Voting underway to choose next Alberta PC leader
Voting is now underway in Calgary to elect the next, and possibly last, leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party.
Former MP and federal Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney, Alberta PC MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson are vying to replace the late Jim Prentice as the party’s permanent leader.
- CBC will carry the results of the first ballot live, expected just after 4:30 p.m. local time
- Wildrose ‘not our enemies,’ Kenney says in PC leadership pitch
- Suspended PC organizer Alan Hallman charged with assault near leadership convention
Kenney is running on a platform to unite Alberta conservatives by dissolving the PCs and creating a single right-wing party, so if he wins, this could be the last leadership race for the party as it now stands. Starke and Nelson want the party to continue under the PC banner.
The three candidates made their final pitches to the crowd of approximately 2,000 at the Telus Convention Centre.
Kenney supporters cheered loudly as interim federal Conservative Leader and Alberta MP Rona Ambrose seconded Kenney’s nomination by calling him “one of her best friends.”
During his speech, Kenney tried to reassure PCs who were anxious over the prospect of reuniting with their more socially conservative Wildrose cousins that the decision would be left to a referendum.
“Because this critical decision about our province’s future is too important to be made by a leader, a caucus or a board, or even the good people in this room,” he said. “It must be made by tens of thousands of grassroots Progressive Conservatives.”
.@jkenney casts his vote for the PC leadership. #ableg #cdnpoli #pcldr pic.twitter.com/n9oAjTN8bf
Candidate booed
The divisions in the room were most apparent when loud boos erupted when Starke suggested the social conservatism of some Wildrose supporters will mean a new united right party will lose the next election to the NDP.
“If we unite, then what?” Starke asked.
“We hold our breath hoping that none of our candidates say gay people will spend eternity in a lake of fire, hoping our campus club doesn’t send out an email saying that feminism is cancer, hoping one of our MLAs doesn’t heckle the visiting premier or that a group of nine MLAs does not compare the Ukrainian famine genocide to the carbon tax.
“And hoping our leader doesn’t joke about violence against the premier. Because my friends, if anything like that happens…you can hand Rachel Notley and the NDP the keys to the legislature for another four years.”
Prentice stepped down as party leader on May 5, 2015, after the PCs fell to the NDP led by Rachel Notley.
Calgary-Hays MLA Ric McIver became interim leader shortly afterwards.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/voting-underway-to-choose-next-alberta-pc-leader-1.4031408?cmp=rss