Lorne Gunter: Ousted former UCP MLAs need more than infrastructure to create viable party
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The two former UCP MLAs, Peter Guthrie of Airdrie-Cochrane and Scott Sinclair of Lesser Slave Lake, who were booted from the UCP caucus this spring for speaking out publicly against the government, have announced their desire to join the moribund Alberta Party and transform it into the moribund PC party.
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Quite apart from the fact the pair can't legally revive the PC name (the UCP owns it), why in heaven's name would they want to be associated with the scandal and corruption that did in the old Alberta Tory party — the princely (and princessly) use of executive aircraft, the Sky Palace, the awarding of contracts to friends of the governing party?
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Guthrie left the UCP over allegations the Smith government had awarded lucrative health-care contracts to a private company that was chummy with the government. Now, somehow, he thinks he can fight for cleaner government wrapped in the heavily-soiled mantle of the PCs.
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Elections Alberta is unlikely to give anyone permission to use the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta name and brand. When the PCs and Wildrose merged in July 2017, the new United Conservative Party retained the legal rights to the names and logos of its two 'legacy' parties. Guthrie and Sinclair and their new pals in the Alberta Party can't call themselves the Wildrose party, either — unless they get the permission of the UCP first.
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That's not gonna happen.
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Maybe if the pair are committed to resurrecting old political parties from Alberta's past, they should check to see whether anyone is using the Social Credit brand. That would let them wear the natty plaid polyester slacks and floral ties so many Socreds were fond of in the '70s.
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The United Farmers of Alberta were the provincial government from 1921 to 1935. That's a pretty good run.
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Of course, if Guthrie and Smith wanted to call themselves the UFA, they would first have to buy the co-op's 110 gas stations, not to mention its fertilizer, fungicide, grain drying and seed operations. The UFA had sales of $2.1 billion last year. I'm sure the price won't be an obstacle.
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Even the Liberals were Alberta's government for the first decade of the province's existence. And as recently as 1993, they held 32 seats in the legislature. Of course, in the most recent provincial election (2023), the Alberta Liberals could field only 13 candidates and garnered a measly 0.2 per cent of the total vote.
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But that shouldn't be an impediment to our two intrepid crusaders. They think they can take over the Alberta Party and ride it to victory with a name change. That's because, according to Guthrie, 'The Alberta Party has the infrastructure,' meaning the pre-existing political organization.
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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. Story continues below advertisement 'So at that time 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.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Ultimately, partnering with them — it made a lot of sense to us. It was by far the most practical path." 2:10 MLA Peter Guthrie booted from UCP: 'Criticizing government comes at a cost' 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. Story continues below advertisement 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.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "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. 1:46 Estranged UCP MLAs hope to create new political party 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. Story continues below advertisement He added the Alberta Party is looking for a new direction, and the partnership makes sense. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy '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. 5:38 Alberta Election 2019: Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel 'very proud' of party's efforts The Alberta Party has existed in the province for nearly three decades but has struggled to gain a foothold, despite its centrist appeal. Story continues below advertisement 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. 1:51 Ousted UCP MLA Peter Guthrie releases letter critical of former party 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.' Story continues below advertisement 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.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "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. Story continues below advertisement '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. Story continues below advertisement 2:22 Exiled UCP MLAs hope to revive a political dynasty 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. ' Story continues below advertisement 1:35 The West Wants In: Discontent in Alberta over Liberal election win — With files from The Canadian Press
