Alberta Party Leader will seek seat in Brooks-MH

By COLLIN GALLANT on February 19, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

t from a provincial election, Alberta Party Leader and former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita says he’ll run in his home riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat.

That will add another dimension to the often foregone ridings and the potential for intriguing calculus in both ridings in deep southeast Alberta.

“The landscape is right,” Morishita told the News on Friday. “We’re looking at the riding and planning to work very hard there over the next 14 months.”

Morishita, the popular former two-term mayor of Brooks, was most recently also the head of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Union before stepping down in the summer to seek the Alberta Party leadership.

That decade-old party has long been advertised as a centrist option to Albertans wary of either the Conservative parties or the New Democrats, but was left without a sitting MLA following the 2019 election.

He would likely face incumbent candidate Michaela Frey for the United Conservatives in Brooks-Medicine Hat – all UCP MLAs are required to defend their nominations in an open process – as well as a candidate from the NDP, who see promise in the riding as well.

Frey told the News Friday that Albertans are moving past the pandemic and getting back to normal, and that includes re-engaging in politics.

“We’re feeling a lot of energy in the economy,” she said. “Everyone in politics is like me; I love getting out campaigning.”

Morishita told the News on Friday he’s aiming at Brooks-Medicine Hat, saying it’s “foundational” to the party to find quality candidates to run in their local ridings.

“I think Albertans are looking for an alternative, and I think they’re frustrated,” he said. “There continues to be and not just for a few years, a lack of (local) input in centralized decision making.”

The next provincial election is set to take place in the spring of 2023, though a byelection in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche will be held in March 15.

Morishita said he briefly considered running there, but instead the Alberta party candidate will be Michelle Landsiedel, a local Suncor manager.

She will face UCP candidate Brian Jean and Wildrose Independence Party Leader Paul Hinman, among other party candidates in a race sure to be watched closely across the province.

This week the United Conservative Party opened party nominations in 10 ridings ahead of the party’s April convention and leadership review for Leader Jason Kenney.

That list doesn’t include Brooks-Medicine Hat, but all ridings are open to challengers for nominations. The party will need a new candidate in Cypress-Medicine Hat, where former UCP MLA Drew Barnes was voted out of caucus last spring.

Frey won Brooks-Medicine Hat in her first campaign in 2019, beating an “independent conservative” and New Democrat by a 2-1 margin combined.

In 2015, the entirely urban riding of Medicine Hat was a close three-way race between the Progressive Conservatives, Wildrose Party and NDP, which won a surprise victory.

Since then however, city voters have been split into two ridings with Third Street downtown as the dividing line between the redrawn ridings of Brooks-Medicine Hat and Cypress-Medicine Hat.

However, with 80 per cent of Cypress-Medicine Hat voters inside city limits and the potential of a split among right-leaning voters, local New Democrats are very interested in the riding.

Marle Roberts is the co-chair of the local NDP election campaign and said the party “will likely” have multiple candidates nominated in both local ridings. That would be a first in recent memory.

“There’s a lot of exciting things happening and lots of interest,” said Roberts, who stated both ridings will be interesting to watch in the 2023 general election.

“I’m glad,” she said. “It shows that people are taking an interest in divisive times.”

The NDP currently has candidates of contests in 24 of the province’s 87 ridings, including a four-way race in Lethbridge East.

Local sources told the News there is no immediate schedule for when candidates in either Medicine Hat ridings may be selected.

Morishita said the goal for the next year is to arrange quality local candidates in as many races as possible, and use that to help make up a fundraising gap with the two front-running parties.

That includes Cypress-Medicine Hat, where the Alberta Party sees potential as well, said Morishita, whose party has longtime local party supporter Craig Elder as riding association president.

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