Five things to know about the PC leadership race so far

James Wood, Calgary Herald
More from James Wood, Calgary Herald

The first week of the Progressive Conservative leadership race has been pretty quiet, but there’s lots of stuff bubbling just under the surface. As former MP Jason Kenney, former provincial cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans, lawyer Byron Nelson and MLA Richard Starke get their campaigns going, here are some of the interesting issues at play.

1. Capital Conundrum

It’s early, but so far there’s a glaring absence in the Progressive Conservative leadership race — no candidate from Edmonton.

Kennedy-Glans, Kenney and Nelson are all from Calgary, while Starke is from Lloydminster. Potential candidates from the capital city, meanwhile, are scarce.

Edmonton lawyer and former candidate Harman Kandola, who had been prepping for a leadership campaign, said this week he’s decided not to run because of family and work factors.

Some Tory insiders have been talking up Stephen Mandel as a possible standard-bearer, but the former Edmonton mayor and provincial health minister says that after briefly pondering a run, personal considerations will keep him out of the race.

Edmonton Coun. Michael Oshry, who said in the summer he was considering throwing his hat in the ring, could not be reached for comment, but most Tories spoken to don’t expect the municipal politician to jump into the race.

That leaves Stephen Khan as the most likely Edmonton-area contender. Khan was the MLA for St. Albert from 2012 to 2015, serving briefly in the cabinets of Alison Redford and Jim Prentice before losing his seat in the last election.

He couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, but talk among Tories is that he’s likely to run.

Mandel, who is serving as the PC party’s northern finance chair, said he thinks the party is in reasonable shape in Edmonton despite having no native son or daughter in the race so far.

“It’s always a concern when you don’t have representation from all of the areas of the province, but at this point of time I think the candidates who’ve put their name forward are good people,” he said.

“You can’t make people run if they don’t want to.”

2. Filling out the field

There’s still uncertainty on what the final lineup in the contest will look like, with potential candidates having until Nov. 10 to submit their nominations.

Adding to the Calgary-centric slant of the race, MLA Sandra Jansen is widely expected to run for leader. But the Calgary-North West MLA is still playing it close to the vest.

“I am officially close to making a final decision,” she said with a laugh on Friday.

Interim PC Leader Ric McIver, who ran for the party’s top job in 2014, also isn’t ruling out another kick at the can, though few Tories appear to expect him to run.

The Calgary-Hays MLA said this week he’s not too concerned about what part of Canada candidates hail from.

“It’s more important that we get the right leader,” he said. “I think the more the merrier as far as who enters.

“More importantly, we really must have a fiscally conservative leader as the next leader.”

3. Drinking buddies

Kenney has defined — and polarized — the leadership contest so far with his platform calling for the PCs and Wildrose to merge into a new conservative party.

But some Tory and Wildrose MLAs have already tentatively sniffed around the idea of uniting the right. Last December, Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt and PC MLA Mike Ellis co-hosted a pub night to talk about conservative values.

Now the two are at it again, with an event Friday night at Wurst restaurant, only this time Ellis is backing Kenney and his unity pitch.

Fildebrandt said it’s only natural for conservatives to get together over a pint when “the future of the conservative movement is a pretty hot topic” in each party.

The Strathmore-Brooks MLA said it’s up to PC members to decide which way their party is going and, in the meantime, he’s helping to build Wildrose to win the next election.

But on Kenney’s run, Fildebrandt said, “I welcome any attempt to bring conservatives together.”

Ellis said events such as the pub night are important because they illustrate the common ground that Canada conservatives share.

He said it’s also an opportunity to bring forward the unity message to both PCs and Wildrose members.

“I do reach out, I do talk to Wildrose supporters, and the consensus is, we’re really not that different,” said the Calgary-West MLA.

4. Crossing over

PC party ranks grew by about 5,000 members in the three-month run-up to the race’s formal start on Oct. 1, with current membership exceeding 30,000, said party executive director Troy Wason.

One twist to the Tory leadership race — and Kenney’s call for a united right — is that neither the PC nor Wildrose parties bar their members from holding memberships in another party at the same time.

Wason said many Wildrosers have been buying Tory memberships, whether they are motivated by the unite-the-right message or a renewed interest in the PCs

“Absolutely, they are; I know who they are,” he said.

But a Wildrose insider scoffed at the notion party members were moving to the PCs, suggesting Kenney was having little impact on the official Opposition.

5. Kenney may not have united the right yet, but he might be reuniting the old version of Wildrose

Former Airdrie MLA Rob Anderson, one of 11 Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor to the PC government in 2014, has publicly backed Kenney. He was slated to host a meet-and-greet for the former MP next week, but it was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, according to the Kenney campaign.

At least one other Wildrose defector, Bruce McAllister, is also supporting Kenney.

When the floor-crossing took place, five MLAs stayed on the Wildrose benches, with three of them re-elected as Wildrose members in last year’s election.

But the two Wildrose MLAs who chose not to run again in the 2015 election, Heather Forsyth and Shayne Saskiw, are both in Kenney’s camp.

Forsyth and Anderson were both originally elected as Tory MLAs before crossing the floor to Wildrose.

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