Alberta Tories defect to Wildrose
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/01/2010 (5999 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CALGARY — Two Calgary-area Tory MLAs who are jumping ship to the upstart Wildrose Alliance party say the long-reining Conservative government has not addressed their concerns and those of their constituents.
In yet another dire development for the embattled provincial government of Premier Ed Stelmach, Airdrie-Chestermere Tory MLA Rob Anderson and Calgary-Fish Creek PC MLA Heather Forsyth announced Monday morning they are abandoning the Tories to join the right-of-centre party led by Danielle Smith.
"The current PC party leadership has failed to address my constituents’ concerns and will not permit me to speak publicly about these issues. Instead of remaining silent, I have decided to stand up with even greater force for the people who elected me," Anderson said. "I have no interest in investing any more of my life and taxpayers’ money defending poor public policy that has been developed by a small band of out-of-touch government appointees and insiders."
The floor-crossings will boost the Wildrose caucus to three MLAs — along with Paul Hinman, who won a September byelection in Calgary-Glenmore — and catapult the small-C conservative alternative past the NDP as the third party in the legislature.
The Tory defections come as polls have shown Stelmach is the least popular premier in the country and that his party has slipped to its lowest public support in 17 years — a distant second behind the Wildrose Alliance.
A recent Angus Reid poll of 1,000 decided Alberta voters found the Wildrose party would form the next provincial government if an election were held, nabbing the support of 39 per cent of the electorate. Stelmach’s Progressive Conservatives tied for second with David Swann’s Liberals, with the backing of 25 per cent of decided voters provincewide.
The Tories slipped to third in the poll in both Calgary and Edmonton.
— Canwest News Service