CANDIDATE PROFILE: Gary Mar

If Gary Mar wins the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party Saturday, he will become the country's first Chinese-Canadian premier, a fact that fills some of his campaign volunteers with pride.

"If Mr. Gary Mar becomes our premier. It's our honour and we will feel very, very happy," Barbara Fung said.

Fung, a Mar supporter, has been working the phones from the Chinese Community Centre in Edmonton, trying to motivate people in the community to vote.

Mar joins Alison Redford and Doug Horner on the second ballot. The winner will replace outgoing party leader Ed Stelmach as Alberta premier.

Kwan Sau Chiang, 95, faced discrimination when she came to Canada 50 years ago. She delights in the idea that someone of Chinese descent could lead the province.

"She says it will be really happy for her and it will contribute to Canada," Fung said.

Mar, a 49-year-old lawyer and former Tory cabinet minister, is keenly aware of the hardships faced by Chiang and other Chinese-Canadians. His grandparents paid a head tax when they first arrived in Canada.

Mar evoked his family's past on Sept. 17 after winning the first ballot with 41 per cent of the vote.

"I think my grandparents would be very proud," he said.

"They came to this country. They faced a lot of discrimination and for my grandparents or my father, who's passed on now, for them to be watching over me and seeing that I have very, very strong chance of being the next premier of Alberta would make them very proud, indeed."

Contracts to former assistant

Gary Mar grew up in Calgary. From a young age, he worked in his father's stores, restaurants and hotels.

Long-time friend Peter Wong, a Calgary lawyer, said Mar's skills as a politician were shaped by those early days.

"Working in a Chinese restaurant when you're small will do that to you," Wong said.

"Gary's had all kinds of experiences in dealing with the public. Every single day he's dealing with trying to understand people and trying to connect with them and trying better understand the problems that people have."

Mar was educated in Alberta, earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Calgary, and a law degree at University of Alberta. After practicing law in Calgary, Mar was elected to the legislative assembly in 1993.

Mar was immediately appointed to cabinet. He was a rising star in the government of Premier Ralph Klein and eventually became minister of health.

Rural MLAs balked at Mar's proposal to cut the 17 regional health authorities down to nine. Mar took more heat when it emerged his former executive assistant, Kelley Charlebois, won lucrative health ministry contracts worth $389,000

Fred Dunn, who was auditor general at the time,scolded the government for not publicly tendering the work and not having documentation about work that was done. Mar acknowledged mistakes were made. Wong says his friend learned from the controversy.

"One of Gary's strongest qualities is to learn from his mistakes,"Wong said. "I know that as a politician you've got to accept a certain number of blows in public life otherwise don't be in it. And I think he's accepted those hard knocks."

During the leadership campaign, Mar has spoken about his commitment to transparency and accountability, but his opponents say his actions don't always match his words.

Mar has been dogged by questions throughout the campaign about the $479,000 MLA severance he took after leaving office in 2007 to become the province's high-paid envoy in Washington D.C.

Mar accepted the payment, after earlier pledging to defer it. Technically he waited. According to government documents, the severance was paid at some point in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Critics call it double-dipping. But Mar says he was entitled to the money.

"I did the exact same thing that every other person is able to do," he said. "That's not any way shape and form a breach of the rules."

Mar has promised bold leadership for his first 120 days if he becomes premier. He said he would reverse the $107 million cut to education spending and form a task force on how to renew the party.

"There's some immediate issues that need to be dealt with and some longer term issues that need to be dealt with," he said. "Making sure that government has the attitude that will listen to people and not just tell them what to do."

That ability to listen will make Mar a great premier, Wong predicts.

"If you can understand the people that you represent, then you can lead them," he said.