By Collin Gallant on January 27, 2015.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.comA strong series of aftershocks was felt Monday, about one month after the political earthquake of mass floor-crossing in the Alberta legislature.
The repercussions as well as angling ahead of a possible snap election reached the southern corners of the province.
In a series of announcements, Raj Sherman announced he would step aside immediately as leader of the Alberta Liberals, while two Progressive Conservative ministers as well announced they won't run in the next election.
Former busy lobby critic Derek Fildebrandt said he would seek the Wildrose Party nomination in Strathmore-Brooks to challenge current MLA Jason Hale (See Page A5).
However, Sherman's announcement he would leave politics at the next election — widely rumoured to take place this year— caught local party officials in Medicine Hat off-guard.
"I'm surprised and a little disappointed," said Dick Mastel, president of the party association for Cypress-Medicine Hat. "Particularly with an election rumoured, its a tough time to be looking for a new leader, plus organizing for an election at the same time … (but) I would hope that this would generate some interest in the party heading into an election."
The next election had been set to take place in 2016, though most parties are moving to put candidates in place now ahead of a surprise call.
Sherman is the third party leader to step aside in the last six months.
See Wildrose, Page A2
The Wildrose party was left leaderless when Danielle Smith changed affiliation in December, joining the PCs with eight colleagues. Rachel Notley took over as head of the Alberta New Democrats in September from Brian Mason.
The Wildrose will hold its leadership contest in June, while the Liberals haven't announced the plan to replace Sherman.
"There's a lot of turmoil," said Jim Groom, a political science instructor at Medicine Hat College of the general political landscape.
"I'm a bit surprised that the Wildrose will hold off until June but there's always a trade-off and they have their strategy. Do they have a convention early in case there's a spring election, but does that spend all their money before an election?"
The Liberal party has dropped in local popularity over the past decade, from strong second-place showings before 2008 to a distant fourth in 2012.
Since then, some local Liberals expressed their dissatisfaction with Sherman, a medical doctor who had left the PC party after publicly criticizing health care in the province.
He was elected leader in late 2011.
In the next spring election the party dropped from nine seats to five, and along with Sherman, two other current Liberal MLAs are expected to resign so they can run for the federal party.
Mastel said he felt the party was not compromised by Sherman's selection as leader.
"Raj has done a good job and raised some key issues in the area of health care," said Mastel.
The Alberta Liberals are still waiting for possible candidates to step forward for local riding nominations, said Mastel.
Currently, only Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes (Wildrose) and New Democrat Jason Soklofske in Medicine Hat, are confirmed candidates for their parties.
Both local PC associations are preparing for candidate nomination races.
Several notable Hatters have expressed interest in securing either PC nominations, including several who are expecting to challenge MLA Blake Petersen.
Local New Democratic president Wally Regehr told the News in late 2014 that a regional candidate for that party was in the works.
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