It has been almost a month since the membership of the Drumheller–Stettler UCP Constituency Association voted for its candidate for the next Provincial election, however, MLA Rick Strankman still has some concerns about the process.
On September 29 Nate Horner won the nomination, upsetting currently sitting MLA Rick Strankman with 969 to 740 votes. Strankman tells the Mail, he intends on finishing his term as MLA representing the riding.
“I was elected for the term, it is only fair to the people to stay there for the term. Quitting would just be a sore loser,” said Strankman. “I vehemently want to represent the people of the area, and I think that is an important role to play however that will be achieved.”
It was a fiercely fought election with its fair share of issues. Candidate Todd Pawsey was disqualified from running the day before the polls opened. There were also concerns about the number of polling stations in the expanded riding, as well as concern about the timing of the election.
Strankman expressed concern that the new constituency association has elements from other political parties.
“It has been interesting learning the number of people on my board who came from the Alberta Party or at least been seen at Alberta Party events,” he said.
“That is what I always wanted to do is represent people in the most popular way. We had 1,700 of those constituents express their opinion with a difference of 235 votes, that is significant, but still a small percentage of the voter base of the constituency, particularity the newly expanded Drumheller-Stettler constituency,” Strankman told the Mail. “I am anxious to see how this UCP board, under the guidance of a new representative comes forward. It will be interesting to see what kind of support they get from the constituents.”
The UCP Nomination Committee sent out a memo addressing some of the concerns, in particular, allegations were made the chair of the Local Candidate Nomination Committee was serving on the board of the Alberta Party.
“The Chair of the LCNC, Doug Jones, maintains that while he did attend an Alberta Party meeting in the past, he did not agree to serve on the Alberta Party Board. Mr. Jones has a well-established history in one of the UCP’s legacy parties, and since these concerns have been raised he has made it clear to the Alberta Party that he is not affiliated with them,” it states. Further, the committee is satisfied his role did not affect the outcome of the nomination.
It also notes the Party Nomination Committee overruled the local committee’s wish the nominations happen in June with only two voting stations. It delayed the voting until September and also added four more polling stations.
“The central party specifically added the voting locations requested by Mr. Strankman. The central party did so to allow more UCP members to participate in the process, and to ensure that the choice voting locations did not favour any of the contestants.”
Since the vote, there have been rumours that Strankman might be looking towards different political pastures.
He says that Derek Fildebrandt, who has recently formed the Freedom Conservative Party, and Marilyn Burns of the Alberta Alliance Party have been calling.
When asked whether he had political aspirations following the completion of his term, he said, “I haven’t given that any consideration right now. I am sorting through the machinations of the nomination and how that is going to play forwards towards the provincial election. That is going to be certainly of interest. I’ve had many people at my table say they don’t think there is going to be a spring election. I find that kind of hard to fathom, but stranger things have happened. I would have never thought I would have been collateral damage to a group of people who thought they were going to achieve provincial power in Alberta by crossing the floor to the Progressive Conservative Party.”
“I have always tried to exhibit a stronger conservative base and I am not detecting that here going forward from the Constituency Association.”
He does say he might be open to working with a third party or working within a Kenney led government in some sort of role.
“I have always been an advocate for farm and agriculture, so just to be on the farm would probably be a slower pace of life,” he said.
