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Wildrose leadership a two-person race |
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Written by Dave Mabell
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Thursday, 17 September 2009 |
Following the party’s byelection victory in Calgary, Wildrose Alliance supporters were ready to welcome three leadership candidates to Lethbridge.
But only two spoke Thursday, following the sudden withdrawal of the third contender.
Mark Dyrholm, Danielle Smith and Jeff Willerton drew a crowd of about 400 to a forum Wednesday in Calgary, two days after interim leader Paul Hinman surprised the provincial Tories by ending their 40-year run in Calgary Glenmore.
But at the end of the evening, Willerton announced he’s quitting the leadership race and throwing his support to Dyrholm.
“I was disappointed in my performance,” he said Thursday, reflecting on the crowd’s response to Dyrholm and Smith. “The other candidates are very talented.”
Willerton, an Airdrie businessman, said he favours Dyrholm because of his more conservative stands on social issues.
Willerton has spoken against same-gender marriages in Alberta and he’s called for a referendum to stop paying for abortion procedures.
“Mark has more of a conservative approach.”
Originally from Claresholm, Dyrholm is a chiropractor and businessman in Calgary. He ran for the Conservative nomination in a Calgary riding in 2004 and subsequently worked on the campaign team that returned MLA Ron Liepert — now the province’s powerful health minister — to office.
But now he’s lost all confidence in Premier Ed Stelmach and his ministers, he says.
“I had great hopes for Ed Stelmach at the beginning,” he said during a campaign swing through southern Alberta last month. “
Instead, “What we have is incompetence, not just him but his upper echelon.”
And he’s particularly upset by the actions of the health minister.
“Liepert is just randomly blowing up our health-care system,” like Premier Ralph Klein before him.
He’s held town hall meetings across the province in recent months, taking in such communities as Taber, Lethbridge, Cardston, Fort Macleod and of course, Claresholm.
Smith, formerly the Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says she and the other candidates have been finding a strong response throughout Alberta.
“The issues are the same all over,” she said during an interview before the Lethbridge forum. “People are frustrated with what they’re seeing from this government.”
Health-care cuts, seniors’ pharmacy bills, the premier’s flip-flops on energy royalties — and the province’s sudden $7-billion deficit — are just some of the issues they’re raising, she said.
That message hit paydirt in Calgary this week, but Smith says it’s well received outside the big cities as well. The Conservatives, she said, have lost touch with such key players as the province’s beef producers.
“They’re punishing Alberta beef growers for trying to stick up for their own interests.”
Far from a grassroots party, she said, Conservatives have become “career politicians.” If they speak out against the party line — like MLA Guy Boutilier in Fort McMurray — they’re booted out.
“Our party doesn’t believe MLAs work for the leader, they work for the constituents.”
The leadership campaign, she said, will continue with more rallies including a Sept. 29 event in Medicine Hat. Party members will meet Oct. 17 in Edmonton to name the winner.
But the successful candidate won’t necessarily be the one who draws the biggest applause at public forums, Smith pointed out.
“It will be the person who sells the most memberships, the person who does the most work behind the scenes.”
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