5 days ago
Lorne Gunter: Ousted former UCP MLAs need more than infrastructure to create viable party
Progressive Conservatives? Really!?
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
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?
Article content
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
Article content
That's not gonna happen.
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
The United Farmers of Alberta were the provincial government from 1921 to 1935. That's a pretty good run.
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
