More support for Alberta Tory leadership front-runner Gary Mar

EDMONTON – Another unsuccessful candidate is throwing his support behind front-runner Gary Mar in the race to become Alberta’s next premier.

Doug Griffiths says he is endorsing the one-time health minister’s bid to become leader of the province’s Progressive Conservatives.

Griffiths says Mar always speaks his mind, has lots of experience and earned a broad base of support in initial balloting last Saturday.

He also says he’s confident Mar has what it takes to be a successful leader in the future.

“Albertans are changing, the province is changing and the PC party is changing also,” Griffiths said Tuesday. “Gary has the ability to lead that change and to bring the party together under a renewed vision.”

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Griffiths, a rural backbencher, garnered the least amount of votes among the six candidates vying to replace Ed Stelmach.

Former finance minister Ted Morton and Rick Orman, a cabinet minister when Don Getty was premier, didn’t make the cut either and have already said they are supporting Mar.

A runoff vote between Mar, former justice minister Alison Redford and former deputy premier Doug Horner will be held Oct. 1 in Edmonton.

Mar, who most recently was Alberta’s envoy in Washington, D.C., would appear to have unstoppable momentum, but he has warned his supporters not to take anything for granted. He has pointed out that voter turnout could be considerably higher the second time around and no one is sure where those votes could go.

Mar took 41 per cent of the votes Saturday. Redford, a former justice minister, took 19 per cent and Horner took 14.5 per cent.

The Oct. 1 ballot includes a preferential component. Voters will list their first, second and third choices. To win, a candidate will have to receive 50 per cent, plus one, of the votes. If no one achieves that, the third-place finisher will be dropped and the second-preference votes cast on the eliminated candidate’s ballots will be added to the totals of the two left standing.