A new United Conservative Party leader — and Alberta's next premier — to be announced tonight
CBC
Tonight, the United Conservative Party will announce its new leader and Alberta's 19th premier.
Nearly four months after the leadership contest began, one of seven contenders will emerge the victor.
Close to 124,000 people bought or renewed UCP memberships by the Aug. 12 deadline to qualify to cast a vote. Party members have been voting by mail since early September.
As of Monday night, about 82,000 members — 66 per cent of the total membership — had cast ballots, according to UCP sources familiar with the leadership race.
Members can vote in person this morning at five polling stations across the province.
The party says it will announce the results of the first ballot around 6 p.m. at the BMO Centre in Calgary. You can watch the victory speech live here.
The candidates are MLA and former culture minister Leela Aheer; former Wildrose Party leader and MLA Brian Jean; independent MLA and former UCP caucus chair Todd Loewen; MLA and former transportation and social services minister Rajan Sawhney; MLA and former children's services minister Rebecca Schulz; MLA and former finance minister Travis Toews; and Danielle Smith, another former Wildrose leader.
The ballots ask members to rank their preferred leaders in order of preference, numbered 1 through 7.
If one candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the votes on the first ballot, they will win the leadership.
If no one gets more than half the votes on the first ballot, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be dropped from the ballot, and their votes will be reassigned to voters' second choices.
The party will repeat that process until one candidate has a majority of support.
The UCP called the leadership race in May following a spring leadership review that saw Premier Jason Kenney receive support from 51.4 per cent of members. Kenney said it was not enough support for him to carry on as leader, and pledged to resign once members chose a new one.
Internal polling leaked from some camps suggests anti-establishment candidate Smith is the front-runner, with Kenney-aligned Toews in second place.
Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said it's difficult to poll with accuracy during leadership races, as only party members can vote. Most polls queried UCP supporters, not members specifically.
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