An email sent from a Town of St. Paul email address has raised concerns about the use of municipal resources to influence the Progressive Conservative leadership election and attracted provincial media attention.
Local politicians were contacted last week by CBC to account for an email sent by CAO Ron Boisvert leading up to the final ballot on Oct. 1. Boisvert sent an email out on Sept. 22 to around 80 people asking for support for Doug Horner as the first preference and Alison Redford as the second.
“Anybody can vote how they want, however, in order to keep Ray in a ministry position, either Horner or Redford have to get in as premier,” Boisvert wrote in the email. “It is also very important that we vote and that we have large voting numbers to show strength from our region.”
Boisvert stated “it is imperative for future funding that Ray remains in a powerful position … Please pass the message to family and friends.”
The email was signed, “Thanks, Ron.”
Boisvert was unavailable for comment by press time on Friday afternoon.
“I believe if someone sends out an email like that it should be on a personal email. I had no knowledge or prior consultation about it,” MLA Ray Danyluk said on Thursday.
“If you read the email, you can see he (Ron Boisvert) spoke from the heart … You have a candidate (Gary Mar) taking away the MSI funding, that would kill 200 communities in this province.”
The Town of St. Paul does not have a policy for personal use of computers, but council does not condone the email, said Mayor Glenn Andersen.
“In no way do we want the Town of St. Paul implicated in the email,” he said. Council will address the issue at its meeting tonight. “The message is not the feeling of the Town council.”
Andersen said council does not encourage political messages coming from Town computers and called the email an “error in judgment.” Council deals with all provincial politicians and leaders the same, he said. “We’re in no way trying to direct the electorate to go any which way.”
Town and County of St. Paul employees and elected officials, RCMP staff, local businesses, the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and Community Futures received the email among others.
Lac La Biche – St. Paul PC constituency association president Don Schultz said no members have raised concern about the email with him and that the letter was aimed at protecting municipalities.
“As association president, I saw nothing wrong with it,” he said. “My interpretation is he had concerns, as his council had concerns, with MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) grants.” Gary Mar would have cut back and eliminated long term grants, Schultz said.
While in St. Paul, Mar told an audience he would give the education portion of property taxes to municipalities. No municipality would get less than with MSI and changes to municipal funding would reduce administrative costs, Mar said.
While the association supported Horner, Redford was not the official second choice of the association. Redford picked up around 1,200 votes in the constituency from the second preference. She defeated Mar by 1,610 votes.
Schultz told voters he was supporting Redford as his second choice because he saw her as the best chance to get Danyluk in cabinet, he said.