CALGARY – Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Gary Mar jumped out to a commanding lead in early voting to pick a new party leader and premier.
Mar, a cabinet minister from the Ralph Klein-era, took 49.5 per cent of the early returns of the first ballot. He needed 50 per cent plus one to win, otherwise the top three candidates move on to a second round of voting on Oct. 1.
There were still more votes to be counted in the first ballot Saturday night.
Former justice minister Alison Redford was a distant second in early results, with about a third of the votes that Mar received.
Ex-finance minister Ted Morton was third, former deputy premier Doug Horner was fourth and backbencher Doug Griffiths and Rick Orman were fifth and sixth respectively.
Six candidates have been campaigning for months to replace Premier Ed Stelmach, who announced in January he was leaving politics.
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Observers and polls suggested that Mar was the front runner from the start, but the popular belief was that he didn’t have enough support to avoid a second ballot.
Mar campaigned on expanding Alberta trade by smashing through to Pacific Rim markets while at the same time diversifying the economy at home. His idea is to draw citizens more into public decision-making and leading a government that is a paragon of transparency.
It was a relatively quiet campaign of editorial boards, pancake breakfasts and industry meet-and-greets.
Mar’s team has sparred most with Redford, a fellow progressive Tory who, like Mar, has strong roots in Calgary and battled him for the same supporters there.
Mar pointed to the recent spike in homicides in Edmonton as an example of Redford failing as justice minister to affect anti-crime measures. Mar was Alberta’s envoy in Washington before joining the race and Redford countered by saying he failed at that job by allowing environmentalists to frame the province as a purveyor of dirty oil.
The biggest fireworks in the campaign came in August when Mar said he wanted to at least talk about introducing more private delivery to fix an ailing public-health system.
Mar framed it as an economic debate. He said Alberta health care is not in a silo, that while the province dithers over what to do with private care, patients and doctors are already flying elsewhere to get surgery or to perform it.
Redford jumped on Mar with both feet, trying to find the wedge issue that will bring lukewarm supporters from his camp over to hers. Fiddle with the silo, she warned, and before you know it you’ve sold the farm.
Mar also drew the ire of rivals who claimed he talks about transparency, but practices the same old hardball politics of arm-twisting and rule-bending.
In recent weeks one Mar volunteer was found giving away the $5 party memberships, which were required to vote. This past week, supporters were found hawking memberships within the 50-metre no-go zone around advance polling stations.
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