Alberta election: Floor-crosser Kerry Towle on "taking the heat" door-to-door

Terry Towle reminds us that WR accepted 2 “Floor Crossers” way back at the inception of the party (she is referring to disgruntled PC’ers Rob Anderson and Heather Forsyth who moved over to WildRose – although a 3rd MLA – Guy Boutilier – who was an un-affiliated Independent had been a PC’er until he was ejected for criticising Premier Ed Stelmach.

The hypocritical implication was that the “penalty fee” would make it that you could join WR but never leave.
I doubt it. They can always leave – it is just that there are consequences for doing so.
In fact considering the effort it takes to rev-up public opinion on various issues – as Wildrose has done so well as Opposition – I completely agree with the idea that free-floating opportunists will avail themselves to latch on to a good thing – the rising wave of public opinion and try to land a seat. Clearly there is great upside and virtually no downside (apart from a month spent campaigning – which may be alot or not much).

Why not charge for that opportunity?

She says the WR accepted two floor crossers. Difference is they did not cross to the party in power. One crossed because the PC’s were heading in the wrong direction, the other one who knows who knows why because he also crossed back to the PC’s.

No way I will vote for her again….she has to go.

I think elected officials who change parties should have to resign and run under the new party in a by-election.

Without a doubt, a slap in the face of those who voted for you. Lets just say she probably won’t be walking any of those votes over to the PC’s. Drop her like a hot potato.

Randy Williams, you’re saying basically the same thing I’m advocating, but with the added proviso that the candidate and their new Party pay for the by-election. I fully concur.

I really don’t have a problem of elected politicians crossing the floor to another party or in this case a governing party. Bit I would also say that when they do so, an immediate bi-election should be held and fully paid for the person who crossed the floor and the party that accepted them! There should be no way in hell that the taxpayers should be forced to pay again when they have already done so. That’s like paying for a mechanic to fix you car, only to come back later and pay him again for the same thing. That’s how criminal I think this is and the tax payers should stand up and say no more, and for them to go back to the hell they came from!

Well, she certainly is a politician. Only a deranged politician could put a positive spin on being raked over the coals as a traitor. It should be ILLEGAL TO CROSS THE FLOOR, PERIOD!!! People vote for parties, not candidates. The seat should belongs to the PARTY that won the seat, NOT THE CANDIDATE! The candidate is just that Party’s representative. If the candidate come to the point where they can no longer represent their party on matters of conscience, for whatever reason, they should be required to resign and run in a by-election. I’ve never been inconsistent in my belief about that, even when a liberal sees the light and crosses to join the conservatives (federal). It’s wrong, it’s immoral and it’s slap in the face of those who elected you

Kerry Towle represents herself and is not a member of the Wild Rose or PC Party. She is representing the “OPPORTUNIST PARTY” , a party where the candidate looks after themselves and their interests ahead of loyalty to the constituents and loyalty to the cause they pretended to represent.Sorry, becoming an elected member means you are in for the long haul and if you walk away you do not deserve consideration wearing the latest fanciful team colors. Lets hope it is BYE BYE to Kerry and the rest of her opportunist ilk.

Really hoping she gets turfed by the voters in her riding and a replacement WR MLA is installed. Hopefully once that is much less treacherous than his/her predecessor.

I believe that any assembly that is based on party politics should have a law requiring the constituency to confirm the floor-crossing with a bye election before that individual can cross. Let the directly affected voters make the decision, and secondly to keep costs down the vote should be held within 10 days of the petition to cross the floor.

So she’s finding out firsthand what the REAL people of Alberta think of such actions… what else did she expect? She says she represents her constituents — did she consult them before crossing the floor? Did they actually give her a mandate to defect from her party and join another? (I’d like to see the documentation on that…) She may think that they’re much more understanding once they hear “her side of the story”, but the record is this: she crossed the floor once; they have no guarantees she won’t do it again… The voters will decide if they believe her or not.