3rd candidate runs for Wildrose Alliance leadership

A third candidate is seeking the leadership of Alberta's Wildrose Alliance party.

Jeff Willerton, a self-described blue-collar guy from southern Alberta, threw his hat into the ring on Saturday.

Willerton said if elected he will work to censure the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

He also thinks Alberta needs smaller, more affordable government.

The party's leader, Paul Hinman, announced his resignation in June. He held the party's lone seat in the legislature, but lost it in the spring 2008 vote. The party polled seven per cent of the popular vote in that election.

The other two candidates in the race are Danielle Smith, a former Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Business, and Mark Dyrholm, a chiropractor who has been involved with the federal Reform and Conservative parties and the provincial Tories.

The party's president has described its members as "fiscal conservatives" and "social moderates."

Wildrose Alliance members are to choose a new leader on Oct. 17 in Edmonton.