Alberta Premier Resigns Over Budget Spat

Ed Stelmach says he will step down after his finance minister threatened to quit over plans to run a deficit next year.

It was a race to resignation. At a cobbled-together press conference Tuesday morning Stelmach announced he would resign “at a further date,” after he learned that Finance Minister Ted Morton planned to quit later that same day. Stelmach’s recent announcement that contrary to an earlier pledge the government would continue to run a deficit until at least 2013 threatened to damage Morton’s reputation as fiscally responsible. Had he resigned or been kicked out of the party, it would have created an internal rift that Stelmach felt would be too damaging. The uncertainty at the head of the party comes as the Conservatives, who have been in power since 1971, are facing a staunch challenge from the surging Wild Rose Alliance.