Who is in charge of the Wildrose Party's registration drive?

The first edition of the Wildrose Weekly was published on July 6, 2007. In it, readers were introduced to the Wildrose Party's new Vice-President Membership, Sharon Maclise:

Sharon's summer project -- recruit a new political party

Many people have summer projects, but few are as challenging as the one taken on by Sharon Maclise of Edmonton.

Sharon is vice-president membership for the fledgling Wildrose Party of Alberta, and must collect 7,000 signatures by the end of August to register the new party with Elections Alberta. She is one of 13 executives elected at the party's formation meeting two weekends ago.

"That number 7,000 doesn't sound so big -- until you think of collecting them one person at a time," says Sharon.

But Maclise knows how to get things done. She came to Alberta as high school teacher from Saskatchewan in 1972, and switched to real estate six years later. She now runs her own real estate management and development company.

Sharon was not only willing but eager to dedicate her summer to this Wildrose Party membership-building campaign. "Like many, many Albertans, I have been looking for good people who can effect positive change," she explains. "I have now found them and I think thousands of Albertans will soon realize that they have found them, too - in this new party." ...

... Instead of standing with a clipboard outside shopping malls herself all summer, she's hopeful lots of others will pitch in. "We just need everyone to do a little bit," she says.

This is Sharon's plan, based on the simple fact that everyone probably knows at least a few other interested people. ...

The document then goes on to describe the particulars of "Sharon's plan". Based on the foregoing, there is no doubt as to who was in charge of the registration drive. It was the VP Membership, Sharon Maclise.

Is this still the case?

I am in receipt of private Wildrose Party documentation that tends to show that it is actually the Executive Director, Link Byfield, who is now running the registration drive. The correspondence in my possession indicates that Byfield has become the de facto VP Membership, or, at the very least, has assumed control over a critical portion of the duties of the VP Membership.

I have already blogged about the alarming rate at which the Wildrose Executive is shrinking. Now, it would appear that the current VP Membership has had the core part of her duties assumed by the Executive Director, rendering her a titular member of the Executive only. I cannot opine as to whether Sharon Maclise voluntarily gave up her role at the end of August, or whether Link Byfield simply began asserting himself as the one in charge of the registration drive. My information is not that specific.

I can state with confidence that beneath the surface, there are simmering tensions amongst the Wildrose Executive over this issue.