There’s no federal election in sight, but already two Conservatives are fighting for the party nomination in the riding of Calgary West.

While she stresses she’s not wanting to run a smear campaign against incumbent Rob Anders, Calgary lawyer Donna Kennedy-Glans says the timing of the riding’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28 is suspect. “Rob has been watching as we’ve been selling memberships, and we’ve sold 600 in six weeks,” says Kennedy-Glans. (Only people who have been party members for three weeks or more can vote at the meeting.) Her campaign, she says, has people “rallying and coming back to the Conservative Party in Calgary West and saying, ‘Yes, that’s my party and I want to be part of it.’”

Anders calls Kennedy-Glans a “disgruntled Liberal” who’s trying to sign Liberals into the Conservative party “by stealth” to take over the consistently Conservative seat. He notes that in the last federal election, Kennedy-Glans earned him negative press when she told a reporter about a past conversation she’d had with the MP. “She’s undermined our party,” says Anders. “She’s not a real Conservative.”

At the AGM — which is held each spring, Anders says — party members will vote on the electoral district’s board of directors, the people who oversee nominations. The last time someone tried to challenge Anders, the dispute ended up in court. “Some people look at the board and say, ‘Well, they didn’t manage that well,’” says Kennedy-Glans. She plans to table a list of new directors at the March 28 meeting.

The Conservative Party, meanwhile, is trying to make it easier for its incumbents to hang onto nominations — a move “counter to democracy,” says Kennedy-Glans.