EDMONTON—A failed United Conservative Party nomination candidate is calling for a judicial inquiry into allegations that political insiders interfered with the party’s 2017 leadership campaign, all but guaranteeing Jason Kenney a win and setting him on the path to challenge NDP Premier Rachel Notley in the 2019 Alberta election.

In addition, StarMetro has confirmed that Alberta’s election commissioner received an anonymous complaint on Nov. 30 about illegitimate campaign donations fuelling the plan.

A political organizer, speaking in an audio file circulating online, alleges candidate Jeff Callaway was put in the race for the purpose of discrediting Brian Jean, the former leader of the Wildrose Party, while allowing Kenney to stay above the fray.

Hardyal “Happy” Singh Mann, who lost a bid to be the UCP nominee in Calgary-Falconridge this year, is calling for an inquiry.

“I was a naive person who was just very passionate to work on a leadership (campaign) to make sure that UCP wins or Jason Kenney wins,” said Mann. “I’m not going to deny the fact.”

In the summer of 2017, polls showed Jean was more popular than Notley and Kenney, his key rival for the leadership of the newly formed United Conservative Party.

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In August, Callaway, the former president of the Wildrose, entered the race. He dropped out of the contest two months later, but was highly critical of a Wildrose caucus deficit — an issue that plagued Jean in the leadership race — and spent much of his bid criticizing the former Wildrose leader.

In the end, Kenney’s campaign easily overpowered Jean’s bid, attracting barrels of donations, dozens of high-profile endorsements — including Callaway’s — and ultimately nabbed nearly two-thirds of the vote. When StarMetro reached out to Jean on Monday, he declined to comment.

Mann made a $3,000 donation to Callaway’s campaign but declined to speak about his contribution until he sought legal advice. He said he was misled and wanted to make sure everyone involved in the leadership race was held accountable for their actions.

“I want to make sure that I have legal help to make sure the ... responsibility goes to everyone,” he said.

Mann ran for the Wildrose in the 2012 and 2015 elections, losing both times. Earlier this year, his supporters were accused of assaulting a local radio host over a Facebook post criticizing Mann. His candidacy was subsequently rejected by the party.

The backroom politics allegedly involved in Callaway’s decision to enter the leadership race largely went unnoticed until last week, when Progress Alberta, a left-leaning political action committee (PAC), tweeted a link to an audio recording that featured Wendy Adam, a longtime conservative political organizer, describing a plan to back Callaway as a way to undermine Jean’s campaign.

In the recording, Adam tells two unidentified men that what she is about to tell them “has got to stay with you.” It’s unclear who taped the conversation.

“The reason that we’re running Jeff (Callaway) as a serious campaign is because Jeff will be able to say things about Brian Jean that Jason Kenney cannot.”

“It’s a kamikaze mission,” said one unidentified man.

“Exactly,” said Adam.

In a statement to StarMetro, Adam did not comment on the recording, saying she was more focused on “defeating the NDP (in the 2019 provincial election), not the divisive nature and games of those who do not have a similar view.”

Adam, who previously served on the Wildrose Highwood Constituency Association, recently joined We R Conservative, a non-profit political advocacy organization founded by former Wildrose MLA Heather Forsyth, where she helps “UCP contestants become more adept at door knocking, debating and media encounters.”

In an email to StarMetro, Callaway denied his campaign was used to torpedo Jean’s bid and said he refused to “be distracted by those who wish to create division and confusion amongst the electorate.”

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He dismissed the categorization of his campaign as a “kamikaze mission,” emphasizing that he had a clear path to victory.

“(It) necessitated getting to top two, then consolidating the Wildrose base behind me and earning the support of former PCs to go over the top to victory.”

Meanwhile, another former member of the UCP said he met with Kenney to discuss a similar plan to the one outlined in the recording.

“We sat down in early summer of 2017 for dinner and quite explicitly discussed the prospect of myself running … a stalking horse campaign to undermine Mr. Jean,” said Derek Fildebrandt, now leader of the Freedom Conservative Party.

“While I was at the time supportive of Mr. Kenney for the leadership of the UCP, I did not want to do that myself.”

Fildebrandt said the campaign they discussed was meant to “scrape up” Jean since “Jason did not want to do that himself.”

That plan was abandoned for one that would see Fildebrandt signal his intention to run, float his policies, but ultimately back down and support Kenney.

“The initial portion of the meeting was quite explicit about running what is now termed a ‘kamikaze campaign,’” said Fildebrandt, who was turfed from the UCP in February after being embroiled in an expense scandal and legal troubles, including convictions for a hit-and-run and shooting a deer on private property.

The MLA for Strathmore-Brooks said several of his volunteers were involved in helping Callaway, a man he described as a “great guy,” who advocated important points in his campaign.

“I think everybody sort of understood what the point of the campaign was,” Fildebrandt said, adding, “Jason had been shopping for a stalking horse candidate.”

Mann said the plot laid out in the recording was accurate and he also corroborated allegations made in the Legislature on Dec. 6 by independent MLA Prab Gill, who stood up to accuse an unnamed PAC of funnelling money into an unnamed leadership campaign.

Gill, who left the UCP in the wake of a ballot-stuffing controversy, said “more than $40,000 in very suspicious donations” were made to a candidate “who attacked Brian Jean in the UCP leadership race and who ultimately endorsed the Leader of the Opposition (Jason Kenney).” He asked for confirmation that the election commissioner was investigating the PAC and “these questionable donations.”

Under the province’s Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, an individual can only donate their own money to a leadership campaign. Contravening the act could result in a $10,000 fine.

Janice Harrington, executive director of the UCP, said in an email the party has not been contacted about the complaint.

She passed along a statement from Kenney’s leadership campaign manager, John Weissenberger, who denied any involvement in transferring funds directly or indirectly to another campaign or individual for the purpose of aiding another campaign. He also blamed the complaint about campaign finances on “an increasingly desperate NDP and their anonymous allies.”

Alberta’s election commissioner Lorne Gibson said the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act prevents him from publicly revealing whether a complaint has been filed or an investigation is underway, although any penalty or fine or reprimand is eventually published online.

“What I can tell you is that when we do receive complaints, we assess them as to whether or not they’re within our mandate and if they are we investigate them,” said Gibson.

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