Legislation passed by the Alberta Government last year that granted the province more control over which power lines are built and when, has St. Albert resident Bill Whitney a little worried these days, and he’s not alone.
As the new president of the local Wildrose Alliance Constituency Association, Whitney said Bill 50 is one issue that local party members have raised with him, as evidence of their growing dissatisfaction with the current Progressive Conservative government.
“I was really shocked. I had figured that they said Eddie [Premier Ed Stelmach] was ‘Steady Eddie’ and I thought everything would be just fine and he would just keep running the government the way it used to run but when I found out about what he’s doing with the power companies, it’s really scary,” Whitney said.
“I knew that we had privatized power but I didn’t know that they [power companies] owned everything and we give the money to them, the taxpayers give the money to them and they own it. That’s shocking.”
Whitney, who has lived in St. Albert for five years, previously served as vice-president of the constituency association. Before moving to St. Albert, he worked in the oilsands for more than 30 years.
A former Liberal and Tory supporter, Whitney said he joined the Wildrose because of the people he’s met.
“Everybody I’ve met in there, they’re good people and they’re concerned about Alberta,” he said.
Although he wouldn’t comment on the association’s current membership base in the St. Albert riding, Whitney said they hope to have 300 members when nominations open for a candidate, which could happen in March, 2011.
“We want to be prepared as soon as possible but these things take time and a lot of organization,” Whitney said.
Right now, he said he is trying to spread the party’s message to St. Albert residents, in an effort to increase their membership base locally.
“The more, the better,” he said.
Whitney conceded that the number of people signing up for the party tends to hit highs and lows depending on how much publicity the Wildrose receives.
“Whenever there is a nomination contest, like when Danielle [Smith] was running with the other contenders, then that generates lots of publicity and lots of members and lots of people signed up,” he explained.
“If an election came, suddenly there would be a whole bunch of people signing up for membership.”
The recent announcement by Smith that she’ll run in the Okotoks-High River riding, south of Calgary, in the next provincial election can only do good things for the Alliance, said Whitney.
“I think she’ll do fantastic. I haven’t seen a person like her in a long, long time. I’ve never seen a person like her actually.”
For a community that has been known to vote for those not under the Conservative banner, splitting St. Albert’s right-of-centre vote is certainly a possibility in the next provincial election.
“I think it’s possible to have a major change and not split the vote,” said Whitney, who added he is still gauging the political temperature in St. Albert.
“To me, the problem with vote splitting is when a party that doesn’t really have the support of the people gets elected, or a candidate gets elected and they have a small percentage of the vote,” he added.
Currently, Whitney said he thinks growing discontent with the Conservatives is a real thorn in the government’s side.
“I know that there haven’t been many people crossing the floor but the fact is, there are an a awful lot of people in the background working hard to try to elect Wildrose candidates and a lot of them are former Tories. I think it’s a serious problem for Ed’s party, that they’re losing a lot of valuable people,” he said.
“There are people that are expert at running boards and supporting candidates and they’re working for us.”
