CALGARY — Alberta Tory leadership candidate Jim Dinning warned Thursday that health care under the privatization plans of rival Ted Morton would see seniors using charge cards to pay for basic care and whole health regions going without staff.

Morton's plan to allow doctors to work part time in the private system would be the final blow for health centres already struggling with critical staff shortages, Dinning said during the campaign's final televised debate.

"To make that kind of both-sides-of-the street offer, that means that those folks are going to go without medical services," Dinning said as the two clashed for one more time before Saturday's vote to replace Premier Ralph Klein as Progressive Conservative leader.

Morton, a 57-year-old rookie backbencher, said a government under his leadership would monitor the system to make sure there were enough doctors and nurses and would actively recruit outside the province.

"Everybody knows that the reforms I've talked about will force nobody to dig into their pocket," replied Morton.

"Change has to come. The system has been broken. I'm saying let people who want to, buy some services."

After the debate, Morton said privatization would happen primarily in larger cities.

"You're not going to see the growth in private medicine in the small towns. That will take place primarily in the larger communities which also service the rural areas."

Dinning, the 53-year-old former provincial treasurer, along with Morton and veteran cabinet minister Ed Stelmach are the three candidates on the decisive second ballot.

One of the biggest issues facing Alberta's new leader is devising a plan to handle the province's phenomenal growth and its related labour shortage, lack of schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.

But health care has arisen as one issue where the three remaining candidates have offered decidedly differing views.

Stelmach, who favours a purely public system, said he would move quickly to get an immigration agreement with the federal government to bring in more health professionals and would scrutinize all aspects of health delivery.

"We are paying more per capita than any other province in the country. I want to make sure that we get value for those dollars," he said.

Morton, a Reform party founder, finished a surprising second to Dinning on the first ballot last weekend, running on a social conservative platform. He wants new rules to allow people to act out and speak out against gay marriage and to stop sending equalization payments to Ottawa.

On Thursday, Morton said equalization payments represent a torrent of money leaving Alberta.

"In the last 40 years $225 billion have left this province," he said. "We're never going to build the infrastructure we need if that drain keeps going out to Ottawa."

Dinning has charged that Morton's plans - including more privatization of public health care, an Alberta pension plan and a provincial police force - are isolationist and regressive and would split the party.

"We have to make sure this is a big-tent party," he said.

He also said the province has a "responsibility to contribute to the rest of the country" and noted the money comes from taxes.

The centrist Dinning failed to capture a majority of the 97,690 votes in the first round, forcing Saturday's runoff. He captured 30 per cent, just four percentage points ahead of Morton and double Stelmach's number.

Dinning has been on the offensive against Morton this week, a reversal of his position in previous debates. But he said he has still avoided personal attacks.

"What I've tried to do is show that we have a difference of opinions when it comes to policies."

Throughout the campaign, Morton railed on Dinning, who left politics in 1997 to serve with the Calgary Health Region and then as a senior executive with the power generator TransAlta.

Morton has labelled Dinning the embodiment of an elitist and liberal-spending hierarchy that has alienated the party's grassroots.

He has also said a Dinning government will hold numerous IOUs to corporate interests.

All three candidates have promised fiscal accountability and promised to encourage more grassroots participation in policy development. They have also offered various tax cuts and incentives.

Stelmach, nicknamed "Honest Ed" and with a strong voter base in rural and northern Alberta, was a surprise third-place finisher, ahead of former Klein cabinet ministers Dave Hancock, Lyle Oberg, Victor Doerksen and Mark Norris. Social activist and businessman Gary McPherson rounded out the original eight-man field.

Although Stelmach finished well back of the top two, Hancock, Oberg and Norris have since urged their supporters to vote for him.

The vote will be a preferential ballot cast by anyone over 16 with a $5 party membership card.

Voters will mark not only their favourite candidate but also indicate their second choice. When the results are announced, the candidate who gets 50 per cent plus one of the votes will win. If no one gets a majority, the third-place finisher will drop off the ballot. His second-place votes will then be redistributed to his opponents.

The campaign was unofficially launched in the spring after Klein received a lukewarm endorsement of his leadership from delegates at a party convention and decided to step down ahead of his original timeline.