Alberta PC party leadership race causing more board infighting

An executive member of the Alberta Progressive Conservative board, who introduced a motion to suspend longtime party insider Alan Hallman, said there was no dissent when the board passed a unanimous motion to kick him out of the party for a year.

PC budget director and former Edmonton city councillor Kim Krushell said Wednesday those who supported the suspension included interim party leader Ric McIver and president of the PC Youth Association, Sonia Kont, both who have since been publicly critical of the penalty.

"Nobody verbally said they would abstain, this is just black and white," declared Krushell.

If there was opposition to the suspension, she said, neither McIver nor Kont had anything to say about it during the meeting last week when the vote took place.

"Nobody from the board said they were voting 'no.' In fact, the chair said the vote was unanimous and nobody objected at that point," Krushell said. "So that actual vote to suspend was unanimous and then we went on to the next agenda item."

Hallman was suspended after posting some offensive remarks on social media about fellow party members. He called someone on Twitter a "dickeydick" and swore in a post to another.

Krushell said she initially brought forward a motion to suspend Hallman for six months. But that was amended to one year at the insistence of some other board members, who felt it wouldn't send a strong enough message.

But McIver insists he spoke up at that point, arguing that a one-year suspension was too long and he would only support a six-month banishment if necessary.

He also said in an interview he insisted the suspension be kept confidential "so as not to unfairly damage an individual's reputation."

But McIver refuted Krushell's claim he supported the motion to suspend Hallman for one year.

Vote just 'went by,' says McIver

McIver said he was preoccupied when the vote was called, and he missed it.

"The reality is, I had two other MLAs on my phone, and I was trying to keep on top of the meeting and tried to figure out what they wanted to do, and the vote went by," said McIver. "Consequently I didn't get a vote in."

Later, McIver tweeted a photo of himself and his longtime friend Hallman watching the PC party all-candidates debate on television Sunday.

Hallman, a Kenney campaign team member, resigned from the campaign but says he is filing paperwork with the party to be reinstated, arguing he wasn't given an opportunity to defend himself. Hallman is now calling on PC party president Katherine O'Neill to resign, arguing she is "biased" against the Kenney camp.

O'Neill has declined comment. But Krushell calls that suggestion "ridiculous," saying the board isn't stacked in favor or against any leadership candidate.

"Quite frankly, if Jason Kenney is the new leader, I will respect that outcome, and I think all of our board members would respect that outcome," said Krushell.

McIver won't wade into the discussion about whether O'Neill should resign. But he has opened the door to revisiting the suspension.

"I do think since the board members have not been true to the idea that we would keep this confidential, we may well at some point need to revisit the suspension," McIver said. "Because we shouldn't unfairly tarnish someone's reputation, particularly when all they're accused of is sending two impolite tweets."

Zero tolerance

Controversies emerged at the PC policy convention in Red Deer last November, when both former leadership candidate Sandra Jansen, who has since joined the New Democrats, and Kenney said they were harassed by delegates. After that, the party made all campaigns sign a code of conduct, and imposed a zero tolerance policy for bad behaviour.

Krushell said she has no personal animosity towards Hallman, with whom she has worked alongside on a previous political campaign. But she thinks the suspension was justified.

"I thought it was reasonable," she said. "We're not suspending this individual forever. We're simply saying you knew about the zero tolerance policy and you need to respect those rules."

When asked about Hallman's call for O'Neill to resign, a spokesman for the Kenney campaign, Blaise Boehmer, said the team "declined to comment."