Wildrose Party leadership candidates debate issues in Red Deer

More than a hundred people turned out to hear the three candidates in the race to lead the Wildrose Party debate the issues on Monday night in Red Deer.

It was the first chance for Brian Jean, Linda Osinchuk and Drew Barnes to make a public pitch to Wildrose members for a shot at leading the party.

All three contenders touched on the theme of trust in the wake of last year’s mass floor crossing to the governing Tories.

"Well there are a lot of challenges here but it's trust. It comes down to trust and I think Albertans want to trust somebody,” Jean said.

"Albertans were just demolished about the whole democratic process. They're saying who do we trust?," Osenchuk said.

"First and most importantly, they can trust me to be the leader of the party, rebuild the constituencies, to develop the right ideas to win the next campaign,” Barnes said.

But all the talk about trust wasn’t what Wildrose voter Jocye Gordon drove from Stettler to hear.

"I don't want to ‘trust trust.’ That doesn't work. I want to know what I'm trusting in and what's going to happen,” she said.

Gordon admits the last few months have been hard for party supporters.

“Scary, need a lot of prayer. But you know we’re here and we’re not going away,” she said.

Gordon says while she’s a fan of Barnes, she is keeping an open mind.

“I need to give others a chance, so I need to listen to each one of them and see how they handle a debate,” she said.

“I want to hear fiscal responsibility, I want to hear their values.”

The new leader will be announced on March 28 after a 12-day telephone voting period for party members.