Felito Cruz (The More Things Changed)

Rafael  "Felito" Edward Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is a Canadian politician and attorney, who has served as the Premier of Alberta and MLA for Edmonton-Southwest since May 24, 2015. He previously served as Chief Crown Prosecutor of Edmonton.

Cruz served as Chief Crown Prosecutor of Edmonton from 2003 to 2015. He was the first Hispanic, and the longest-serving, Chief Crown Prosecutor in Alberta history. From 2004 to 2011, Cruz was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, where he taught litigation.

Following the decision by leader Danielle Smith and eight other MLAs to leave the Wildrose Party and cross the floor to join the ruling Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (PCs) the party announced the next day that it would appoint an interim leader and hold an election to choose a permanent leader in 2015. Cruz was elected leader over three other candidates on March 28, 2015. He led his party to victory in the general election and formed Alberta's first minority government.

From March 28, 2015 to September 6, 2016, Cruz was the leader of the Wildrose Party. He resigned his party membership in order to run in the Conservative Party leadership election while maintaining his premiership, triggering the 2016 Albertan parliamentary dispute and leading to a reshuffling of his cabinet. He became the first Premier in Alberta history to lead a coalition government primarily comprised of a different party.

A vote of no confidence was called for in the Alberta Legislative Assembly, which saw Cruz maintain his government by a 44-43 vote.

Early Life and Family
Rafael Edward Cruz was born on December 22, at Foothills General Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to parents Eleanor Elizabeth (née Darragh) Wilson and Rafael Bienvenido Cruz y Díaz. Cruz's mother was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She is of three-quarters Irish and one-quarter Italian descent. She earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rice University in the 1950s. At the time of his birth, Cruz's parents had lived in Calgary for three years and were working in the oil business as owners of a seismic-data processing firm for oil drilling. Cruz has said, "I'm the son of two mathematicians/computer programmers." In 1974, his father left the family and moved to Texas. Later that year, his parents reconciled and relocated to Edmonton, Alberta.

Cruz's paternal grandfather, Rafael, immigrated to Cuba as an infant with his parents from the Canary Islands of Spain. Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was born in Cuba; he grew up in the middle class and left Cuba in 1957 to attend the University of Texas at Austin. He obtained political asylum in the United States after his four-year student visa expired, as the Cuban Revolution had changed the government. Rafael Cruz earned Canadian citizenship in 1973. Rafael Cruz became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 2005. Eleanor and Rafael Cruz divorced in 1997.

Cruz has two older half-sisters, Miriam Ceferina Cruz and Roxana Lourdes Cruz, from his father's first marriage. Miriam died in 2011.

Cruz married Marilyn Burns in 2001. The couple has two daughters, Caroline and Catherine. Cruz met his wife during the founding of the Canadian Alliance party in 2000.

Wildrose Leadership Election
The 2015 Wildrose Party leadership election was triggered December 17, 2014, following the decision by leader Danielle Smith and eight other MLAs to leave the Wildrose Party and cross the floor to join the ruling Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (PCs). The party announced the next day that it would appoint an interim leader and hold an election to choose a permanent leader in 2015.

Under the party's constitution, within 15 days of Smith's resignation, it had to set a date for party members to choose a new permanent leader. Smith tendered her resignation on the morning of December 17, 2014. In a letter to the party's executive, Smith recommended that party members vote on a “reunification resolution” to merge with the PCs as soon as possible, a course of action that the executive rejected.

The party's constitution also stipulates that the leadership election had to be held between three and nine months after the position becomes open, in this case between March and September 2015. Each candidate had to pay a non-refundable $20,000 deposit and receive endorsement signatures from 250 party members.

The party executive announced on January 23, 2015 that the election was to be held on June 6, 2015 and that party members would be able to vote in person at venues around the province or by mail-in ballot. However, due to the likelihood of an early provincial election, the date of the leadership vote was moved up with the vote to be conducted by a telephone ballot in a 12-day period from March 16 to March 28, 2015 with results announced at the Sheraton Cavalier in Calgary.

Voting was by means of a ranked ballot. Originally, voters were required to rank all four candidates however, due to objections, this was changed to allow voters to rank either one, two, three, or all four candidates.

29th Alberta General Election
The 29th general election of Alberta, Canada, elected members of the 29th Alberta Legislature took place May 5, 2015, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on April 7, 2015.

The provincial Election Act' fixes the election to a three-month period, between March 1 and May 31 in the fourth calendar year after the preceding election day which in this case was April 23, 2012. However, the Act does not affect the powers of the Crown, the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the Legislature before this period. The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (PCs) had a majority in the outgoing Assembly.

As a result of the election, the Wildrose Party was elected to a minority government under Cruz. It marked the first time the party formed a government, and marked the first minority government in Alberta history. On May 8th, Cruz and the Wildrose party entered into a formal agreement with the Alberta Party and the Progressive-Conservative Party, where the two opposition parties agreed to support the Cruz government on all confidence motions and budgetary legislation for at least three years.

Swearing-In
Cruz was sworn-in as the 17th Premier of Alberta along with his cabinet on May 24, 2015. When he took office he ended Alberta's streak of majority governments. His seventeen-member cabinet is the smallest in the country, containing only 20% of the legislature's members. The slimmed down cabinet was met with a mixed response from pundits; some said it showed the Wildrose Party's lack of experienced people while others felt that it brought a much needed sense of economy and individual importance to the various positions.

The swearing-in ceremony was an unusually public event, held on the steps of the Alberta Legislature Building in front of a large crowd of spectators while a band played the national anthem; free popsicles and food were distributed from food trucks. The Alberta NDP was criticized, though, for using the event as a part of its party fundraising, for which they later apologized. The ceremony cost $21,322; more expensive than the swearing-in ceremonies of the previous two premiers, but still less than the expenditure for the swearing-in of Alison Redford in 2011.

Speech from the Throne
The government's first throne speech was read by newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor Lois Mitchell on June 15, 2015. The speech announced two bills intended to ban corporate and union donations to political parties, ending the flat tax rate that had been in place since the premiership of Ralph Klein. Both of these proposals were promised as part of the Wildrose Party's election platform. That same day Cruz also announced the creation of a twelve-member committee, including Alberta Party leader Greg Clark, tasked to look into ways to improve government accountability in areas such as whistleblower protection, electioneering, and conflicts of interest.

2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire
In May 2016 a wildfire devastated the township of Fort McMurray, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Albertan history. In October 2016 Cruz surveyed the construction site of the first rebuilt home since the permission to return was granted.

Australia, Israel, Mexico, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, the Republic of China, and the United States offered international assistance in battling the fire, though the offers were turned down by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau said that while the offers were appreciated, they were unnecessary as firefighters from other Canadian provinces were gaining control of the situation.

Cruz spent time in the national and international spotlight when he lambasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government and his handling of the federal response to the wildfire, calling it "shameful, cowardly, and cruel."

2016 Albertan Parliamentary Dispute
On September 6, 2016, Cruz announced that he would be switching his party affiliation to the Conservative Party, in order to run in the federal leadership election in 2017.

Opposition leader Rachel Notley, of the NDP, introduced a motion of no confidence on September 8th. Three Progressive Conservative MLAs joined the Liberals and New Democrats in supporting the motion, violating a previous agreement between their party and the Cruz government.

Cruz requested from Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell a week-long prorogation of the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly reconvened on September 19, and the motion of no confidence was put to a vote. The Cruz government was sustained by a razor-thin 44-43 vote. As a result, Cruz reshuffled his cabinet, leading a coalition government of the Wildrose Party, Progressive Conservatives, and the Alberta Party. He is the first Premier in Alberta history to run a government primarily comprised of a party other than his own.

2017 Conservative Party Leadership Election
On September 6, 2016, Cruz resigned his Wildrose party membership in order to run in the Conservative Party leadership election.

His platform established him as a social conservative, opposing both same-sex marriage and abortion. Cruz further proposed testing applicants for citizenship on their "their understanding and appreciation of Canada's core values." However, he proposed a path to "legal status" for undocumented immigrants. He also proposed pulling Canada out of the United Nations firearms marking standardization.

Cruz ultimately came in second place, losing to fellow Albertan Nimrata "Nikki" Pedersen.

One Canada
Following his defeat in the Conservative leadership election, Cruz consulted with the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party, the Alberta Party, and his former Wildrose Party. On June 5th, Cruz announced the merger of the parties into a new, nationwide political party - Once Canada. He announced an "Canadian conversation tour" across the country, to thank voters for support of his Conservative leadership bid and to shore up support for the nascent party.

Following the announcement, Ric McIver, Deputy Premier and Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, resigned his post, saying his loyalty was to the Progressive Conservatives. Dave Schneider of Little Bow, who held the post before McIver under Cruz's First Cabinet, returned as the Premier announced the creation of his Third Cabinet.