The former school principal challenging MLA Ty Lund for the Tory nomination in his riding says he hopes supporters will see through a smear campaign stemming from his former job.
Jimmy Clark, 56, left his job at the West Central High School in Rocky Mountain House last May under a storm of controversy.
There were questions about some of the spending at the school while Clark was in charge, said Brian Celli, current superintendent of Wild Rose School Division. While there were accusations, no evidence was ever found of any wrongdoing, said Celli, who had not yet joined the school division when Clark left his job.
Clark told the Advocate that he chose to retire under a mutual agreement with the school division, which gave him an opportunity to set up his own business and allowed his wife, Jolene Burkard, to become a full-time teacher at the school.
Burkard had been restricted to part-time status while Clark was principal due to the perception of conflict of interest.
Lund said this week that he would have warned Clark about the potential for rumours from 2010 to resurface had he known beforehand about his plans to seek the nomination.
Those rumours are only going to get worse if Clark is nominated and eventually elected, said Lund, who has represented the riding since March of 1989.
Lund, 73, said he also suffered sharp criticism when the controversy broke at West Central, including taking barbs from numerous people who accused him of interfering with the police investigation on Clark’s behalf.
He said he never believed Clark would do the things of which he was accused, nor would he ever interfere with a police investigation.
If the rumours and accusations are being brought back by members of Lund’s campaign team, it is without his direction, said Lund.
“I’m not telling my people anything. I don’t campaign that way,” he said.
“It’s just a problem that Jimmy has that was out there back then, and I knew that it would come up again, and that’s one of the reasons I was not anxious to have a forum, because I knew this sort of thing would come up. But I cannot control what the rumour mill would grind up. I’m not involved in it.”
Clark said this week he is “so upset” to hear that old rumours have come to the surface again it what appears to be a smear campaign.
He said he has been getting a great response on his campaign and hopes that people will not be swayed by those who continue to circulate unfounded rumours.
Whether it actually hurt the campaign will be decided on Saturday, when members of the riding association cast their votes.
“We’re staying optimistic and positive, and that’s how this will be conducted and how this will be concluded, regardless of outcome,” he said.
“It’s a small town, and as much as we’ve chosen to make this our home, (the smear campaign) is so disappointing for everything we’ve given over the years.”
Whoever wins on Saturday will have the support of the other, said Clark.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com