.

Though Kenney has a few different political choices ahead of him, he has ruled out one option.

While he’s recently been tweeting his concerns about Calgary property tax rates and bike lanes, Kenney says he’s won’t run for mayor in 2017.

“Definitely not,” he said with a laugh.

jwood@postmedia.com

A Wildrose constituency association is calling for a review of Brian Jean’s leadership at the party’s fall convention after recent internal turmoil.

The Wildrose board in Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills passed a resolution Tuesday night asking for the party’s constitution to be amended to allow for annual leadership reviews and for the party’s executive committee to call a leadership review at the party’s Oct. 28-29 annual general meeting.

Carl Christensen, president of the local constituency association, said the board believes in principle there should be regular reviews of the party’s leader.

But there is also dissatisfaction with Jean’s leadership among some board members, he said.

“There’s been some issues in the news that maybe haven’t put Wildrose in a positive light,” said Christensen in an interview Thursday.

“Even more than that, I would say part of it has to do with talk about uniting the right and so on . And some people say that our party shouldn’t have been talking along those lines.”

Christensen wouldn’t comment on whether Jean should continue as leader.

The Wildrose constitution says that the executive committee must ask members “at least once in every three general meetings” whether they approve of the current leader. At last year’s AGM, Jean received 78 per cent support .

Jean turned down an interview request Thursday.

In a statement issued by the Wildrose caucus, Jean said he was not surprised that there are party members “uncomfortable with setting a bold new vision for Wildrose.”

“But I have travelled every corner of Alberta and am confident the vast majority of members and conservatives across the province want to see Wildrose broaden our tent and consolidate conservatives heading into the next election,” said the statement, which indicated Jean would make no further comment on the issue.

The former Conservative MP won the party’s leadership in the spring of 2015 shortly after Wildrose had been decimated by the mass floor-crossing of MLAs, including leader Danielle Smith. Taking the party into a snap election, Jean was elected in Fort McMurray-Conklin as Wildrose again formed the official Opposition.

The last few weeks have been tumultuous for Wildrose, however.

The party was widely criticized for finance critic Derek Fildebrandt’s roasting of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne as she sat as a guest in the legislature gallery. Fildebrandt was suspended from the Wildrose caucus a day later after endorsing a homophobic Facebook post aimed at Wynne. He quickly apologized and said it was inadvertent.

With Jean facing criticism from within Wildrose ranks, Fildebrandt was then suddenly reinstated under conditions that remain unclear.

Jean had called last year for grassroots discussions between Wildrose members and Progressive Conservatives in an effort to create a new “consolidated conservative coalition.” He recently said there was no path forward for that idea and that Wildrose would attempt to become a broader conservative party, possibly under a new name.

The Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills riding is represented by Wildrose MLA Dave Hanson.

Hanson was present at the board meeting Tuesday but did not speak to the resolution nor vote on it, said Christensen.

Hanson also did not respond to an interview request.

In the caucus statement, Hanson said he supported Jean’s leadership.

“Mr. Christensen’s comments do not reflect my views, or the views of our board,” he said.

Christensen said there were 15 board members present at the Tuesday meeting and almost all voted in favour of a leadership review.

Wildrose sources said Thursday similar resolutions are under consideration by other constituency associations but that could not be confirmed.

Party president Jeff Callaway and executive director Jeremy Nixon did not return phone messages Thursday.

jwood@postmedia.com

A Calgary Wildrose activist is calling for the party to become a “vocal and meaningful champion” of LGBTQ issues but some advocates say that will require concrete action from an official Opposition that has at times run into controversy on that front.

Jeromy Farkas, president of the Wildrose’s Calgary-Elbow constituency association, is organizing local party members to march in Sunday’s Lilac festival parade wearing T-shirts with the Wildrose logo enhanced with the Pride rainbow symbol to show support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

In a Facebook post, the openly bisexual Farkas said he wants the party to be an ally of the LGBTQ community and he asked Wildrose members and other conservatives to “ demonstrate that you’re for me, rather than merely ‘not against’ me.”

“We’re calling for the party membership as well as leaders to be more visible advocates who are more proactively, meaningfully and, importantly, publicly supportive,” Farkas, who also intends to run for city council in Ward 11 in the 2017 municipal election, said in an interview this week.

The efforts come just days after the federal Conservative party dropped its long-standing official opposition to same-sex marriage. It also follows Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s apparently inadvertent endorsement of a homophobic Facebook post, which set off a whirlwind that saw him profusely apologize, be suspended from the party caucus and then be hastily reinstated.

Farkas, who publicly supported Fildebrandt, said Wildrose has to get out the message that most of its existing policies are supportive of the LGBTQ community, noting the party constitution says it defends “the fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons.”

However, the language around rights has been problematic for Wildrose in the past.

At the party’s 2014 annual general meeting, delegates rejected an expanded human rights policy that included sexual orientation among the definitions. Former Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith has blamed the resistance of social conservatives to that policy as a factor in her decision to defect to the Tory government.

LGBTQ issues were already a minefield for the party after the 2012 election, when a Wildrose candidate’s blog post saying that gays would be condemned to the “lake of fire” helped derail Smith’s campaign.

Kristopher Wells, director of the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services, said he welcomes any efforts from Wildrose on LGBTQ issues “but it takes more than putting on T-shirts and showing up at a parade.”

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has taken a zero-tolerance policy on homophobic remarks and the party did support NDP amendments to the Human Rights Act banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

But on other issues Wildrose has been “resoundingly silent,” said Wells.

“They still haven’t come out and commented, let alone endorsed, the minister of education’s LGBTQ guidelines in schools, “said Wells, referring to measures introduced by the NDP government to protect gay and lesbian students that have sparked controversy in some religious and rural school divisions.

“So a lot more work is going to need to happen before this party is going to gain the trust of not only LGBTQ Albertans but progressive Albertans in general.”

Edmonton is holding its Pride Parade Saturday, with Premier Rachel Notley and many NDP MLAs taking part in the march. Tory MLA Sandra Jansen and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark are also participating.

The Wildrose caucus said Jean will join the parade if he can make it back from an event in Jasper on time.

Jeremy Nixon, the party’s executive director, said Jean wants Wildrose to be an inclusive party that will stand up for all Albertans, including the LGBTQ community.

He said Wildrose is the only party that fully supports both the rights of the LGBTQ community and religious freedom.

Nixon said that on the NDP’s education guidelines, the party is still trying to understand the consequences of the government’s proposals and make sure constituents have the right information.

“At the end of the day, it’s hard to come out and state how we feel about something until we fully understand it and its implications,” he said, adding that Wildrose is committed to ensuring students are safe and protected from bullying.

Craig Sklenar, the director of government relations for Calgary Pride, said Wildrose has made some overtures about participating in September’s Pride parade in the city.

But he said all political parties have to be truly engaged with the LGBTQ community at all times.

“We definitely welcome those conversations but it does definitely take a bit of time to not only gain the trust of the community but also for that organization to really understand what are the issues,” he said.

jwood@postmedia.com

The Wildrose move to suspend Derek Fildebrandt from caucus has put leader Brian Jean at odds with one of his most prominent MLAs and exposed dissension within the party as it tries to present a united front and broaden its appeal to Alberta conservatives.

The decision to suspend Fildebrandt on Friday night over the Strathmore-Brooks MLA’s apparent endorsement of a homophobic Facebook post — which Fildebrandt quickly apologized for and said was inadvertent — provoked an outcry among some Wildrose members and prompted a special meeting of the party’s executive on Monday night.

Jean announced Monday that Fildebrandt would be welcomed back into the fold — perhaps within days — if he follows a set of commitments laid out by the caucus.

The conditions were not disclosed by Jean, but a list seen by Postmedia includes requirements that Fildebrandt begins professional development training and anger management courses, have no access to media except in his riding and remain suspended until the end of the legislative sitting, which may stretch for another two weeks.

He would also be suspended from his finance critic position, remain on strict probation until Sept. 1 and be required to apologize to the Wildrose caucus.

In a phone conversation, Fildebrandt made a brief statement without addressing whether he would accept the conditions.

“I am working with Brian to bring everyone together and resolve this as soon as possible,” he would only say, beyond adding that he is “keeping a stiff upper lip.”

Earlier, Jean said in a statement that Fildebrandt’s actions were the latest in a “long series of missteps on social media.”

“I made it clear when I took over the leadership of Wildrose there would be no tolerance for these type of comments and that there would be significant consequences for even inadvertent mistakes regarding intolerance of any individual,” said Jean, who turfed two provincial candidates last year.

The Wildrose has been burned in the past by inflammatory comments from candidates on sexuality and race, with controversy in 2012 helping to cost the party that year’s election.

Ronda Klemmensen, the president of the Wildrose constituency association in Strathmore-Brooks, said local party members have advised Fildebrandt to be more cautious on social media but she is “outraged” he had been kicked out of caucus over what was an honest mistake.

Klemmensen said the Strathmore-Brooks board wanted Jean and the caucus to immediately reinstate Fildebrandt.

She is also one of at least seven Wildrose constituency association presidents to sign a letter to caucus members offering “unequivocal support” to Fildebrandt and urging them to “quickly readmit him” to the fold.

Klemmensen said the situation has made her question Jean’s leadership.

“I was really mad about it. I didn’t think it was a good decision and I don’t know what exactly what would bring (Jean) to the line to think he had to do that,” said Klemmensen.

“There is a lot of Wildrosers that are really upset about this and they’re not mad at Derek.”

Wildrose party president Jeff Callaway said the special meeting of the party executive committee was called to provide information to directors about the suspension and allow them the opportunity for feedback.

He acknowledged it would not be a surprise if some members of the executive introduce a resolution in support of Fildebrandt.

“It’s fairly clear just judging by social media that there are some people who are quite unhappy with the decision that was taken, and I think that it behooves Brian and our caucus to be answerable for their decisions,” said Callaway, who added that as president, he had no position on the suspension.

Fildebrandt, the Wildrose finance critic, caused a controversy with his roasting of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne during question period last Thursday as she sat in the legislature gallery as a guest.

After Wildrose expressed “regret” over the situation Friday, Fildebrandt received support on Facebook from an individual who derided the openly gay Ontario premier as “Mr. Wynne or whatever the hell she identifies as,” while praising the Wildrose MLA’s tough talk.

Fildebrandt responded to the post by writing, “proud to have constituents like you.”

Shortly after other people began pointing out the posting on social media, Fildebrandt apologized profusely on Twitter and said he had not carefully read the comment and had missed the slur of Wynne.

The furor comes just two weeks after Jean announced that efforts to unite provincial conservative parties were dead and that Wildrose intended to become a bigger, broader party — possibly under a new brand name — with wide appeal to Albertans.

Callaway said he is hopeful the current situation would blow over and not derail those plans.

But interim Progressive Conservative Leader Ric McIver suggested to reporters the situation within Wildrose would have Albertans thinking twice about supporting Wildrose.

“If there are Albertans out there looking for a political home as a result of what happened recently, then the Progressive Conservative association would be a good place to look,” he said.

jwood@postmedia.com