WAP Leadership Wannabe Endorsed By Rural Separatist

Mark Dyrholm is one of the two candidates left in the race for leader of the upstart Wildrose Alliance Party, who may or may not be set to upend politics as usual in Alberta. I have noted his ties to Western Separatist organizations here and elsewhere.

Randy Hillier is an Ontario MPP in Tim Hudak's PCPO opposition, and one-time leadership Candidate for the PCPO. He has advocated in the past that rural Ontario should secede from the urban South. He also has a thing for creepy red suspenders. Now these two......are together at last.

I doubt I have many Alberta readers in the 1st place, and far be it for me to advise any WAP supporters on who their leader should be, but for gawd sake pick the blonde chick.

h/t WS.

Wildrose Alliance Membership Race Down To A Pair

Suddenly, this shit may actually matter.

The Wildrose Alliance Leadership is down to two contestants now that writer Jeff Willerton (who?) has pulled out and thrown his support behind chiropractor Mark Dyrholm (who?). Some speculation here as to whether the move was prearranged between the Willerton/Dyrholm camps, presumably to show that the momentum is behind Dyrholm.

Of course these things are decided by the party membership, and there are rumors floating around about how many the two remaining candidates, Dyrholm and front-runner Danielle Smith (who?), may actually have. There is also a rumor floating around that the Dyrholm campaign team has hidden at least 2000 new memberships from the party's leadership committee as "insurance".

The whippet-thin Dan Arnold has a good big-picture overview of what it all means.

And here's a series of posts I wrote earlier on the Dyrholm campaign's connections to the separatist WTBA, featuring a surprise appearance by Mark's Coalition/Outreach guy, Craig Chandler.

Meanwhile, Out In Alberta

From the campaign of Mark Dyrholm, who is running for leader of Alberta's Wildrose Alliance Party, which has drawn the support of the the separatist Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA) and other Alberta luminaries.

Trouble Out West: PGIB Moves To Take Over Wild Rose Alliance?

Writing yesterday, I noted that the Separatist Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA) had thrown its support behind Mark Dyrholm as leader of the Wild Rose Alliance. This prompted an email from Craig Chandler, Mark's Strategy/Coalition Outreach guy, pointing out that there were Western Separatists on all sides of the WRAP leadership race.

And I thought: Chandler, Crutcher, Dyrholm...where have I heard all these names together before? Turns out this gang go way back. For example, when the Wildrose & Alberta Alliance parties first merged, one of the slates for party executive of the new entity consisted of

Craig Chandler - VP Fundraising
Mark Dyrholm - VP Policy
David Crutcher - VP Membership
Harley Shouldice - Southern Regional Director
Don Leonardo - Southern Regional Director

When Crutcher ran for MLA under the banner of the Alberta Alliance, Chandler served as his campaign manager; when Chandler ran as an independent, Shouldice served as his campaign manager.

But the most important link between these gentlemen, and between the WTBA and Wild Rose Alliance, seems to be the The Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB). Here is a list of the folks on both the PGIB National Advisory Council and the Dyrholm campaign team:

Mark Dyrholm
Craig Chandler
Sid Helishauer
Harley Shouldice

And, as a bonus, it looks like WTBA policy guy Rob Allen is also A) a Member of PGIB, and B) on the Dyrholm team.

Interestingly enough, there's an Eastern connection here. The PGIB was born in Ontario during Chandler's university days. Its motto is "less government, lower taxes and political ccountability" , and it has at times taken credit for aspects of Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution.

(Note: Mr. Chandler tells me I've got several things in this next bit wrong. For example, he is no longer associated with CCCI, and it was the CCCI that intended to launch a HR complaint on his behalf. I will leave the wording below as is, but go here for the correct account)

As for Chandler, who seems to be the driving force behind all of this (no matter what his official position in the various campaigns), one of the spin-off groups he founded is Concerned Christians Canada Inc. The infamous Stephen Boisson was once a member of this group (although I believe he was later disowned), and the letter that got Boisson in dutch with the AHRC was also published on the CCCI website, before Chandler settled with the commission and had it removed. He's also been in trouble with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

And perhaps most odd: although Chandler has complained vociferously about the HRC persecution of Christians, he himself filed an HRC complaint against the Stelmach Tories for...wait for it... their alleged bias against Christians. Although, to be fair, in his recent email to me Mr. Chandler says he has dropped this complaint on the grounds that it would be hypocritical for him to employ a government body that he does not approve of. Further, the CCCI is participating in Boisson's legal challenge against Alberta's hate speech laws.

Finally, the PGIP has been in the news recently, after Collingwood Ethanol, owned by Craig's father Bruce Chandler, got into trouble for its odoriferous emissions. The PGIP was called in to conduct what appears to have been a campaign of intimidation against anyone criticising the facility..a campaign that apparently backfired:

It's not that Craig Chandler and his buddy David Crutcher were loud and obnoxious: it's that they generally flooded the local airwaves with largely inflammatory and in some cases, grossly inaccurate statements.

However, held against the light of day, it was clear their comments were full more of bluster than fact. The first time I interviewed Crutcher, for instance, he claimed the mayor was "trying to get rid of all industry in Collingwood."When I challenged him on it, he backtracked and tried to put the focus on the mayor's perceived hate-on for the ethanol plant.

Outside of the glare of the media, these two, uh, 'gentlemen' persisted, through two phone messages and a letter to the community. A website, www.collingwoodpgib.ca, still lingers on the Internet (sadly, however, without a peep about the apology.)

Anyway, once again, good luck Mr. Dyrholm. With such allies, you will probably need it.

Western Separatists Support Mark Dyrholm For Wildrose Alliance Leadership

Finally, some movement out of the Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA), "whose six point plan" includes

1) Create separatist network that will strengthen the businesses of separatists and help them prosper so they can in turn donate to groups like the Separation Party of Alberta and / or any other party that may come along in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia

[...]

6)Provide training in Campaign Management, Candidate Development, Fundraising, Media Training and more for those that want to organize for elected office or to promote the separation agenda across Western Canada or in their provinces specifically.

Here's an email from Executive Director David Crutcher:

Dear Friends of Alberta,

I just received this information from Wildrose Leadership Candidate, Mark Dyrholm.

I am supporting Mark and I encourage you to go to his website at www.markdyrholm.ca and join up so you can vote in this one member, one vote mail in ballot vote.

David Crutcher
Executive Director
Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA)
Phone: 403-456-3549
Email: executivedirector@itstimetogo.ca
Websites: www.wbta.ca www.itstimetogo.ca

Good Luck Mr. Dyrholm!