By Thomas Miller
Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Lloyd Snelgrove resigned from the Progressive Conservative caucus on Friday, just two months after he announced he would not seek re-election.
To avoid a media circus, he took a few days to get out of the spotlight before speaking about his resignation, he said in an interview on Tuesday.
Snelgrove will spend the remaining days of his stay in office as an independent.
“I’ll be going from the back corner on this side to the back corner on the other side,” he said.
This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision for Snelgrove, who said he thought it was best to get out of the way once the PC Party had elected a new candidate for the Vermilion-Lloydminster constituency.
On Jan. 26 Richard Starke was formally named the party’s candidate at an event in Vermilion attended by Snelgrove.
The next morning he turned in his resignation letter in Edmonton and got out of Dodge.
“I probably had already determined that if I didn’t resign from government totally when they had picked a new candidate, I would certainly not want to be in the way of a new candidate and their opportunity to bring forward their ideas,” said Snelgrove, adding he didn’t discuss that with his board or with Starke.
“The sun kept coming up, hardly anybody grew horns and that’s all it is,” he said. “It’s simply me saying, I have a lot of respect for the democratic process.”
His resignation was set in motion by a contentious PC leadership campaign that brought Alison Redford into power in October.
Snelgrove said he was discouraged by the negative nature of the campaign.
“As the leadership (campaign) developed through the summer it became apparent to me that none of the candidates were selling a great deal of hope and positive opportunities for Albertans,” he said.
“A little bit like the presidential campaign in the States right now – the more negative you could be the more headlines you were getting. It starts to sour you a little bit.”
He allowed the new leadership situation to play out until the end of November, then announced he would not seek re-election in the spring.
“Premier Redford says it’s a new party – I like the old party better,” said Snelgrove.
“I think the new administration, new premier are going to have a very difficult time because you just about have to say no to everybody and when you have to pick winners and losers within government it hurts the morale. It sends a very different picture to different departments: ‘Well this department, they can do what they want. Oh, by the way, you can’t.’”
Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA candidate for the Wildrose Party, Danny Hozack, himself a former member of the PC Party, said he could see Snelgrove was frustrated with the direction of the party.
“I always felt like he was one of the more conservative people in the caucus and I think quite frankly there just came a time when he could no longer put up with some of the things that they were promising to do,” said Hozack.
It was reported in the Calgary Herald that Snelgrove met with Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith, but Snelgrove will remain an independent.
“I would like to work with him,” said Hozack. “Even when he was in cabinet, he was very generous to me. If I called about an issue he was always quick to get back to me. I think we will be ready to work with anyone who puts the best interests of the province first. I think some of the things he was trying to do, particularly to do with getting their spending under control absolutely had the best interests of the province at heart.
“I think it sends a pretty clear sign to conservative people in the Progressive Conservative Party that one of the most conservative people in their caucus just can’t find himself to sit with them anymore. I think that sends a real message that clearly this party is a lot more progressive than it is conservative.”