Michaela Frey has resigned as the United Conservative Party MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat, opening up a by-election for new party leader Danielle Smith to to claim a seat in the Legislature.
Update: Smith has confirmed she will run as the UCP candidate in the Brooks-Medicine Hat by-election.
Smith was already running for the UCP nomination in her home riding of Livingstone-Macleod but incumbent MLA Roger Reid has publicly shown no indication he’s not still running for the nomination against his new leader.
Already running in the riding are retired teacher Gwendoline Dirk for the Alberta NDP and Alberta Party leader Barry Morishita, who also happens to be the former Mayor of Brooks.
I’ll have more on Brooks-Medicine Hat when a by-election is called (so probably soon).
And, not wanting to get caught off-guard if Smith decides to call an early general election, here are the NDP’s upcoming nomination meetings:
– Second-term MLA David Shepard is seeking the NDP nomination to run for re-election in Edmonton-City Centre. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 11.
– Dawn Flaata is running for the NDP nomination in Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 15.
– Amanda Chapman and Jason Curry are running for the NDP nomination in Calgary-Beddington. A nomination vote is scheduled for October 17.
– Dave Dale is running for the NDP nomination in Lacombe-Ponoka. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 19.
– Rebecca Bousall is running for the NDP nomination in Calgary-Fish Creek. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 20.
– Andrew Stewart is running for the NDP nomination in Calgary-Hays. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 26.
– Caitlyn Blake is running for the NDP nomination in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul. A nomination meeting is scheduled for October 28.
– Justin Huseby is running for the NDP nomination in Calgary-South East. A nomination meeting is scheduled for November 8.
7 replies on “Michaela Frey resigns, opens up Brooks-Medicine Hat by-election for Danielle Smith”
The question should be… Is the Leader of the Alberta Party Barry Morishita going to quit if he gets beat by Danielle Smith in Brooks-Medicine Hat in the bye-election….
john: The question isn’t about Barry Morishita. It’s about Danielle Smith showing a blatant disregard for the electorate. The reason why Danielle Smith won’t run in the still vacant riding of Calgary Elbow is because she knows she’ll get her butt kicked. Danielle Smith is taking the easy way out by running in the riding of Brooks Medicine Hat. All she seems to care about is herself.
Interesting how Smith has avoiding running in either of the two largest cities in Alberta. There is even one riding in Calgary already vacant because the MLA has resigned, but they will not even get a a chance to fill it at the same time as the Medicine Hat by election for Smith because there is a good chance the Calgary result would be too embarrassing for her.
Maybe she thinks she is fooling everyone by her supposedly clever strategy here, but I suspect not. Its not the sort of thing a confident new Premier would do. The last time a Premier ran in a by election was Prentice for the PC’s and elections for several other vacant seats were also held at the same time. As I recall he did fairly well in those, his problems only started later, after he invited Smith into the fold.
The partisan answer I hear is “They are saving money”. Of course, the next question leading from that is “Why are you putting a price on democracy?”
Yes, this is the convenient stock answer, when it suits them. Of course, we would “save” even more money if they didn’t bother with the by election at all. We could just have a general election a bit earlier, but I suspect someone is not yet quite ready for prime time. Not sure if they ever will be.
What I want to know is how the cost of a byelection compares to how much the government will spend settling an unfair dismissal lawsuit if Danielle Smith does follow through on her promise to fire Dr. Hinshaw.
Bob Raynard: What about the other very pricey shenanigans the UCP has been involved with, which costed billions of dollars?