A group of MLAs who broke away from the United Conservative Party and plan to launch their own moderate political party are pivoting to align with the existing Alberta Party.
Peter Guthrie, a former cabinet minister in Smith’s government, along with former UCP backbencher Scott Sinclair, made headlines on July 2 by announcing their plans to resurrect the Progressive Conservative Party name for a new party that would challenge the UCP.
The PCs held power for more than four decades in Alberta before losing to the NDP in 2015 and then eventually merging with the rival Wildrose Party to form the current United Conservatives.
Guthrie said their small team grew quickly and gained momentum, but then on July 14, the UCP brought in its lawyers to challenge the rogue splinter group’s attempt to use the PC name — so now, they’re changing tactics.
“We had to shift gears and the Alberta Party had some interest in joining up. They thought there would be some synergies there so we started having some communications,” Guthrie said Friday morning on The Shaye Ganam Show on Corus Radio.
“Ultimately, partnering with them — it made a lot of sense to us. It was by far the most practical path.”
Guthrie and Sinclair, both voted out of caucus earlier this year for challenging UCP policies, said UCP leader and Premier Danielle Smith has lost her way and is catering to a narrow band of extremists and separatists, and that centrist conservatives need a place to park their vote.
“This is a brand new movement that we’re starting. We’re going back to the roots of (Peter) Lougheed,” he said, making reference to the late premier and party leader who established the Progressive Conservative dynasty.
Lougheed left behind a legacy of progressive social reform and economic prosperity in Alberta.
“We’re gonna take that premise and we are growing. We’re starting again. We’re staring anew. So this is not about looking to the past. It’s about looking into the future,” Guthrie said.
The group feels there’s a missing middle in Alberta politics for moderate voters who do not align with either the far left or right of the political spectrum.
“With the NDP and with the UCP, they’re just focused on a very small segment of the population — their base.”
“They’re ignoring this large swath of voters in the middle who just feel like they don’t have a political home. And I think that’s where we fit.”
Guthrie thinks there are plenty of Albertans who want a more socially liberal but fiscally conservative option.
“I’m a centre-right conservative, fiscally conservative, moderate individual who just considers himself an average Albertans and we’re looking for something better,” he said.
The would-be PCs have told supporters that the Alberta Party will take on new board members and begin taking steps to change the name to reflect a progressive conservative alternative in the province.
He added the Alberta Party is looking for a new direction, and the partnership makes sense.
“We may be a couple of degrees off in our policy and platform ideas, but, you know, they had the infrastructure and we have the momentum,” he said.
The partnership came down to three things, he said: one, joining an established party is quicker than starting from scratch. Two, he said it sidesteps the UCP’s attempts to stall their efforts through litigation. Three, Guthrie has heard rumours of a possible snap election.
“This ensures that we’re ready to compete sooner rather than later,” he said.
The Alberta Party has existed in the province for nearly three decades but has struggled to gain a foothold, despite its centrist appeal.
It has had a MLA elected over the years and others have crossed the floor to join, but currently does not have any representation at the Alberta legislature.
“Despite Greg Clark winning a seat in 2015 and despite increasing their vote total in 2019 to almost 10 per cent, they didn’t win another seat and in the last election they got less than one per cent,” said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt.
“The Alberta Party is a symbol of how difficult it is to create a party in the middle, and now Guthrie and Sinclair are going to try to replicate that and hoping for a different result.”
Bratt said the Alberta Party originally formed as an alternate choice to the PCs, but in more recent years has been a landing space for moderate conservatives.
“There was a belief that the Alberta Party was basically becoming… maybe not the old PCs, but the people of the PC party that rejected the UCP — and by the efforts of Guthrie and Sinclair, they’re providing further evidence to that,” Bratt said.
Neither Global News or The Canadian Press has seen the UCP cease and desist letter, but Guthrie said the asks in it were far-reaching: “They made demands that were like… no reasonable person would agree to.”
Bratt said the UCP is limited in what they can legally demand.
“You can’t block the word ‘conservative,’ you can’t block the word ‘progressive,’ just as they couldn’t block the word ‘Wildrose.’ What they could block is some of the logos and the colour schemes and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, which was the legal name — but what if they changed it to the progressive conservative party of Alberta?”
Guthrie said the letter shows the UCP is worried, and trying to intimidate those who want to move the province’s political sphere back to “normality.”
“For us, it signals fear. I think they’re worried. They’re worried that they’ve lost credibility with the public and that a viable third option, like the PC’s, might actually resonate with voters.
“They’re going to do what they can to slow us down, but we’re not stopping.”
UCP executive director Dustin van Vugt, in a statement, said the cease and desist letter was sent to protect the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta copyright and trademarks that belong to the UCP.
“The PC Alberta name, logo and goodwill were being used by people with no right to it,” he wrote.
Van Vugt said neither of the ex-UCP caucus members were part of PC Alberta.
“Their attempt to usurp the goodwill associated with our legacy party in order to confuse voters and avoid the hard work of building a political movement is particularly insulting to the thousands of former PC Party members and supporters who are now contributing members of the UCP,” he wrote in identical statements to both Global News and The Canadian Press this week.
Guthrie said the UCP make threats but the new group is going to follow the laws laid out by Elections Alberta.
“Elections Alberta, they’re the lead authority on elections law. So we’re going to follow their direction. Ultimately it’s not the UCP’s opinion that’s gonna determine the outcome, it’s the law,” Guthrie said.
Elections Alberta said a party can ask to change its registered name, but there are caveats.
In a statement to Global News, it said the chief electoral officer will not approve the request if the proposed name or abbreviation resembles so closely as to likely to be confused with:
- The name or abbreviation of another registered party or local political party;
- The name or abbreviation of a party that has been de-registered since the last general election (the 2023 provincial general election, in this case);
- A reserved party name or abbreviation.
Elections Alberta also said the chief electoral officer will also not approve the request if the proposed name was the name of a local political party de-registered or whose name changed since the last municipal general election or the proposed name or abbreviation is unacceptable to the officer for any other reason.
The collaboration with the Alberta Party doesn’t just mean a new name.
“There will be a leadership contest; the Alberta Party has a constitution that we’ll abide. We haven’t set the timing on that. But I would imagine getting something like that started this fall would make sense,” Guthrie said.
Lindsay Amantea took on the role of Alberta Party leader on an interim basis last year and said the coming weeks and months will be an exciting time. She invited Albertans who feel the same to join their movement.
“The Alberta Party is first and foremost a party made up of pragmatic people who want to build a better Alberta, and we will do just that in whatever way we can,” she said in a statement to Global News.
“At this critical juncture in Alberta’s history, we are exploring opportunities and partnerships that would raise the level of political discourse, and refocus the conversation on improving the lives of all Albertans, not just insiders. ”
— With files from The Canadian Press