The Mayor of Amisk Alberta is giving up on his hopes of being the next leader of the United Conservative Party.
In an email sent to media Saturday Morning the one time UCP hopeful said, "It is with great regret that we have not been able to reach the benchmark to complete our application for the leadership contest in the United Conservative Party Race. We have come up short of raising the $175 000.00 entrance fee but had a great number of signatures.
"We were also not able to secure sufficient support from our rural Constituency Associations and without their support we feel our bid to win the leadership would have missed the mark," Rock added.
Rock had being running on giving more voice to the rural parts of Alberta. In his email Rock said that his departure doesn't mean he will be giving up on his message, "This does not mean that I will not continue to advocate for Rural Alberta I will continue to be in the back of the room and raise my hand and ask the tough questions of our Provincial and Federal governments on tough issue’s that we face.
"I will continue at every opportunity to challenge those who ignore Rural Alberta and continue to advocate for our way of life and prosperity," He added.
Rock departure leaves 9 candidates in the running to be the next leader of the United Conservative Party and Premier of Alberta including Former Minister of Finance Travis Toews, Former Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney, Former Minister of Children Services Rebecca Schulz, Former Minister of Culture Leela Aheer, UCP MLA Brian Jean, Independent MLA Todd Loewen, Former Wildrose Leader turned PC MLA Danielle Smith, and former PC MLA turned Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman.