A Progressive Conservative MLA is appealing a decision by a Conservative Party of Canada committee to disqualify him as a nomination candidate in the newly created Edmonton-West federal riding, according to reliable sources.
(see updates below)
It remains unclear why the committee chose to disqualify Edmonton-McClung MLA David Xiao, who announced his entry into the contest in March 2014.
If Mr. Xiao’s disqualification is upheld by the Conservative Party National Council, it is expected that Edmonton hotel manager Kelly McCauley will be acclaimed as the party’s candidate for the next federal election.
Kelly McCauley
Mr. Xiao’s candidacy has been endorsed by provincial Health Minister and Edmonton-Whitemud by-election candidate Stephen Mandel, former premier Ed Stelmach and provincial cabinet ministers Jonathan Denis and Manmeet Bhullar.
Since his election in 2008, Mr. Xiao has served as the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy, Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Employment and Immigration. ‘Edmonton-McClung MLA David Xiao’s claimed travel expenses of nearly $35,000 last year, more than any of his Edmonton colleagues,’ the CBC reported on Jan. 22, 2013.
The Conservative Party is expected to respond to Mr. Xiao’s appeal this week.
Contributing to more potential controversy, a lawyer representing Mr. Xiao recently informed Wildrose Official Opposition leader Danielle Smithand Innisfail-SylvanLake Wildrose MLA Kerry Towlethat he planned to issue notices under Alberta’s Defamation Act.
UPDATE (October 15, 2014): Mr. Xiao has released a statement confirming he is appealing his disqualification as a nomination candidate by the Conservative Party in Edmonton-West.
UPDATE (October 16, 2014): According to reliable sources, Mr. Xiao’s appeal has been rejected by the Conservative Party of Canada National Council. Mr. McCauley is expected to be acclaimed as the candidate in Edmonton-West.
Edmonton-Decore Progressive Conservative MLA Janice Sarich released a statement this morning announcing that she will not seek a Conservative Party nomination for the next federal election.
Before today’s announcement, the provincial New Democrats, Wildrose and Liberals had been itching for an opportunity challenge the Redford Tories in a by-election in the working-class north Edmonton constituency. While Ms. Sarich was elected with healthy margins in the past two election, Edmonton-Decore had previously been represented by Liberal and NDP MLAs since the mid-1980s.
Two other PC MLAs could also make the jump into federal politics in the next election. Calgary-Foothills MLA Len Webber is seeking the Conservative nomination in Calgary Confederation, and Edmonton-McClung PC MLA David Xiao is expected to announce his intentions in Edmonton-West in the coming weeks.
Here is Ms. Sarich’s statement:
After a thorough exploration I have decided not to pursue a nomination for the federal Conservative Party of Canada.
I have been asked about the possibility on many occasions lately, and I want to try to address the questions by giving a sense of why I came to this conclusion.
I had been encouraged by many people to contest the nomination for Edmonton Griesbach riding, and in many ways it would have been a logical move and an interesting new challenge, given my work as an elected representative at the local and provincial levels since 2001.
I took the possibility seriously, and explored it very carefully. In the end, the constituent’s of Edmonton-Decore have been very good to me, and we have built a strong connection over the years.
The factor that made the biggest difference was that the issues and concerns that mean the most to me are at the provincial level. It is not that federal issues are not important – foreign policy, defence, and international trade are of course very important. But to me, issues related to education, health care and human services are simply much closer to my heart, and I think they are more crucial to the people I represent as well.
I have consistently focused on trying to support the development of healthy and well-educated families in strong and safe communities.
After much thought, it is quite clear to me that I have far more opportunity to do so at the provincial level.
I have genuinely appreciated all of the offers of support to pursue the federal nomination, and I want to thank all of those who offered encouragement and assistance. I hope this explanation will clarify my decision, and I want to encourage others to pursue the federal nomination in order to address the important issues at the national level.
Former provincial cabinet minister and MLA Ron Liepert officially announced in a statement this morning his intentions to seek the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in the newly redistributed Calgary Signal Hill riding.
Mr. Liepert’s candidacy has been widelysuspected since the “timetodobetter.ca” group announced it would support a candidate to challenge ultra-conservative Member of Parliament Rob Anders. Mr. Anders has represented west Calgary since 1997 and since then he has defeated a “who’s who” of challengers who would seek to defeat him in the nomination contest or general election.
Here is an exert from Mr. Liepert’s statement:
Ten days ago a concerned group of community members launched a campaign featuring a few road signs and a website “timetodobetter.ca.” The initiative was designed to re-engage federal Conservatives in the city’s west and northwest that will form the new Signal Hill riding in the next election. This initiative was led by Conservative party members who are strong supporters of the Conservative cause and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The website registered over 3000 visitors and over 500 email sign-ups within just over a week signalling early and overwhelming support for democracy and open nominations. As a result Conservatives from throughout the Calgary Signal Hill riding became excited again.
I was proud to be a member of the group and overwhelmed by the response our campaign generated. So now it is time to take the next step. Today I am announcing that I will put my name forward as a candidate for the federal Conservative nomination in Calgary Signal Hill when it is called this year.
Mr. Liepert is the second candidate to announce a challenge to Mr. Anders in Calgary Signal Hill. Former Calgary-West Conservative president Dan Morrison announced his candidacy last week.
List of 2015 federal election candidates
Canada’s next federal election is scheduled to be held on October 19, 2015. I am maintaining a list of candidates who have announced their intentions to seek nominations and run in the next federal election in Alberta ridings. Please contact me at david.cournoyer [at] gmail.com for additions or updates related to candidate nominations in Alberta.
Will former provincial cabinet minister Ron Liepert make the jump into federal politics?
With the launch of the TimeToDoBetter.ca website today, rumours began to spread that the former two-term Calgary-West Progressive Conservative MLA turned consultant could challenge ultra-conservative Rob Anders for the Conservative Party nomination in the new Calgary Signal Hill riding.
Ron Liepert
Mr. Liepert’s candidacy would surely spark another proxy-war between the supporters of the provincial PC and Wildrose parties first seen in last year’s Calgary-Centre by-election.
This would not be the first time these two men have publicly sparred. In 2009, Mr. Liepert accused Mr. Anders of campaigning against him in the 2008 provincial election. Many of Mr. Anders associates have joinedDanielle Smith‘s Wildrose Party, including his close confident Andrew Constantinidis, who ran to replace Mr. Liepert in the 2012 provincial election.
While many of his supporters flocked to the new provincial party, some in the Wildrose establishment see Mr. Anders as a political liability whose ideology could challenge their attempt to rebrand as a moderate conservative alternative to the governing PCs.
In the conservative bloodbath that is sure to ensue if the rumours are true, I would expect nothing less than for Mr. Anders and conservative entertainer Ezra Levant to slice directly at Mr. Liepert’s jugular. They will be sure to remind their conservative base about Mr. Leipert’s record as the Health minister who created the centralized Alberta Health Services and the Finance minister who introduced deficit budgets and talked about increasing taxes.
Mr. Liepert’s ties to the provincial PC establishment date back to the Peter Lougheed era, when he worked at the Legislative Assembly and was appointed as a staff member at Alberta’s trade office in Los Angeles. He first ran for the PC Party in 1993, first in an unsuccessfully bid for the party nomination in Edmonton-Glenora and then as the PC candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Beverly (in the election he was defeated by his Liberal opponent, Alice Hanson). He was first elected to the Assembly in 2004 as the PC MLA for Calgary-West.
Alison Redford
Mr. Leipert is no slouch. In provincial politics, he thrived off the cut and thrust of partisan conflict. Whether he could win the Conservative Party nomination against Mr. Anders is yet to be seen.
Since he was first elected in 1997, Mr. Anders has been challenged by many high profile conservatives and easily defeated all of them in nomination battles.
At the age of 24, Mr. Anders, then a young Republican Party provocateur, returned to Canada to defeat nine other candidates to win his first Reform Party nomination in Calgary-West. His election coincided with the election of a group of young conservative Reformers, including Jason Kenney and Rahim Jaffer.
If he is challenged by Mr. Liepert in the upcoming nomination, it would not be the first time a high-profile politico who has attempted to end Mr. Anders career in Ottawa.
In 2004, future Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford made her first jump into electoral politics with an unsuccessful nomination bid against Mr. Anders. Mr. Liepert was her campaign manager.
In 2000, he was unsuccessfully challenged by Calgary-Currie PC MLA Jocelyn Burgener (now a poet) and in 2009 he faced future Calgary-Varsity PC MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans. With the help of Mr. Levant, he nastily branded Ms. Kennedy-Glans as a “Liberal saboteur” and a “bizarre cross between a radical feminist and an apologist for a women-hating Arab dictatorship.”
Internal nomination contests are not the only area Mr. Anders has faced challengers. In the 1997 election, alderman and future mayor Dave Bronconnier led an unsuccessful campaign against him as the Liberal Party candidate. In the 2000 election, Mr. Anders defeated both former Calgary-North West Liberal MLA Frank Bruseker and PC candidate Jim Silye (a Reform Party MP for Calgary-Centre from 1993 to 1997). Wind energy entrepreneur Justin Thompson earned 29% as the Liberal candidate in the 2004 election, the highest of any of Mr. Anders challengers. And the 2006 and 2008 elections, former Calgary Board of Education trustee Jennifer Pollock carried the Liberal banner against Mr. Anders.
Despite these high-profile challengers from inside and outside his party, Mr. Anders has yet to face electoral defeat in the political arena.
