Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Progressive Conservative Constituency Association president Rob Smith says the association's slate of delegates, which appears to be 100 per cent pro Jason Kenney, accurately reflects the association's members as a whole.
On Feb. 10, the association held a meeting at the Grouchy Events Centre to choose delegates to the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta's leadership convention, which will be held March 18 in Calgary.
Smith says it appears 100 per cent of those delegates are supporters of Kenney, one of three candidates in the race. The others are Richard Starke and Byron Nelson.
Twelve of the delegates were elected. Three youth delegates were acclaimed. Four more, including Smith and former MLAs Richard Marz and Bruce Rowe will also be attending.
Kenney has run on a platform that if elected, he would seek to merge the PC party with the Wildrose Party and form one united conservative party under a different name.
He's also said by some to be further to the political right than some people in the PC party are.
Smith was asked if the delegates chosen and their support of Kenney, who is said to be on the right of the conservative spectrum, is reflective of the riding association.
He said it certainly reflected the will of the 75 people who cast ballots during the Feb. 10 meeting.
"I believe that it is absolutely reflective of the voters here tonight as to which campaign got their supporters out and which campaign proved to have the strongest organization within the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding," Smith said.
"We only had one campaign physically present tonight; there was a scrutineer from the Kenney campaign. So I would say that Jason Kenney has specifically and successfully targeted Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills."
Smith was asked if the slate reflects who the riding association's membership as a whole support in the leadership race.
"Yeah, based on the votes tonight, it would seem that's a fair assessment," Smith said.
"I think that there is strong concern across all of Alberta about how to ensure that a conservative party is elected in 2019.
"And I think that people that support right-of-centre politics, right-of-centre sociology, right-of-centre economics all believe - a lot of them believe that having two parties representing that ideology absolutely could lead to vote splitting that could lead to another left of centre government - an NDP re-election. I think there are a lot of Albertans that are concerned about that.
"Whether I would be so comfortable as to say that Albertans want to see PC together with Wildrose, I don't know that I'd be comfortable being that specific. But I think that they do want to see the right as an ideology come together.
"I would love to see folks that are of a conservative ideology coming together because obviously, what unites us is greater than what divides us. And my thought is, let's put the past in the past and figure out how to move forward.
"Two of the three candidates for the Progressive Conservative leadership have identified unity as their vision. Jason Kenney has had a very, very specific and foundational approach to that from the get-go.
"I believe that it's fair tonight to say that that has resonated with the members of the Progressive Conservative party of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills," he added.
Smith doesn't share the view of some that if chosen leader of the party, Kenney would alienate more "progressive" voters who might move their support to other parties. Nor does he see him as necessarily on the right wing of the PC party.
"You know, a lot has been said about Jason Kenney being so harsh right and I believe that economically, fiscally that's a fair statement. But Jason Kenney was one of the most inclusive immigration ministers that our nation has ever seen," he said.
"I'm not entirely sure that this is accurate, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate - that there were more new Canadians who came to our country and chose to become Canadian while Jason Kenney was the minister of immigration under the Harper Conservative federal government than any other minister before or since," Smith said.
"So I don't know if I believe ideologically that Jason Kenney is an arch social conservative the way that some people seem to be concerned he is, which is why when some people want to suggest that if there is a scary right-wing socio-cultural sect, I don't believe Jason Kenney represents that."
"When some people want to suggest that if there is a scary right-wing socio-cultural sect, I don't believe Jason Kenney represents that."ROB SMITH OLDS-DIDSBURY-THREE HILLS PC CONSTITUENCY ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
