EDMONTON – No official announcement has been made, but it is widely believed that Edmonton’s former mayor, Stephen Mandel, is getting ready to run for the Alberta PC party leadership.
In January, Mandel said he would not run for the PCs under the party’s then-leader. With Alison Redford out of the picture, the speculation that Mandel is considering taking her place at the helm continues to gather steam.
Geographically, he’d start with a strong base in Edmonton, having spearheaded the downtown arena deal, and pushed the city’s LRT project forward. However, political observers say he would need to work on building a stronger presence outside of the province’s capital.
“They might recognize his name, political watchers know who he is, but how does he introduce himself?” said political analyst from Mount Royal University, Duane Bratt.
Calgary’s former mayor, the late Ralph Klein, proved it can be done. He was facing off against former Edmonton mayor, Laurence Decore, in the 1993 election. Decore nearly succeeded in bringing the Alberta Liberals to power in that race, which was the closest the PCs had come to being defeated since coming to power in 1971.
Bratt believes the PCs now need someone “brand new” to come in, someone with no past ties to the party.
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“Mandel has that,” he said.
Over the weekend, Alison Redford’s former chief of staff, Stephen Carter, ranked Mandel as a top contender; but also warned he doesn’t like the party’s odds if Mandel did win, because “southern Alberta doesn’t know who he is, and rural northern Alberta doesn’t like him.”
Robert Noce, who ran against and lost to Mandel in Edmonton’s 2004 municipal election, believes Mandel has what it takes. Noce says the reason Mandel won that race was because he was a strong fundraiser, who was able to get his message out and build a strong team.
“Stephen has the skill sets, as he’s demonstrated over his time on council,” Noce says, “to put that core group of people together to help him move forward with his agenda.”
Even though Mandel’s agenda is still unknown, Bratt says if he runs and can build a coalition across the province, history just might be on his side. Bratt explains there’s a long-standing tradition in the PC party of alternating between northern and southern leaders.
“It’s the north’s turn, as it were, and being the former mayor of Edmonton — that’s an edge.”
Any potential contenders in Alberta’s PC leadership race will be required to give a $50,000 non-refundable deposit — a measure that’s intended to weed out candidates who aren’t truly serious.
So far, no one has officially stepped into the race, which will be put to a vote this September.
With files from Tom Vernon, Global News
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