Local candidate selection process troubles supporters
By: Rachel Maclean
Paul Ruggles
A group of local residents interested in the provincial Wildrose candidate position in Banff-Cochrane were surprised to find out it had already been filled.
Cochrane resident Trudy Hauser was acclaimed June 20 as the candidate to represent Wildrose in the local riding in the next provincial election.
But some card-carrying Wildrose members said they were unaware the position was even open to apply for and felt it was a closed-door process for a party that proclaims transparency as its top priority.
“We all got a bad taste in our mouth,” said Cliff Mashford, who knows of others interested in applying for the job.
One Wildrose supporter interested in the position was Cochrane’s Paul Ruggles.
He said he meets up with 20-30 retired RCMP and police officers every Friday morning at the Cochrane Cafe to visit and many support the principles of the new right-wing party.
On June 17, Ruggles said a group of them asked him to represent them and put his name forward for the position.
He had given it some consideration, but he wasn’t serious until the group backed him.
Ruggles contacted the president of the constituency association listed on wildrosealliance.ca — Russ Lyster.
But the new Banff-Cochrane Wildrose constituency president, former vice-president Ian Cook, soon replied to him apologizing that the nominations had been closed June 10 after a 21-day period, as per policy.
Cook said a call for nominations went out over the Wildrose e-mail circuit May 20, although it also contained nomination announcements for three other ridings on an already busy e-mail account.
Letters or phone calls were not directly sent to the roughly 400 Banff-Cochrane Wildrose supporters.
Cook said it is a volunteer board, paying some funds out of their own pockets, and he feels that if individuals were interested in the nomination they should be involved in the local constituency association.
“I really don’t have any sympathy for people who don’t try to find out what’s going on,” he said.
Ruggles said he never received an e-mail about the nomination opening and neither did others he has talked to among his coffee companions.
Cook said while there was a lot of interest in the nomination, only Hauser, who is still a Banff-Cochrane constituency association board member, had completed the nomination papers by the June 10 deadline.
There were two other interested individuals: former president Lyster who withdrew after a change of heart and another person not involved in the board who didn’t get the mandated 75 member signatures to run.
A new Banff-Cochrane executive had been chosen in May, but Lyster had stepped down as president after that so he could run for the candidate position.
Ruggles checked in with the provincial Wildrose nomination office about the situation and was told the constituency associations have a lot of autonomy.
He sent an e-mail to Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, who he has met before, but only received a reply from her staff.
“Before we had open access to Danielle, but now you send something and hear from someone else,” said Ruggles.
The whole situation doesn’t sit right with Ruggles and company, especially in a party that is trying to prove its political integrity.
“I don’t know Trudy, and that’s not the issue,” said Ruggles, adding he is sure she is a good candidate.
“If that is how Wildrose is going to start out, then I don’t know if I’ll throw my vote at it.”
Ruggles said the Cochrane Cafe group would be a great resource for the party, and when he relayed that to Cook the response was to get Hauser down to the cafe for a chat.
“But she may not be well received now,” said Ruggles.
Hauser said she would be more than happy to explain the process to the concerned party members.
“If there is some void here, let me advocate for (them), but they would rather be a problem,” she said, adding she was “not impressed” the members went to the media.
With the election not expected until anywhere from October to next spring, Ruggles was wondering why the rush to get a candidate.
Cook said it was the executive committee of the provincial party that opened the nomination, which is allowed under the Wildrose Party’s Candidate Selection Rules and Procedures posted on wildrosealliance.ca. Under those same rules, if no one else applies for the nomination then that individual is acclaimed and approved after being vetted by the Local Constituency Nomination Committee.
Cook said the sooner a candidate is out there then the public can start identifying with her or him before the next provincial election, but he would have also preferred to see a wide range of choice and vote for the local candidate position.
Cochrane’s Bob Head, another regular at the Friday morning cafe sessions, said he also wished for a vibrant and active candidate selection process.
“Danielle Smith can’t be the sole spokesperson for the policy,” he said.
Head pointed to how a large choice of candidates can lead to a buzz for the party before election time because it gets people debating their stance on party policy and it also works well as a membership drive.
“Maybe the process was a bit flawed this time,” he said, adding if a member — such as Hauser — was part of the board it should be made certain “sun shines on the process.”
Head, who has been through an election campaign himself as a candidate, said the policy must be standardized for all constituencies and well advertised.
Cochrane’s Paul Ruggles had called the Banff-Cochrane Wildrose Constituency Association June 17 to find out that putting his name forward for the candidate position was no longer possible after nominations closed June 10. Candidate Trudy Hauser was acclaimed June 20. Photo by Rachel Maclean
He said last year party leader Smith came to visit the Friday morning gathering and most were impressed and bought memberships.
Head said those who kept up their membership relayed to the group they never received word of the nomination process opening.
Not true, said Hauser, who said some of those members had signed her petition of support for her nomination.
“The Wildrose Party is clean and accountable to the taxpayer. . . . It would have only taken one person with a computer to get all of this information,” she said, adding she took the initiative to download the proper nomination forms.
But it’s not the first time controversy has plagued a Wildrose nomination.
Last November members of the Wildrose constituency association of Little Bow east of Calgary resigned over irregularities of the nomination vote itself.
Leader Smith, who touted trust as the most important quality in a speech at the party’s Annual General Meeting June 24, said in the Cochrane situation members can file a grievance with the constituency association.
“We’ve been very open,” said Smith, adding she was aware of the general circumstances, but not that Hauser was involved on the board.
“There is some initiative to phone the constituency office and find out.”
Ruggles said his hope for the party was a completely honest, grassroots and up-front approach, but now he thinks it may be the “same old, same old” game of politics.
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Give me a break. Even I know they were taking nominations a long time ago. Try firing up that computer once and awhile.
You might find you fit in better with the PC party. They love to drink coffee amongst each other and talk about how great they are.