September 19th, 2011
Michael Wood: Edmonton Sun

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith issued a tacit invitation to any right-leaning Progressive Conservatives left disaffected by Saturday's vote -- It's bluer over here.

Saturday's vote by PC party members ushered Gary Mar, Alison Redford and Doug Horner into an Oct. 1 runoff election and Ted Morton, Rick Orman and Doug Griffiths out of the race. It's a slate seen by some as more P than C.

"They completely rejected the conservative wing of their party," Smith said on Sunday.

The leader of Alberta's fledgling conservative alternative party said Saturday's vote is indicative of a party sliding away from its core values, one that's widening a chasm between the Wildrose and PC parties.

"Those supporting the Wildrose are supporting a party that believes in small 'c' conservative principles. The PCs today have taken a pretty sharp swing to the left, so now you actually have four political parties in Alberta that are all going after the same central left vote -- the NDP, the Liberals, the Alberta Party and the PCs."

"When I look at the conservative landscape, I think it's pretty clear for conservative voters that Wildrose is going to be the only choice in the next election."

Smith said they'd welcome with open arms the campaign teams and PC members who signed up to vote for their respective candidates in Saturday's election.

When asked if any of the candidates would be welcome, Smith said that wouldn't be a viable option given their party's nomination process has closed.

"And unfortunately some of them have made decisions that would make it very hard for our members to accept or believe that they're willing to walk their talk this time," Smith said.

"If you look at Ted (Morton), he was Finance Minister when there were record deficits and Sustainable Resource and Development Minister when the land use framework came in. Those are two significant decisions he made that are one of the reasons why Wildrose conservative members felt they no longer had a home in the PC party."

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it