NDP call for independent oversight into UCP leadership debacle

EDMONTON – Alberta’s New Democrats want independent oversight and an ethics ruling on the controversy surrounding the United Conservative leadership race won by Jason Kenney before he became premier.

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley has sent a letter to the Justice Department’s senior civil servant calling for a special prosecutor to oversee RCMP investigations into alleged voting and funding irregularities in the 2017 race.

Click “The longer that we are in a position where we have people investigating their bosses the more jeopardy we put public faith into our justice system,” Notley said.

Notley says Kenney and new Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer — who ran and lost to Kenney — need to be at arm’s length from investigations or prosecutions.

She has also written to the ethics commissioner asking for a ruling on whether Kenney and Schweitzer, who were sworn in this week, are in a conflict of interest given their participation in the leadership race. If Premier Kenney were to attempt to make legislative changes that could affect the Elections Commissioners latitude, Notley compared the potential interference to Watergate.

“I would be incredibly surprised if Mr. Kenney were to attempt to do something like that — that would smack of Nixon and Watergate.”

As part of the RCMP investigation, officers searched UCP backbencher Peter Singh’s Calgary auto repair shop last month, and Notley says he should not sit in the UCP caucus until that matter is resolved.

Alberta’s elections commissioner is also reviewing the 2017 leadership contest and has levelled fines over illegal funding for Calgary businessman Jeff Callaway, who was one of the candidates.

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