This weekend the Alberta Party will hold its first annual meeting since Stephen Mandel became its leader on Feb. 28, 2018.
Mandel, a former mayor of Edmonton and health minister in the Progressive Conservative government of Jim Prentice, is the party’s second leader since Greg Clark, the MLA for Calgary-Elbow, rebranded the party as a progressive alternative to the worn-out PCs and the hard right Wildrose.
The Alberta Party evolved out of the ever-present splinter parties that have been a cacophony of voices in the political wilderness since the unexpected election victory in 1935 of Social Credit, and the establishment of Alberta’s longest-lived political dynasty.
The Alberta Party, as you may recall, was founded in the early 1980s as an amalgamation of separatist, ultra-conservative splinter parties.
When the Wildrose Party was formed in 2008, also by the amalgamation of two rightist parties not at home with the Progressive Conservatives, the far right members of the Alberta Party joined the new Wildrose.
The remaining progressive wing of the Alberta Party merged with Renew Alberta in 2010 and launched a new voter choice between the Wildrose and the Progressive Conservative parties.
Clark’s victory, in Calgary-Elbow in the 2015 election, gave the party a new, articulate and energetic face.
After the NDP formed government, the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives merged to form the United Conservative Party,
Middle-of-the-road PCs not willing to participate in Jason Kenney’s brand of conservatism organized the Alberta Together movement led by former PC party president Katherine O'Neill.
Alberta Together proposed a merger with the Alberta Party and the Liberal Party. The Liberals declined. In June 2017, Alberta Together held a meeting in Red Deer at which Mandel emerged as the driving force behind the merger.
Greg Clark resigned as leader, and Mandel won the vote for a replacement.
Time has proven that he made a wise choice, because Mandel has taken the party to a higher level.
Since Mandel took over as leader, the Alberta Party caucus in the legislature has grown to three MLAs: Greg Clark, Calgary-McKay-Nose Hill former New Democrat Karen McPerson, and Calgary-South East MLA Rick Fraser formerly of the UPC.
In the polls, the party has risen from five per cent popular support, to 15 per cent.
At the time of this writing, the party had 38 nominated candidates for the 2019 election. It is adding to that number at the rate of two to three per week, and has a goal of representation in all 87 constituencies.
All of this without the controversies nipping at Jason Kenney in the UPC nominations.
The Alberta Party is soft conservatism that inherits more from Peter Lougheed than Jason Kenney does.
Mandel will take votes from the NDP, UPC and Liberals, and the seats his party wins will be urban.
Politics in Alberta has been realigning since 2015.
The UPC has had the media coverage.
However, in the long run the Alberta Party may emerge as equally significant.
– Frank Dabbs is a veteran political and business author and journalist.
