Former party organizer and candidate Bill Harvey became the latest challenger for the leadership of the Alberta Liberals.
Harvey made the announcement Thursday. A vote is scheduled for September.
Harvey’s entrance brings the total number of competitors to five — MLAs Raj Sherman, Hugh MacDonald and Laurie Blakeman and labour leader Bruce Payne.
Harvey said the party has to engage with Albertans if it expects to be competitive in the next election.
“The Alberta Liberal party is not growing and the reason I think we are not growing is that we are not addressing the issues people want addressed.”
Harvey said those issues centre around open and transparent government, which he believes is not happening in the current system. He wants to see fixed election dates, more free votes in the legislature and a better set of rules around elections and other issues.
“We want to start talking about having an independent election commission where the rules are set and all parties are represented.”
Even with a more even playing field on the rules, Harvey said the party will need money to be able to win power and they have to focus on that.
“We have to go back and talk to business and say we are the logical alternative,” he said. “I think if we get that message across, we can start raising funds to run a proper campaign.”
As much as the province has to plan for the future, the party also has to be ready to mount a serious challenge when an election is called, he said.
While wrong on policy, the government has fought effective election campaigns and the Liberals should be paying attention. “I have seen how the Progressive Conservative party runs elections and you watch and you learn, so let’s take some of the things these people are doing right and move them into the Liberal party.”
Harvey worked on the leadership campaign of former Liberal leader Laurence Decore and twice ran for the party, unsuccessfully, in Calgary.
He said Decore managed to bring people together and make them feel important, a skill he hopes to emulate.
“That is what he was superb at — he made everybody feel important, everybody that was in the room.”
The party has adopted new rules for its Sept. 10 convention that will allow all Albertans — party members or not — to vote in the election. Their new system also rewards candidates for reaching out across the province into areas where the party has a smaller presence by prescribing a maximum number of points per constituency association.
