Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft renewed a call Friday for returning officers to be appointed by an impartial body, after CBC News revealed at least four people in the electoral positions have close ties to the Tory party.
Robin Darsi was appointed Calgary-Currie's returning officer after he lost a bid for the Tory nomination in the riding.
(CBC)
The returning officer in Calgary-Montrose riding is married to the head of the Progressive Conservative nomination committee in the same riding, CBC News reported on Monday. Three others also have Tory connections, including one who ran unsuccessfully for the PC nomination in Calgary-Currie.
Returning officers are responsible for advertising, hiring and training poll workers, as well as counting votes. In the rare event of a tie, they can cast a ballot to break the deadlock.
In Alberta, the government appoints returning officers, who are paid a base salary of $5,000.
Taft pledged Friday to put the chief electoral officer in charge of hiring returning officers.
"This is one of the dangers of one-party rule for 37 years," Taft said. "If we can't trust the government to run elections properly, we can't trust them to do much else."
'If we can't trust the government to run elections properly, we can't trust them to do much else.'—Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft
Elections Alberta said about half of the 83 returning officers for the March 3 provincial election have past connections to the Progressive Conservative party.
"They come right from the premier's office with these names that they are recommending that they be appointed," Jacqueline Roblin, spokeswoman for Elections Alberta, said Wednesday.
But Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach tried to distance himself from the appointments of returning officers.
"I didn't provide the names to the chief electoral officer. That's the misleading part of it," Stelmach said late Thursday in Calgary.
On her Flickr page, Edmonton-Meadowlark returning officer Allie Wojtaszek, wearing a blue PC party T-shirt, and her husband, left, pose with former Alberta energy minister Murray Smith, centre, in Washington, D.C.
(CBC)
"Well, who did? Who does? Your cabinet does," reporters pressed.
"But it's not me," Stelmach insisted.
The premier's office said Tory MLAs and constituencies send suggested names to fill returning officer positions to the Conservative party, which then forwards the list to the chief electoral officer.
"If he's pretending that the Conservative party doesn't make these appointments, he is definitely misleading Albertans," NDP Leader Brian Mason said Thursday.
In 2006, Alberta's chief electoral officer, Lorne Gibson, recommended to the justice minister and a legislative committee that he take over hiring returning officers to ensure a fair and independent administration of provincial elections.
Roblin said Gibson did not receive a response to the recommendation.
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Riding Profiles
More Alberta Votes Headlines »
- It's 'Ed's Empire' after Alberta election sweep
- Political observers in Alberta are calling it remarkable and opposition politicians are wondering what hit them after Ed Stelmach guided his Conservative party Monday to one of its biggest majorities ever.
- Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned
- As Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Conservatives savour their sweeping election victory, some people are raising a nagging concern: why so few people bothered to vote.
- Albertans elect historic 11th straight Tory government
- Voters in Alberta stuck with tried-and-true blue, giving the Progressive Conservative party an unprecedented 11th consecutive majority government in Monday's provincial election.
- Political tide turns in Edmonton
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach has proven true to his word, putting the "Ed" back in Edmonton.
- Conservatives' Calgary fortress resists change
- The Progressive Conservatives' fortress in Calgary stood strong as the party took 18 of the city's 23 ridings Monday night.
