Two days of frantic speculation ramped into the defection of nine Wildrose MLAs, including the party’s leader, last Wednesday, but the riding’s local Wildrose MLA stayed the course.
As the rumours started to swirl about MLAs crossing the floor to join the Progressive Conservative government, Shayne Saskiw took to Twitter last Monday to state, “I am committed to fighting for LLB - St. Paul. There is a rumour that I am crossing the floor tomorrow. That rumour is false.”
However, leader Danielle Smith proved other rumours true, leading eight of her MLAs to join the PCs, in a move that decimated the Wildrose caucus to five MLAs, the same number as the Liberals.
Smith attributed her switch to her belief in the conservative vision under newly elected PC leader Jim Prentice, saying, “I want this premier to succeed and I want to be part-and-parcel of helping him to succeed.”
She requested the party to ask members to vote on a “reunification resolution” to merge with the PCs, but Wildrose executives have already rejected this option. The Wildrose Party announced yesterday that MLA Heather Forsyth has been selected as new interim leader.
Provincially, Wildrose supporters lambasted the leader and called it a betrayal, but local response was guarded. Dave Inscho, vice-president of policy for the local Wildrose executive, said his reaction was “shock,” but could not add more.
“To be very honest with you, things are in such flux, I haven’t even had an opportunity to wrap my head around it. It’s going to take some time to figure it out,” said Inscho.
Last month, the exodus of MLAs began with Kerry Towle and Ian Donovan leaving the Wildrose to join the Conservatives, while Joe Anglin left to sit as an Independent. At the time, Saskiw told the Journal the party still had strength.
“Polling just came out that had us around 30 per cent in the polls,” he said at the time. “Given the few hard weeks that we’ve had, I think that demonstrates that our party has resilience. We just have to be in fighting form come the next election.”
The Wildrose had surged in popularity in the lead-up to the 2012 election, with pollsters predicting it could topple more than four decades of PC governance. Instead, the PCs managed to form another majority government, while facing the Wildrose as a 17-member strong Official Opposition.
However, Saskiw was unable to be reached for comment last week about his thoughts on his own political future and the future of the party.
Meanwhile, the Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills Progressive Conservative party was focusing on the future, which was looking even brighter to the executive’s chair. The Tories now hold 72 of the legislature’s 87 seats.
“I think the feeling out there is that we’re heading in the right direction,” said Don Schultz. “We have the right leadership and the right attitude.”
Besides the floor crossings, he said a sign of the party’s strength is that after Jim Prentice was selected as a party leader, he steered the PCs to four byelection wins in October, which dealt a blow to the Wildrose.
“Just that alone tells you people are changing their thoughts on the PC party and where we’re going.”
As a lifelong member of the PCs, Schultz has had moments of worry for the party, but believes that with Prentice, the PCs have been given another chance to show it will do what is right for the people of Alberta.
So far, five or six people have indicated they are interested in running for the nomination for the party, including current Town of St. Paul Mayor Glenn Andersen. Schultz is hoping that one person from each part of the riding will be in the race.
However, the more people that run, the more memberships are sold, and he notes, “It’s all to get the interest in the party rejuvenated in our riding.”
