A small, but vocal group of Wildrose Party members from the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre constituency are continuing their efforts to see Jason Nixon ousted as the party’s next MLA candidate.
Edwin Erickson, who maintains he is president of the board voted in at a controversial AGM held Oct. 15, said Jason Nixon’s name is still on the website of Elections Alberta as constituency president.
“That is a conflict,” he said. “He is still registered with Elections Alberta as the president of this constituency.”
However, Nixon said it is an “oversight” that his name is still appearing as president on the website.
“I’m assuming it is some paperwork that got overlooked.”
Nixon said, David Yager, Wildrose Party president has been contacted about the oversight and has taken steps to ensure the website is updated.
Nixon said he followed the rules carefully during the nomination process to ensure he was not breaching correct protocol.
“In accordance with Wildrose bylaws, I took a leave of absence on June 4, 2014, well in advance of filing my paperwork for the nomination. Ted Bach was elected president of the constituency association board after my leave of absence and has remained president since that date. I have not been president since that time. Mr. Bach has been president and remains president.”
Nixon defeated MLA Joe Anglin in a nomination race held July 5, 242 to 122.
“After my successful nomination election I did resign in accordance with the bylaws.
Nixon said he sees the time and energy being spent rehashing these dates as unusual behaviour.
“To continue to bring them up despite the fact they have been repeatedly addressed by both myself and the Wildrose Party is behavior that gets in the way of serving constituents which is disappointing for me.”
Nixon said he wants to focus on the other issues.
“I relish the chance to serve this Riding as its next MLA. My role now, along with our Riding supporters is to focus on effective constituency service as a springboard to help solve an array of issues littering our landscape with decades of failed initiatives.
“I also want to seize the opportunities ahead to exhilarate our collective growth, prosperity and well being.”
Paul McLauchlin, vice president of communications for the constituency said the controversy surrounding the nomination of Jason Nixon is nothing but “sour grapes.”
“It’s over with, he’s an official candidate for Wildrose and we’ve moved on. We want to focus our time and energy onto seeing Jason get elected as our next MLA.”
The fact that Nixon’s name was listed on the Elections Alberta website was simply an administration error.
“It’s not a smoking gun,” he said.