Stunned is probably an understatement for how Travis Olson felt when he learned last month that nine Wildrose Party MLAs were packing up for a seat on the government side of the legislature.
Olson, who ran for the party against Jeff Johnson last election, was on holiday when Danielle Smith led the exodus on Dec. 17 and only returned recently.
“Complete disappointment,” Olson stated when asked about his initial reaction to the situation.
“My belief is that Albertans were being well-served by the Wildrose as the official opposition. There is a strong argument that they were the strongest opposition Alberta has had in 43 years and definitely the first from the right.
“Without them, Albertans would not have heard about the Sky Palace or the expensive and unnecessary flights by (former Premier Allison) Redford and all of the other questionable acts made by the government that were made not in the best interests of Albertans.”
Olson added the Wildrose had a dedicated and organized group of people working and researching that made the opposition a force to be reckoned with.
“What (the floor-crossing MLAs) did was such a disservice to Alberta voters. They made more changes to the government as opposition than they will as government backbenchers,” Olson explained.
He also stated that he has heard, through the political grapevine, that some of the MLAs that crossed over are in for a rude awakening and are already regretting the move.
One MLA that crossed over, Rob Anderson, may already have found the heat in the kitchen too much as he announced last week he is giving up on politics. Although Anderson said he has been contemplating retiring for months, the backlash from voters in his Airdrie riding along with a disturbing threat left in a phone message contributed to him making the announcement now.
As for Olson, he was more than a bit surprised at the reaction to everything that’s gone on.
“When I returned (from vacation), I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be. It was almost unanimous among Wildrose supporters that it was not a good thing,” he said.
“Even most Progressive Conservative voters I talked to didn’t like the floor crossing.”
The fact that so many opposition MLAs went over to the government side isn’t the main reason for so much anger amongst voters, according to Olson, but that it was the fact the opposition leader crossed the floor.
“I think the reason there was so much disgust with Albertans was that the leader of the official opposition went to be part of the government. That is unprecedented in Alberta and Canada, not only along with the numbers,” he said.
“I think Danielle (Smith) exercised an incredible error in judgment. If she was so upset with the way things were going, she could have sat as an independent instead of going over for the promise of a cabinet post.”
Olson also believes the way the Wildrose MLAs went about things is also a disservice to all politicians.
“I’m a farmer and a rancher, so when I go knocking on someone’s door and get ‘Oh, your just a politician’ next year,” stated Olson, “this floor crossing is simply going to show voters we are in it for our self interest, all because of a shady political decision.”
For his part, Olson stated he will remain a member of the Wildrose and is still planning to again seek the party’s nomination for this riding.
“I will still be a candidate for the nomination race for the riding,” he said emphatically.
“And the reason for that is that there has not been a change in the government, they only replaced the premier. All of the MLAs that endorsed the former premier, the same ones that flew on those airplanes and passed that very offensive land legislation are still there. My resolve hasn’t changed.”
With such a large change at the top of the party, Olson wondered how the grassroots membership would react and he was pleasantly surprised.
“One might think 75 to 80 per cent of the membership would react either negatively or slump, but that didn’t happen at all,” he said.
“They are all motivated and enthusiastic. In fact, a number of nomination packages for those ridings affects by the floor-crossing were taken. That shows what the membership is thinking.”
Olson added the party is moving forward in a positive way as he has already received calls from potential leadership candidates looking for his support.
“You can’t spin a positive out of what happened,” Olson stated.
“The silver lining in this is that we get to select a new leader and hear some new ideas.”
He explained the process to pick the new leader will start soon with Olson anticipating a vote sometime between March and September.
However, he admitted that a more realistic time frame for the leadership vote may be either May or June.
