Former Alberta Report publisher Byfield to run for new Alberta party

[This post has been corrected.] Link Byfield, who for 18 years was the editor and publisher of the Alberta Report magazine intends to run in the next Alberta election for the Wildrose Alliance party in Whitecourt - Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton. He is expected to win the nomination tonight.

Byfield was a founding member of the Wildrose Party, which merged with the Alberta Alliance on January 19th to form the Wildrose Alliance. A post in Western Standard.ca says that Byfield has turned down many opportunities to run for the Progressive Conservatives.

"The PCs have served the province, but have been in office too long," he said today. "Over time they have become just another top-down, tax-and spend-party like the Liberals. Albertans don't need more spending, we need better leadership.

"A great many Albertans now realize," [he] said, "that there will have to be a viable new centre-right alternative in the Legislature, to push this drifting government in the right direction. And if the government refuses to be pushed, Albertans will then have the means to replace it."

[This post has been corrected; it had referred incorrectly to Byfield as publisher and editor of the Western Standard. Of course, it was Alberta and later Western Report.]