Alberta Party

This article is about an Alberta provincial party. For the similarly named federal party, see Party of Alberta.

Alberta Party
Active provincial party
Leader	Glenn Taylor
President	Brian Thiessen
Founded	September 24, 1985 (1985-09-24)
Headquarters	Edmonton, Alberta
Ideology	Grassroots Democracy Progressivism Social Liberalism Liberal Conservatism
Political position	Centre
Official colours	Blue, green, and gold
Seats in Legislature	1 / 83
Website
www.albertaparty.ca
Politics of Alberta Political parties Elections

The Alberta Party Political Association, more commonly known as the Alberta Party, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. The party describes itself as a centrist and pragmatic party that is not dogmatically ideological in its approach to politics.

For most of its history the Alberta Party was a right-wing organization, until the rise of the Wildrose Alliance as Alberta's main right-wing alternative to the governing Progressive Conservatives attracted away the Alberta Party's more conservative members. This left a small rump of moderates in control of the Alberta Party. In 2010 the Alberta Party board voted to merge with Renew Alberta, a progressive group that had been organizing to form a new political party in Alberta. The Alberta Party thus shed its conservative past for a more centrist political outlook. The party has been cited in The Globe and Mail and The Economist as part of the break in one-party politics in Alberta.

History

Early history

The history of the Alberta Party begins in the early 1980s in an alliance of small right-wing political parties. The right side of Alberta's political spectrum was fragmented by parties spawned in the wake of the National Energy Program and feelings that Premier Peter Lougheed had done little to prevent the economic collapse it had caused. Some of these parties had already achieved some small success in attaining seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, though the 1982 general election had seen Social Credit, the Alberta Reform Movement and the Western Canada Concept lose their representation in the Legislature. The preceding years had seen the birth of the Heritage Party of Alberta, Representative Party of Alberta and the Confederation of Regions, which made for a total of five parties to the right of the Progressive Conservatives in 1985. This coalition of parties took another blow in 1989, when the Social Credit Party withdrew its support from the Alliance.

On October 30, 1990 this alliance of parties gave way to the creation of a new political party in itself, the Alliance Party of Alberta. This change marked a transition away from trying to build a coalition of parties to full participation in electoral politics. The party participated in two by-elections, as well as fielding a handful of candidates in the 1993 general election but received only a small percentage of the popular vote in each case. The party did not contest the 1997 provincial election.

Alberta Party

Former Alberta Party Logo from 1998 to 2008

In 1998, the Alliance Party followed the example of the Saskatchewan Party and the Manitoba Party by changing its name to the Alberta Party Political Association, or the Alberta Party for short. Shortly before the 2004 election, the Alberta Party attempted to merge with the Alberta Alliance Party. The failed deal would have guaranteed all Alberta Party candidates nominations in the riding of their choosing. The merged party would have adopted the Alberta Party platform, and Alberta party provincial council would have had seats on the Alberta Alliance Provincial Council. The deal fell through because the Alberta Party would not agree to de-register the Alberta Party name with Elections Alberta.^{[citation needed]}

The Alberta Party then invited MLA and Alberta Alliance Leader Paul Hinman, and Alberta Social Credit Party Leader Lavern Ahlstrom to speak at the Alberta Party annual convention in Red Deer with the hopes of fostering new cooperation between right-of-centre parties to oppose the Progressive Conservatives.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2004 provincial election, the party nominated candidates in four ridings, winning a total of 2,485 votes, or 0.3% of the provincial total. This was a reduction of 0.6% from the previous election. The party managed to field just one candidate, Margaret Saunter, for the March 3 2008 provincial election. Saunter placed last out of a field of six candidates in Edmonton-Centre, capturing just 0.46% of the vote.

Ideological shift and party renewal

Alberta Party logo used after the ideological shift from 2009 to 2011

After the rise of the Wildrose Alliance as Alberta's main right-wing alternative to the governing Progressive Conservatives, the right-wing members of the Alberta Party left to join the Wildrose Alliance. This left a small rump of centrists in control of the party. In 2009, former Green Party of Alberta deputy leader Edwin Erickson, who had been in the process of organizing a new "Progress Party", was invited to run as a leadership candidate for the Alberta Party instead and won by acclamation. In 2010 the Alberta Party board voted to merge with Renew Alberta, a progressive and centrist group that had been organizing to form a new political party.

During the merger process, the party's board agreed to suspend its old policy platform and start anew. To create a new platform different from its more right-wing history, in 2010 the party launched a campaign called "The Big Listen" in order to canvass the public for new policy ideas. The party held its first policy convention on November 13 and 14, 2010 to develop substantive policies from the ideas heard during the Big Listen. At the convention, Erickson stepped down to make way for an acting leader until a leadership contest could be held. A first set of policies was released on November 23, 2010, to coincide with the announcement of the appointment of an acting leader, Sue Huff. These policies centred on five key areas: Economy, Health, Environment, Democratic Renewal and Education. On January 24, 2011, former Liberal MLA Dave Taylor announced he was joining the Alberta Party, becoming the party's first MLA.

2011 leadership election

It was announced in January 2011 that a leadership convention would be held in Edmonton on May 28, 2011. Four candidates contested for the leadership of the party: Glenn Taylor, mayor of Hinton; Tammy Maloney, a social entrepreneur; businessman Randy Royer; and Lee Easton, chair of the English program at Mount Royal University. Chris Tesarski, CEO of Sandbox Energy Corporation, was also a candidate early in the contest, but on April 15 announced he would not seek the party's leadership, citing disagreements with some aspects of the party's philosophy and some party members' attitudes towards his candidacy. Dave Taylor, the party's only MLA, was also expected to run for the leadership, but did not join the race. At the convention, the election was decided on the first ballot with Glenn Taylor winning just over 55% of the votes.

Leadership election results

First ballot result:

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Glenn Taylor	665	55.42%
Randy Royer	287	23.92%
Lee Easton	144	12.00%
Tammy Maloney	104	8.67%
TOTAL	1,200	100.0%

Current MLAs

• Dave Taylor (Calgary-Currie)

Leaders

Picture	Name	Start	Finish	Banner	Notes
	Howard Thompson	1986	1993	Alberta Political Alliance
				Alliance Party
	Mark Waters	1993	1997
	George Flake	1997	1999
				Alberta Party
	Fred Schorning	1999	2001
	George Flake	2001	2004		Second time as leader.
	Bruce Stubbs	2004	2009
	Robert Leddy	2009	January 28, 2010		First leader of the ideological shift.
	Edwin Erickson	January 28, 2010	November 22, 2010		Leader for merger with Renew Alberta.
	Sue Huff	November 23, 2010	May 28, 2011		Interim Leader and first female leader of the party.
	Glenn Taylor	May 28, 2011	Present		Elected at a convention in Edmonton.

Election results

Banner	Election	Date	Candidates	Seats	Vote	% Province	% Riding
Alliance Party	Little Bow by-election	March 5, 1992	1	0	399	7.14%
	Three Hills by-election	October 26, 1992	1	0	566	5.47%
	1993 general election		4	0	3,548	0.36%
Alberta Party	2001 general election		Coalition with Social Credit
	2004 general election	November 22, 2004	4	0	2,485	0.30%
	2008 general election	March 3, 2008	1	0	51	0.01%

External links

• Alberta Party website