Look who's hoping to ride Danielle Smith's coat tails.
by Dave CournoyerAs the face of the campaign, Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith is her party's biggest asset. She is media savvy, personable and, despite her limited governance experience (one year as a trustee on the dysfunctional Calgary Board of Education), she talks about becoming Premier with more confidence than any opposition leader in a long time.
But looking beyond the high-profile face of the Wildrose Party, which polls from the first week of the campaign suggest could be poised to form government, Albertans should be asking important questions about who would serve as cabinet ministers in a Wildrose Party government? The Premier is only one person at the table. Which Wildrose candidate would serve as Minister of Justice, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Health?
Ask most Albertans to name a Wildrose candidate outside their own riding, and they will probably respond with a puzzled face. The lack of "star-candidates" is likely a product of timing. The Wildrose Party began to hold its candidate nominations in 2010 during a time when the party was seen to have peaked and was sitting in the mid-teens in the polls. What the party ended up with were plenty of well meaning candidates, but not many who would be defined as "star candidates."
If the Wildrose Party were to form the government, who would be in the Cabinet?
The recent success of the federal NDP in Quebec provides a textbook example of why any party should take seriously the candidates it nominates to run under its banner, even if it does not look like they might form government at the time.
If the Wildrose Party are to form the next government in Alberta, an important question needs to be asked about whether their candidates are the kind of politicians that Albertans want running the show. Here is a look at some of the Wildrose candidates who could end up serving as a cabinet minister under Premier Danielle Smith:
- Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock candidate Link Byfield is the former publisher of the right-wing Alberta Report magazine. As has been noted elsewhere, Mr Byfield was the founder of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, which stands, among other things, "against expanding influence of the Charter of Rights."
- Calgary-Lougheed candidate John Carpay penned an opinion-editorial in the National Post in 1994 which criticized Premier Ralph Klein for not invoking the Notwithstanding Clause to block the Supreme Court decision forcing Alberta to include protection of homosexuals from discrimination.
More recently, Carpay defended the University of Calgary Campus Pro-Life Club and was part of the legal team which defended anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott against charges in Saskatchewan. (Whatcott was recently detained by the police for distributing anti-gay hate literature to homes in northwest Calgary).
- Calgary-Greenway Wildrose candidate and evangelical pastor Ron Leech penned an article in the Calgary Herald in 2004 which argued "to affirm homosexuality is to distort the image of God, to insult the nature and being of God." Perhaps this fits with Ms Smith's ideas on conscience rights (which has angered at least one now former Wildrose supporter).
- Edmonton-South West candidate Allan Hunsperger is the self-described pioneer in the establishment of Alberta's private schools in the late seventies and founder of Heritage Christian Schools.
- Edmonton-Glenora candidate Don Koziak's short-lived mayoral bid in 2010 was kicked off by a promise to halt LRT expansion, calling the public transit "enormously environmentally unfriendly." When asked what he would do differently, Koziak trumpeted the construction of more "interchanges and wider roads." Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would be proud.
- Edmonton-Castle Downs candidate John Oplanich, kicked off his campaign by offering to raffle a free big screen television to voters who would support him.
- A number of Wildrose candidates running in Edmonton constituencies have indicated over the past year that they would re-open the acrimonious City Centre Airport debate, even though elected City Councilors have already made the decision to phase out operations of the tiny downtown airport.
- As I have already written, a few Wildrose candidates from Calgary have strong connections with controversial Conservative MP Rob Anders. This includes Calgary-West candidate Andrew Constantinidis, who served as Anders' local constituency president and media coordinator during the 2011 federal election.
These are the highest profile stories around these candidates. The truth is, that outside of Smith and the four established Wildrose MLA's running for re-election, surprisingly little is known about the party's candidates. And the Wildrose Party has done a superb job of focusing the media's and voters attention on what they want, namely Danielle Smith, and ensuring that she, rather than their candidates are the ones making headlines.
Dave Cournoyer is a writer, blogger, and political watcher living in Edmonton, Alberta.
He created daveberta.ca in January 2005 and in 2007 it was awarded the Best Political Blog, Best Progressive Blog, and Best Blogosphere Citizen in the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards. It was also listed in SEE Magazine as one of Edmonton's top blogs. Dave has written articles and columns for SEE Magazine, VUE Weekly, Alberta Views Magazine, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. You can follow his tweets at @davecournoyer, glance through his photos on Flick, watch his favourite videos on YouTube, and send your fan letters to david.cournoyer@gmail.com.
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