October 14th
Tanara McLean, Sun News

Critics are pouncing on Premier Alison Redford once again, this time after leaked documents reveal a senior St. Paul city official used his work email address to solicit Tory leadership race votes.

The CBC reported Thursday that St. Paul chief administrative officer Ron Boisvert used his town email address asking others to keep local MLA Ray Danyluk in a ministry position.

“Anybody can vote how they want, however, in order to keep Ray in a ministry position, either (Doug) Horner or Redford have to get in as premier,” the Sept. 22 letter said.

The letter goes on to appeal to voters to purchase a $5 PC party membership, telling them how to best ensure a Redford or Horner win.

“On the next ballot we would have to vote for Horner as our No. 1 pick and Alison Redford as our No. 2 pick to show continuity,” the letter said.

Redford went on to win the Oct. 1 vote by a mere 1,600 ballots - all due to Doug Horner’s second-choice votes.

St. Paul Mayor Glenn Andersen said Boisvert was wrong to use his work email.

“I would say he erred to use that email,” said Andersen. “Our council doesn’t condone that. We try not to get involved in that kind of politics.”

Anderson and Boisvert also attended a June PC fundraising golf event for Danyluk. The town paid for the men to attend the event. Using public money for partisan politics is illegal in Alberta.

Andersen said municipal councillors are put in a difficult position because attending political events helps them network, ultimately helping the town.

“We don’t have the money to do economic development. We have to work very closely with our MLAs to know what kind of grants are out there,” said Andersen, saying council publicly voted to allow certain councillors to attend the fundraiser.

“We went golfing and we used that as PR and networking.”

Opposition parties are piling on the blame, saying this is the result of the PC’s 40-year reign in government.

“The behaviour of this government is unacceptable,” said Wildrose Party MLA Paul Hinman.

“They’re beyond repair. You can change the head of the beast but the nature of the beast remains the same.”

Liberal leader Raj Sherman said Redford can’t be blamed in this situation, but ultimately Boisvert “cheated.”

“If it’s illegal then somebody needs to do something about it,” said Sherman.

Boisvert could not be reached because he’s on a previously planned vacation.

Calls to Danyluk were unreturned.