Stelmach faces leadership review vote

Decision time for delegates to Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party convention arrives Saturday morning, when theybegin voting in a leadership review of Premier Ed Stelmach.

The review is a mandatory element of the party constitution after an election. The PC governmentwon re-electionin March 2008.

"Good turnout for the convention," Stelmach said as he entered the hotel in Red Deer, Alta., where the convention is taking place.

"A lot of youth, that's a positive sign, and we'll see what happens this evening and into the afternoon tomorrow."

The leadership review vote runs until 3:30 p.m., with the results expected in theevening.

Stelmach's government faced numerous challenges this year, from a declining economy to controversy over health-care cuts andproblems with the H1N1 vaccine rollout.

But political strategist Rod Love said it's not just leadership that's at issue with delegates to the convention.

'They want the government to listen more'

"I don't think they want to throw the government out," Love said. "I think they want the government to listen more and to change some of the way they do things and some of the policies they have."

He added: "Regardless of the number that the premier gets in Red Deer this weekend,the general feeling of the membership [is] there have to be some changes in the way this government operates."

One of the youth delegates, Riley Georgsen of Calgary, is running for the presidency of the party's youth wing.

"I think my button says it all," he told CBC News, sporting an "Ed" pin on his lapel.

"I think he just needs to reaffirm that he is our leader," Georgsen said of Stelmach, "and he's doing a good job and he's going to be here in the hard times and there in the good times as well."

Others at the convention said they were concerned with the direction government policy is headed.

"We have any number of cutbacks happening, we have threats for next year, and if we implement all of those it's going to make it very difficult for our students to compete in the global marketplace. That's a major of concern of mine," said Leon Ward, a teacher from St. Paul, Alta.

Still, he's a Stelmach supporter.

"At the heart, I think he's a man of integrity. And I think if we don't stay solid as a party, if we don't stay behind Ed as a party, then things will get more difficult."

Love said the delegates might not decide a leadership change is needed this weekend, but still believe the party needs a wakeup call.

"I think I'm like a lot of delegates who ...we are not necessarily leaning towards a leadership review, but we are concerned that when a Conservative government in Alberta, of all places, is down to 33 per cent in the polls, that something has to change."