Dear Editor,
On May 17, three of us that are all new to the riding of Drumheller – Stettler drove 180km to the founding AGM.
We arrived to the 7 p.m. meeting to find hundreds of people lined up outside in the rain waiting to get into the hall.
While standing in the line, I commented this is sure a lot of people for an AGM, and one guy responded “Nate wanted 400 people here tonight”.
While we were standing outside, people were handing out a list of individuals running for directors.
We thought this was a list of all candidates, but once inside we discovered this was a list of what sounded like the preferred candidates – not all the candidates.
Once inside and the meeting finally beginning very late, the current president ran the entire proceeding – including the elections, which I found to be very different.
When the call came for president, the current president nominated himself, three calls for nominations were ceased, and he was declared president.
The next position for CFO was called, current CFO nominated herself, three calls and nominations cease.
Very concerning.
Next, they said anybody running for directors could now come up and speak.
Many candidates spoke but at least three of them mentioned if they were part of the “pack” or “not part of the pack”.
WOW. Extremely concerning.
For some reason, while the ballots were being counted, they let the three declared but not official candidates speak that are running to be the UCP.
Why this was done once again is a huge concern and alarming.
Speaking to one gentleman, he found out at 3:30 p.m. that day that they would be speaking that evening and one other candidate had a very well polished long prepared speech that was worked on for days.
In his speech he spoke of hiring a man on his ranch so he could full-time campaign around the riding.
Very concerning since our MLA sure does not have time to be out campaigning.
As a person being very active in politics all my life, I am very concerned on the process of this AGM, and also process on how UCP is allowing people to campaign forever in this riding or any other riding in Alberta.
These are a few questions I have, and will look forward to your response.
• How could the current president run the AGM, and nominate himself?
• Why did one candidate feel the need to have 400 people at an AGM?
• Why is UCP allowing a candidate to campaign for months around the CA. How is this fair and just especially where there are sitting MLA’s?
• Will there be no local vetting committee?
• Does UCP have any idea about the “pack”?
Sincerely Dave Nelson
Metiskow, Ab.
UCP member.
Candidate from 2012 election and winning campaign manager of 2016 election
