Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Kerry Towle says she was as “shocked” as anyone when Wildrose party Leader Danielle Smith bolted to the Tories with eight other Opposition MLAs.
The local MLA, who defected to the governing Progressive Conservatives on Nov. 24, added it was especially surprising because she thought Smith was a “close” friend who did not withhold secrets from her. But during a news conference with Premier Jim Prentice on Dec. 17, the day the Wildrose leader bolted with eight other Wildrose MLAS, Smith said informal merger talks with the government had started five weeks earlier.
“The conversations I had with the leader was that she was considering leaving but not en masse and not as a group. That was not a conversation we shared,” said Towle, conceding she had heard “rumblings” about defections before she left on Nov. 24. “When I left I knew other MLAs themselves were negotiating, four or five.
“Interestingly enough Drew Barnes (Cypress-Medicine Hat) was part of that group. He is staying with the Wildrose, yet he was considering leaving,” said Towle. “I certainly knew there was rumblings but no indication en masse and certainly no indication from Danielle that she was crossing to the PCs at all.”
Four days after she joined the Tories, Towle told the Province that leaving the Wildrose was one of the most “awful-feeling” decisions she ever made as it severed the “close friendship” with Smith, who immediately lashed out at her publicly.
"In the end, some people don't turn out to be who you thought they were, so we're going to move on with the caucus that we have,” said Smith in a Nov. 26 interview with the CBC.
Towle said Smith's statements about her defection, along with being shocked over the former Wildrose leader's untold plans to jump to the Tories, erased her initial heartbreak and tears about leaving the Wildrose and hurting the leader.
“I thought I had lost a close personal friend. I felt that I had hurt her. I felt really bad about that and at that time those feelings were really genuine,” said Towle, adding Smith's subsequent public comments hit her “right in the heart.
“She questioned my character. She questioned my integrity, and that was very personal.
“I felt it was unnecessary but I took it as a reaction to emotion. But it did hit me right in the heart, no question,” she added. “I think she is going to have to live with those decisions and she is going to have to live with those comments.”
And what is certain for the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA is that the relationship with Smith has irrevocably changed.
“We are now political acquaintances. It is unfortunate,” said Towle. “My friendship with her was genuine at the time, and I hope at some point in time to move past this so we can be friendly acquaintances. But I suspect in my mind and in her mind, a true friendship is done.”
Meanwhile, Towle said the positive side of the recent turmoil is that she has learned valuable lessons about politics and received strong support from her riding and new caucus.
“I moved across to a PC caucus that was incredibly supportive, who watched how I was treated, who saw the words that were said about me, saw my own personal hurt and they were out of this world supportive and by my side the whole time, and continue to be,” said Towle. “I guess I will go with the old adage, ‘Politics is politics' and that it taught me a valuable lesson.
“But really what matters is the people in your riding and your family and so far both of those have been 100 per cent supportive,” she added. “Am I going to please everybody? No.”
Kerry Towle
"My friendship with her was genuine at the time, and I hope at some point in time to move past this so we can be friendly acquaintances. But I suspect in my mind and in her's that a true friendship is done."
