Former United Conservative MLAs seek to join, rebrand Alberta Party as Progressive Conservative Party
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Earlier this month, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA and former cabinet minister Peter Guthrie along with Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair announced plans to relaunch the PC Party after both were ejected from the UCP caucus.
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'Ultimately, it made a lot of sense to us. The Alberta Party has the infrastructure,' Guthrie told Postmedia in an interview. 'This allows us to get to our end faster.'
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The email states the Alberta Party will be expanding its board to include some of Guthrie and Sinclair's team and will be initiating steps towards a name change via Elections Alberta.
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Alberta Party interim leader Lindsay Amantea issued a statement reading, '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.'
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The party had four MLAs between 2011 and 2019 but saw its vote share decline from nine per cent in 2019 to less than one per cent in 2023 after running 19 of a possible 87 candidates. Amantea has served as interim leader since April of last year after former leader Barry Morishita's resignation in November of 2023.
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Guthrie said he and Sinclair share some ideological ground with the Alberta Party, calling their collaboration a chance to bring the centre together ahead of the rumoured possibility of a spring election.
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The pair's efforts to restore the PC brand have met with the threat of legal action from the UCP.
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UCP executive director Dustin van Vugt told Postmedia the party sent a cease and desist letter to protect the PC copyright and trademarks it says it owns.
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'The PC Alberta name, logo and goodwill were being used by people with no right to it,' he wrote in an email.
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'Neither of these MLAs were ever even members of PC Alberta, so 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.'
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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. 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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. 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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.' 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