Wildrose Alliance party support swells

The Wildrose Alliance has seen a huge jump in its membership as the party leadership race enters its two final weeks.

Membership of the fledgling party has grown from 1,800 in June to nearly 12,000 as leadership candidates Danielle Smith and Mark Dyrholm make a final push for supporters.

The vote will be held in Edmonton on Oct. 17.

University of Lethbridge political scientist Faron Ellis said while Smith might be the media favourite, Dyrholm has the backing of the Progressive Group for Independent Business.

"They can organize and this is about organization," Ellis said.

The party is riding high on a recent byelection win. Paul Hinman surprised political watchers when he captured Calgary-Glenmore last month.

Hinman was first elected to the legislature in a 2005 byelection as leader of the Alberta Alliance party. It merged with the Wildrose Party in January — its founders hoping to capitalize on feelings that the governing Progressive Conservative party has moved too far toward the centre.

Former Tory cabinet minister joins Wildrose

Among the new recruits to the Wildrose Party is Ernie Isley, the mayor of Bonnyville and a former Conservative cabinet minister who served 14 years in the legislature, losing his seat in 1993.

Isley said Monday he is fed up with how the Conservative party has dealt with health care, especially eliminating premiums.

"[You] give up a billion dollars in revenue and then shortly thereafter you start coming up with a program whereby you're going to make your seniors pay more for prescription drugs. That doesn't seem to me to be the direction to go."

Health care staff are living with fear and uncertainty, he added.

"We appear to be going through the slash-and-burn era of the early '90s."

As a former cabinet minister, Isley still has the right to vote at the Tories' leadership review next month and he says he won't be supportive of Ed Stelmach.

Although membership in the Wildrose Alliance has jumped, when the Tories elected Stelmach as the party's new leader in 2006, nearly 100,000 party members voted.