Categories
Alberta Politics

Derek Fildebrandt and Don MacIntyre out of the UCP caucus. Alberta Advantage Party picks a new leader on Feb. 24, 2018.

Photo: Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt in happier days as he joined Jason Kenney on the eve of his victory in the 2017 PC Party leadership race. (Photo credit: @pcyouthalberta on Twitter)

Derek Fildebrandt is out of the United Conservative Party Caucus for good, according to a statement issued by party leader Jason Kenney last week.

Leela Aheer Wildrose MLA Chestermere Rockyview
Leela Aheer

Fildebrandt pleaded guilty in a Didsbury court house last week to illegally shooting a deer on private property and he was fined $3,000.

The former official opposition finance critic was a rising star in Conservative partisan circles until his political career crashed in August 2017 when he was forced to leave the UCP Caucus after a series of embarrassing scandals.

Fildebrandt arrived in Alberta in 2012 to work as a Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesperson and he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the Wildrose Party MLA for Strathmore-Brooks in 2015.

As an Independent MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, Fildebrandt now must decide what is next for his political career. A significant redistribution of the electoral boundaries divides his current district into the new Brooks-Medicine Hat, Chestermere-Strathmore and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills districts.

If he had been allow to rejoin the UCP caucus, he would have faced an uphill battle to win the nomination against popular incumbent Leela Aheer, who currently represents Chestermere-Rockyview and has declared her intentions to seek the UCP nomination in Chesteremere-Strathmore. Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills is currently represented by UCP MLA Nathan Cooper, who is also expected to seek re-election.

Don MacIntyre MLA
Don MacIntyre

Also departing the UCP caucus last Friday afternoon was Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Don MacIntyre, who announced on Twitter that he was “Resigning from politics today to focus on our family.” Mainstream media outlets published a flurry of reports explaining the reason for the MLA’s unexpected departure soon after his announcement, but those stories were quickly removed.

I expect we will learn more about the nature of MacIntyre’s departure soon.

It was also unclear whether MacIntyre, a member of his party’s Rural Crime Task Force and one of his caucus’ fiercest climate change deniers, has just resigned from the UCP Caucus or whether he has also resigned as the MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. If he has resigned as MLA, a by-election would required to be called in this heavily conservative voting rural central Alberta district by August 2018.

Penhold town councillor and local constituency association co-president Mike Walsh has already registered his intentions to seek the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake UCP nomination for the expected 2019 general election.


Alberta Advantage Party leadership vote on Feb. 24, 2018

Marilyn Burns Alberta Advantage Party
Marilyn Burns

They are not even officially registered as a political party, but members of the group calling themselves the Alberta Advantage Party are electing their first permanent leader on Feb. 24, 2018.

Information on the party’s website is vague, but posts on their Facebook page suggest that Marilyn Burns, a co-founder of the Wildrose Party and critic of the UCP, is the only candidate in the race. Burns was a candidate for the leadership of the Alberta Alliance Party in 2005 and was a candidate for that party in Stony Plain in the 2004 election.

Gil Poitras, who served as Chief Financial Officer for the Alberta Party in 2013 and 2014, has been serving as interim leader of the Alberta Advantage Party.

(hat tip to @edwinmundt for bringing this to my attention)

Categories
Alberta Politics

Three new right-wing candidates challenge Jason Kenney in Calgary-Lougheed by-election.

Photo: Calgary-Lougheed by-election candidates Jason Kenney (UCP), David Khan (Liberal), Lauren Thorsteinson (Reform), Phillip van der Merwe (NDP), Romy Tittel (Green) and Wayne Leslie (Independent/AAPPA). Not pictured: Larry Heather (Independent)

In addition to the four candidates I mentioned in my previous post about the Calgary-Lougheed by-election – United Conservative Party candidate Jason Kenney, New Democratic Party candidate Phillip van der Merwe, Liberal candidate David Khan, and Green candidate Romy Tittel – three more candidates put their names forward to run in the December 14, 2017 vote.

Each of the three new candidates come from the much more conservative side of the political spectrum than any of Kenney’s previously announced challengers.

Wayne Leslie – Alberta Advantage Political Party Association

Wayne Leslie will be listed on the ballot as an Independent but a press release sent out today says he has the support of the unregistered Alberta Advantage Political Party Association, a group formed by supporters of the former Wildrose Party who did not support the merger with the Progressive Conservative Party. Leslie serves as the provincial director for Calgary on the AAPPA board and, according to the press release, he is a former Calgary Police officer who believes the “unity vote” process to merge the Wildrose and PC parties was “plain corruption.”

The AAPPA’s interim leader is Gil Poitras, who is listed by Elections Alberta as having served as Chief Financial Officer for the Alberta Party in 2013 and 2014 and as the president of the Alberta Party association in Leduc-Beaumont in 2015. The AAPPA’s president is David Inscho, the former president of the Wildrose association in Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills.

Lauren Thorsteinson – Reform Party of Alberta

Lauren Thorsteinson of Red Deer will run under the Reform Party of Alberta banner. The party was formed in 2014 and officially registered with Elections Alberta in 2016 by leader Randy Thorsteinson, Lauren’s father. The elder Thorsteinson led the Social Credit Party through a brief revival in the 1997 election and later formed and led the Alberta Alliance Party, which later merged with the Wildrose Party to become the Wildrose Alliance Party, when then eventually merged with the PC Party to become the United Conservative Party.

Larry Heather – Independent

Larry Heather is a social conservative activist and perennial election candidate who has run in at least twenty school board, municipal, provincial and federal elections since 1984. Most recently he ran in Calgary’s mayoral election where he earned 848 votes (0.2 percent of the vote). In 2016, he ran as an Independent candidate in the Calgary-Greenway by-election where he earned 106 votes (1.28 percent of the vote).


Notley Q&A on CBC

Premier Rachel Notley will be taking questions live on air on CBC Radio’s Edmonton AM program on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 from 8:00am to 9:00am. Take advantage of your chance to engage with our premier and send in your questions.


Daveberta Podcast

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