St. Albert MLA Ken Allred has picked sides in the Progressive Conservative leadership race, pledging his support to former finance minister Ted Morton.
Allred said the decision was something he thought about long and hard, because he wanted to be sure.
“I wasn’t going to endorse anybody until everybody was in, first off, and until I had a pretty good impression what their policies are,” Allred said.
Morton said he and Allred share a lot of the same ideas and he was pleased to receive his support.
“Ken and I have, over the two and a half or three years that he has been in caucus now, voted in similar ways and share a lot of the same principles and core beliefs,” Morton said.
Allred said he is impressed with Morton for several reasons, but cited his support for land use planning in the province, his commitment to fixed election dates and his plans for the province’s budget.
Allred said he hopes Morton will be able to get a handle on provincial spending and begin to restore the Heritage Trust Fund.
“I am afraid that, once Ralph Klein got the debt under control, he lost direction and started building up a lot of expectations and giving money away,” said Allred. “We are the highest-spending province in so many areas and we are not getting results on health care, as an example.”
He said the government needs a solid plan for how the province will grow and Morton grasps that problem.
“I full endorse getting some planning back into Alberta and I fully support the land use framework and what they are doing there.”
Morton said he supports the land use framework he worked on as natural resources minister, because it plans for the province’s growth.
“Alberta grows by 50,000 people every year and what worked when were just at a population of one million or two million doesn’t work at 3.5 million, which is where we will be in about 10 years,” he said. “If we want to maintain the quality of life we have in Alberta, we have to have some regional planning.”
Allred said he has been impressed with all of the candidates in the race and he also considered putting his support behind Rick Orman, but ultimately felt Morton was the best choice to lead the party.
He said his fellow St. Albert MLA Doug Horner would make a good leader, but he didn’t want to decide his vote simply based on how close the future leader would be.
“I have a lot of respect for Doug, he is a real doer and I have been very impressed with a lot of his accomplishments over the years,” Allred said.
Morton already has the support of several other Edmonton MLAs, including David Xiao, Doug Elniski, Carl Benito, Tony Vandermeer and Peter Sandhu. He said, combined with Allred’s support, he hopes it shows he has backing from across the province.
“I think it will hopefully put to rest that I am just a southern candidate,” he said. “I certainly, as premier, would be a premier for all of Alberta.”
Morton also has support from Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Jonathan Denis, Dave Rodney, Evan Berger and former agriculture minister George Groeneveld.
