St. Albert Grits got a chance to inspect those vying for the chance to lead them into the next election.
Four of the five declared Alberta Liberal leadership hopefuls made it to the gathering organized by former party leader and former local councillor Bob Russell on Sunday.
MLAs Laurie Blakeman, Hugh MacDonald and Dr. Raj Sherman, along with labour leader Bruce Payne, were on hand, with only the recently declared former party organizer Bill Harvey absent.
The four candidates tried to impress upon the approximately 50 attendees that they would be the best to replace outgoing leader David Swann.
Blakeman emphasized her history with the party, starting in the early 1990s, and said she is now ready to lead it.
"It has been a great home for me ever since. I have been asked to step up and I have stepped up."
She said the four candidates all bring something to the race, but they also have different visions and she encouraged supporters to find something that works for them.
"Vote for the person that does match where you think the party should go."
MacDonald also played up his experience and said he wanted to build a party that would be able to compete in the future.
"We are going to organize our party so we can challenge in each and every single constituency in this province and we are going to start in constituencies like St. Albert."
He specifically cited St. Albert as a place where the Liberals could be competitive in the next election and emphasized the party had to be competitive across the province.
"St. Albert is a winnable constituency. We have won it before and we have had good representation not only here, but with Colleen Soetaert in Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert."
Payne, who has adopted the motto "87 Strong," argued the party needs to be competitive everywhere.
"My goal to build an Alberta Liberal party is to build a strong centrist party that will bring more people in and be more inclusive."
Blakeman said the party needs a strategy to win and not field 87 candidates just for the sake of doing so.
"I also believe very strongly in running the best candidates that we can recruit and supporting them and resourcing them and training them to a win, not in running a candidate in every single riding no matter what."
Sherman also argued for a full slate of candidates, but focused largely on how he would run the province in government.
He said the government has to be more accountable and focused on solving problems, like health care, for Albertans.
"It is not an emergency problem; it is a health care problem that sits in the emergency rooms. It is actually a societal problem that sits there — homelessness, poverty, addictions."
Wide questions
Candidates took questions on a wide range of issues including environmental sustainability and whether they would stay with the party even if they weren't elected leader.
The four were also asked about how they would attract candidates for the next election.
Payne said he would reach out across the province to find people ready for office.
"I believe there are some non-traditional Liberals out there that just don't know they are Liberals yet and we have to find them."
Blakeman said the party would have to be aggressive in its recruiting, but also attract people who might not think they can run.
"There are probably four or five candidates here in this gathering, but they just don't recognize themselves as candidates yet."
MacDonald emphasized the importance of supporting candidates once they had entered the race, while Sherman said good candidates would follow if the party had a clear direction and clear goals for Alberta.
Sherman faced a tough question about his decision to run with the Tories previously and his decision now to run with the Liberals.
Sherman said the Liberals of the time were further to the right than he was comfortable with and, when he ran with the Conservatives, he extracted promises the government began to break.
"They made a commitment in writing not to privatize health care and to listen to front-line health care workers."
Sherman said he was now a committed Liberal and would remain that way regardless of who won.
"This is a time for us to all stand together regardless of who the leader is. I would be comfortable running with any of these folks as leader."
