The provincial Conservatives plan to re-hire an old elections chief after they dumped another who was calling for reforms.

A Tory-dominated committee is recommending Brian Fjeldheim — Alberta’s elections boss from 1998 to 2005, and a man with deep roots in Premier Ed Stelmach’s home turf — as Alberta’s next chief electoral officer.

Lorne Gibson held the position until March, when a Tory-dominated committee didn’t renew his contract. Gibson had proposed more than 180 recommendations to improve the electoral system, including giving the chief electoral officer the power to appoint impartial returning officers. “The government said, ‘What? You’re telling us we’re wrong? You’re out of here,’” says Wildrose Alliance Calgary MLA Paul Hinman. “Anybody who challenges this government is fired.”

But Calgary Conservative MLA Moe Amery says that’s not the case. “I don’t know how the heck they can say we fired the guy,” says Amery. “His term expired…. Nobody fired anybody.” The most important electoral change, adds Amery, comes every four years when voters go to the polls. “The people have the opportunity to change whatever they want,” he says. “This is the biggest change that anybody could have. People around the world are dying for this process.”

Fjeldheim is a former Vegreville town councillor and was also president of the local chamber of commerce.