Jeremy Klaszus

Ron Wood, Preston Manning’s former press secretary, plans to vote for Calgary-North Hill Liberal candidate Pat Murray

Like many Albertans, Ron Wood has voted for conservative parties — both federally and provincially — his entire life. Wood, 65, has also been a financial supporter of the Alberta Conservatives, and spent many years working as a strategist and press adviser for the federal Reform, Alliance and Conservative parties. “I even voted in the leadership convention that selected [Alberta Conservative leader Ed] Stelmach,” he says.

Given these facts, it’s a bit surprising to pull up to his home in North Haven and see a giant red Alberta Liberal sign planted between two spruce trees in his front yard. “That swooshing sound you just heard was a lot of people taking me off their Christmas card lists,” he jokes. “But I don’t care. Alberta’s too important.” On March 3, Wood says he’ll break his decades-long Progressive Conservative voting streak and vote Liberal — even though he’s still a “staunch, unwavering federal Conservative.”

Wood believes the Alberta Conservatives need a few years “in the wilderness” after 37 years of one-party rule. “I just think they’re not progressive [and] they’re not conservative,” says Wood. “I don’t know what they are, and I don’t think they know what they are. So I think it’s time they get sent off for four, maybe eight years.” Wood says he’s also been impressed with the Liberal campaign so far. “I like some of the stuff that [Liberal leader] Kevin Taft is tossing out,” he says. “I think [the Liberals] are pretty middle-of-the-road.”

For Pat Murray, the Liberal candidate in Wood’s riding of Calgary-North Hill, the endorsement of Preston Manning’s former press secretary is “like Christmas in February.” Murray, a small business owner who ran in the riding in 2004 and lost to Conservative Richard Magnus by over 1,100 votes, says he’s encountering more people like Wood who are willing to shift their loyalties from the Progressive Conservatives on March 3. “It’s just a whole different thing in the air,” Murray, 44, says. “People are much more receptive…. People will look harder or scratch a little deeper towards the candidate, towards the policies and the platform, whereas before it was a lot of the ‘I’m a lifelong conservative and I’m going to vote Conservative till my last breath.’”

Voter discontent with the Conservatives was already evident in the 2004 election, when most voting Albertans cast a ballot for a party other than the Conservatives. (The Conservatives took 46.8 per cent of the vote, while the Liberals took 29.4 per cent. The NDP got 10.2 per cent, and the Alberta Alliance took 8.7 per cent.) Even though most voting Albertans voted against the Conservatives, the party still won a majority thanks to the first-past-the-post election system. In that election, and in the Calgary-Elbow byelection of 2007, many Conservatives stayed home on voting day.

The stay-at-home voters cost the Conservatives the Calgary-Elbow seat. (Liberal Craig Cheffins won with 4,823 votes — 115 votes less than the Liberal candidate received in 2004. However, the Conservative vote in the riding plummeted by almost 3,000 votes between 2004 and 2007). University of Calgary political scientist Doreen Barrie says that instead of staying home again, many of these disaffected Conservatives will likely make up their minds and vote on March 3. “In the past, the election was hardly competitive,” says Barrie. “So if you stayed home, the government wasn’t going to lose. But things have changed, I think — particularly in Calgary. I think there’s going to be much more competition. And there’s quite a lot of criticism of Stelmach in Calgary.”

Kyle Fawcett, a former public school board trustee and the Conservative candidate in Calgary-North Hill, says he’s not worried about Wood’s endorsement of Murray. “I think the impact has been very minimal,” says Fawcett, 28. “To be honest, no one even knows who he is.” Fawcett acknowledges that in past elections disaffected Conservatives have stayed home on voting day, but he says he’s giving these voters in North Hill a reason to cast a ballot. “We’re trying to offer them an alternative — someone new,” says Fawcett. “I’m a fresh face. I wasn’t there for the last 15 years, but I’m here to offer a vision for the next 15. We’re hoping that motivates people to get out and vote on election day.”