By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter) with files from Aaron Mahoney

Former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel wins Alberta Party leadership

Feb 27, 2018 | 9:28 PM

EDMONTON –  Early Tuesday (Feb 27) evening, it was announced that former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel had captured the leadership of he Alberta Party.

It was a short turned-around for the leadership vote, as Calgary-Elbow MLA Greg Clark had resigned his post as leader of the Alberta Party back in November. At the time, he said the reason was to launch a leadership race aimed at drumming up interest in the party ahead of the 2019 election.

The vote took place between Feb. 25-27, using a preferential online ballot, in which 4700 party members cast their votes.

Mandel was challenged for the position by two other individuals.  Calgary-South East MLA Rick Fraser, who left the UCP caucus last September, due to his dissatisfaction with the party’s leadership contest, to sit as an Independent before announcing his bid for the Alberta Party leadership in December.

The third candidate, Kara Levis, a commercial lawyer from Calgary, was without any political experience, but announced her candidacy before either gentleman.  

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The three individuals brought their campaigns to Lethbridge on Jan. 30 for a meet and greet with members of the community at Coalbanks Elementary School.

Mandel served as Edmonton’s mayor from 2004 to 2013 and was also the Minister of Health when he sat as a Progressive Conservative MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud from 2014 to 2015. He says the leadership race for the Alberta Party drew him back into politics after a few years out because he’s still passionate about this province.

Shortly after the announcement of his election, Mandel tweeted out, “The results are in: “I am humbled and honoured to be the next leader of the Alberta Party. Thank you for your support and the mandate.”

“Thank you for placing your trust in my abilities, experience and passion to grow the Alberta Party into the next generation party for our province.”

Mandel also noted, “In my recent travels across this province, I’ve been struck by how anxious people feel. People’s lives are more hectic than ever — and the current political landscape offers them very little comfort. Name calling. Division. Playing politics with our energy industry and our economy — and with people’s lives.”

“There seems to be lots of effort being spent on telling Albertans how awful the other side is, and little time spent on actually addressing the serious challenges we face as a province.”

“Albertans deserve better – They deserve a government that cares about being open and adaptive in meeting the challenges of both today and tomorrow. And they deserve a government that can balance a cheque book.”

The Alberta Party is pushing itself as a centrist alternative to the left-leaning New Democratic Party and the right-leaning United Conservative Party, but Mandel admits there are lots of challenges to draw people in.

“There’s no doubt the party is going to have challenges, but we’ve got great people involved who want to run and there’s support in building constituency offices around the party,” he continued. “So, we have to work with them and help them anyway we can because there’s a lot of work to do.”