As nomination races begin in the Conservative stronghold of Alberta, new ridings and some departures have opened the door for new MPs. Here's a look at some of the faces vying for a spot on the Conservative ticket in Alberta in 2015.
Ron Liepert, Calgary Signal Hill
Melissa Mathieson, Calgary Macleod (soon to be Foothills)
Tom Kmiec, Calgary Shepard
Len Webber, Calgary Confederation
Janice Sarich, Edmonton Griesbach
Michael Cooper and Ryan Hastman, St. Albert-Edmonton
Eric Lowther, Calgary Rocky Ridge
The former member of Parliament is taking another kick at the can, in part because he fears the party – now that it’s in power – will be gradually taken over by soft conservatives.
“We don’t need infighting within the party being what causes a meltdown, which can happen. It’s happened in other parties. I’d just like to be part of the team that says let’s keep going forward, and not self destruct,” he said.
He calls Stephen Harper “the best Prime Minister Canada has ever had” and opposes those who “would take us back to the house of big government programs, social engineering, high taxes, and the elitism of the nanny state.”
Mr. Lowther, 59, was a Reform MP who lost his seat to Joe Clark in one Calgary riding and then fell short in a tight nomination race against now-MP Blake Richards in another nearby. Now, he says three things are driving interest in the Alberta Conservative nomination races. One is the fact that Conservatives typically win their seats in Alberta, and a second is what he calls the party’s struggle against “forces at work” that would “like to have certain people in certain places to help certain causes or certain perspectives on.” The third, he said, is anyone trying to lay groundwork for a leadership campaign, by supporting candidates now in hopes that they become MPs and return the support whenever Mr. Harper resigns. “These leadership things start way back. People start aligning people in the right places, and building alliances, you know, five years or six or seven years before it’s really alive. A little bit of that is going on too, I think,” he said.