Sherwood Park Conservatives split over nomination process

Hard feelings about a nomination meetingtwo years ago in the federal riding of Edmonton-Sherwood Park have led some Conservative party members tocampaign for a former Conservative who's running as an independent.

Jimmy Ford openly supports Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, andhas been involved with the Conservative and Progressive Conservative parties provincially and federally for 30 years.

Hedecided to run as an independent because hedisagreed with the wayTim Uppal waschosen as the Conservative candidate in the riding.

Ford, like many party members in the area, felt Conservative operatives from Ottawacontrolled membership sales, failed to advertise the race and held the vote in an obscure location in an attempt to get Uppal the nomination for Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

Uppal ran unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in southeast Edmonton in 2004 and for the Canadian Alliance in 2000.

"I'm still angry, you know, because this is my party and had been for a long time," Ford said.

Some Conservative loyalists are now working on Ford's campaign.

'Nomination was no different': Uppal

Uppal disagreed that the nominationprocess was flawed, and argued that the controversy is an overreaction from a small group of people.

"I've obviously been to a number of nominations, been a party member for years, and I actually worked for the Conservative party and been to nominations. In that way, this nomination was no different than any other and the interesting thing is that there was no official complaints filed by either another candidate or anybody," Uppal said.

However, the National Council of the Conservative Party hasconfirmed with CBC News that it received a letter of complaint from the Edmonton-Sherwood Park Riding Association in December 2006complaining about the process. The council sent a reply saying it appeared all the rules were followed in the nomination process.

Longtime ToryMP not endorsing Uppal

Conservative politicians in the area said they are staying out of the debate.

Ken Epp, who is retiring after a long stint asConservative MP for the riding, isn't endorsing Uppal but he isn't openly backingFord, either, even though he attended the opening of Ford's campaign office on Saturday.

"All my life, I've had the policy of being neutral in any race in which I'm not a candidate," Epp said Saturday. "I just believe in grassroots democracy and I think that this whole election here is for the people in this riding, the electors here, to sort out. I believe in that strongly so I won't be campaigning for either of them."

Still, Epp said he is not happy with the nomination process.

"I think it was mishandled to some degree, and unfortunately, so the fact that I lost board members over this was a great distress to me at the time and I wish it wouldn't have happened," he said.

David Quest, Conservative member for the provincial riding of Strathcona, also attended the opening of Ford's office.

Quest said even though he isn't endorsing Ford's candidacy, he isn't sure whether he will endorse Uppal.

"I am somewhat torn," Quest said. "We need a Conservative federal government in Ottawa. On the flip side, Jim supported me in my campaign. This is a situation that, yeah, it's difficult to watch."

Epp thinks having both Ford and Uppal running as candidates will make for a tight race in Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

"It's going to be interesting because of the fact that we have two frontrunners. Usually you don't. In my elections, we've had a pretty substantial majority. I think the last time it was around 65 per cent [of the vote] for me and the Conservatives," Epp said.

Uppal said he doesn't consider Ford a threat in the election.

"So far, from the people I've been talking to, it's definitely a two-way race. It's the Conservative Party versus the Liberal Party out here," Uppal said.

For his part, Ford said he is prepared to be questionedon the doorstepabout why he's running against the Conservatives.

"I'm going to tell them that this is the best chance that they have of getting the best candidate to do the best job. This is their chance to pick their candidate from the grassroots up," Ford said.