Thoughts on BC Politics and More

A former member of Premier Danielle Smith's government caucus says Elections Alberta has approved the name for a new political party, after the province banned a list of monikers it could use, including "conservative." Airdrie-Cochrane legislature member Peter Guthrie announced in a social media post on Thursday evening that the new party will be known as the Progressive Tory Party of Alberta. "That's right. There will be another conservative option on the ballot in the next election — one that's socially reliable, fiscally responsible and answers to all of you," Guthrie said in a video with the post ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

IMAGE CREDIT:   Discover Airdrie In this week’s episode of The Line Alberta podcast, Rob Breakenridge sits down for a conversation with Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, who just recently became leader of the Alberta Party. Guthrie, of course, started the year as a member of Danielle Smith’s cabinet, before stepping down over his concerns about how the government was handling the controversy around health care contracts and procurement. His calls for a public inquiry into the matter led to his expulsion from the UCP caucus. Since then, Guthrie has become a sharp critic of the Smith government and has been organizing to present Albertans with a more moderate - and federalist - conservative option. Efforts to revive the Alberta PC Party have been met with lawsuit threats from the UCP and ultimately legislative roadblocks in the form of Bill 14. In this episode, we discuss Guthrie’s own political journey and what future holds for the Alberta Party and its possible rebranding. We’ll ...

Jeffrey Rath, the caricature of an Alberta separatist who happens to be Alberta’s best-known separatist at the moment, isn’t right about much, but he was right when he got up at the recent United Conservative Party AGM and told the premier that her party was a separatist party now.  “Their party wants a free and independent Alberta and they better start leading like we’re going to become that country, because that’s what their members demand,” Mr. Rath, who wore a black ball cap to the late November annual general meeting instead of one of his trademark cowboy hats, told a reporter after his convention-floor speechifying.  And, yes, Mr. Rath is right. The UCP really is a separatist party now, however much Danielle Smith tries to play both ends against the middle to her own political advantage ... CLICK HERE for the full story

It's not so easy to remove a politician from office between elections in Canada. That's due, in part, to the fact there are few jurisdictions in the country where laws to recall an elected representative are in place. And even where recalls are an option, the requirements to trigger one are challenging, some political observers say. But the process is currently being played out in a major way in Alberta, where, thanks to citizen-led petition drives, 20 members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) who belong to the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) — including Premier Danielle Smith — are facing recall petitions from constituents. One Alberta NDP MLA is also facing a recall ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Premier Danielle Smith sounds frustrated. Here she is, answering questions about a campaign to fire her as a member of the legislature. ... there are these recall campaigns where UCP politicians are targeted for firing and now Smith is on the list. The story makes the national news. There is analysis on what this all means. Is Smith in trouble? No doubt many newshounds hope the answer is Yes. This avalanche of recall campaigns , complete with a snazzy website on how to try and get a member of the legislature punted, really took off after the striking teachers were sent back to the classroom by the Smith government with a contract offer of more pay, more staff, more schools but still not enough on the table to soothe the irate educators. Smith says lefties have weaponized democratic processes ... CLICK HERE for the full story

“What’s in a name?” 13-year-old Juliet Capulet memorably says in Act II, Scene II of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . “That which we call a rose,” she continues, “by any other name would smell as sweet.” This brilliant adage has been written and spoken on innumerable occasions since the Bard’s play first premiered in 1597. I’m certainly guilty of having used it in a column or two. Well, that number just reached three. It’s almost impossible not to think of this proverb while watching the party name change battle in Alberta play itself out. This political tug-of-war started during the summer and may be finally heading into its final act. The story begins with Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair. Both of them were United Conservative Party (UCP) MLAs up until this year. Sinclair, who was first elected in 2023, was kicked out of the UCP caucus in March when he refused to support Premier Danielle Smith’s budget. Guthrie, who served as minister of energy and minister of infra...

A woman hoping to launch a recall petition to oust Alberta Premier Danielle Smith from her seat in the legislature says her campaign has been officially approved. Heather Van Snick says she has received a letter from Elections Alberta saying she will be getting the go-ahead to start the petition drive against Smith. She provided a copy of that letter to Global News. However, Van Snick cannot begin collecting signatures yet because Smith still has seven days to file a response before the three-month petition campaign can formally begin ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Alberta independence means becoming the Mongolia of North America, sandwiched between two greater powers and cut off from the global market. A conservative party that aims for that goal is likely to experience breakup and election loss. This is why it’s such a relief that the United Conservative Party membership didn’t vote to load their board with separatists this weekend. Aside from party leader, there are 17 voting positions on the UCP board, nine of which were up for election at this year’s annual general meeting in Edmonton. Candidates supported by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project won five of those positions, while candidates named in a list circulated to remain-in-Canada conservatives won four, including the presidency. By Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid’s count, Smith loyalists now have 11 of 17 board seats ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

All the words of our magnificent English language have meanings, and those words and their meanings belong to all of us who speak and write in English. Which is to say I can declare myself to be a progressive conservative if I wish, and those of you who read this column are free to debate that proposition if you are so inclined.  So it is both unnerving and amusing – even in this age of financialization and marketization of everything – to learn that the United Conservative Party of Alberta is ready to go to court to stop a couple of former members who happen still to have seats in the Legislative Assembly from using those words to describe their political philosophy and their political party ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Creation-turning-on-the-creator is a well-worn trope in popular cinema, usually serving as a cautionary tale or providing some deserved poetic justice. Alberta’s experiment with voter recall is shaping up to be a real-world case study of this phenomenon. It is certainly a cautionary tale for other governments, but also, arguably, some well-earned comeuppance for this government. Unfortunately, with the potential embarrassment of seeing their own members devoured by recall, the UCP is prepared to inject some chaos into what’s already shaping up to be a tumultuous period. Things are going to get messy ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

The Alberta Party has voted to rebrand itself as the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, reviving a name once dominant in the province’s politics. Members approved the change in hopes of offering Albertans an alternative to the UCP and NDP, with advocates arguing that most Albertans fall somewhere between the two camps. “We seem to be a province of almost 50/50 progressives and conservatives; that’s a starting point,” said longtime Alberta Party supporter and commentator Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean. Mitchell-MacLean, who rejoined the Alberta Party in protest of what she described as the UCP’s arrogance and disregard for accountability, argued the new name reflects a coalition of voters who want practical policies instead of ideological battles ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Two former United Conservative MLAs will join with the centrist Alberta Party and file to rename it the Progressive Conservatives, and they'll abandon initial plans to launch a new party under the old brand that ruled Alberta for 44 years ... ... Alberta Party president Lindsay Amantea proposed that the Independent MLAs join her existing party's fold, and together they could file a name change to "Progressive Conservative" with Elections Alberta. "We figured, well they have the infrastructure; we have the momentum and the people," said Guthrie, Smith's former infrastructure minister. "So we decided, this is something that could get us to official party [recognition] faster without getting caught up in these legal wranglings with the UCP that they like to play" ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Members and constituency associations of the United Conservative Party (UCP) of Alberta are submitting proposals calling on the party to add independence to its official list of policies. Sources inside the party tell the Western Standard that about 5% of the resolution proposals the party has received this year suggest adding independence to its statement of principles. This is the first year the party has received such resolutions on independence, the sources say, noting that all the suggested resolutions are being treated “with the respect they deserve" ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Reviving the BC Liberal name for the next election would require either a change of provincial law or a reversal by the leadership of BC United, the collapsed party that still holds rights to the name ... ... “The word ‘liberal’ is widely used in the Canadian — and indeed global — political world,” wrote Joven Narwal. “The real risk of voter confusion arises from the contradictory messaging from BC United, who seek to hold the word ‘liberal’ hostage by running ‘some’ candidates in the upcoming election to preserve the brand while simultaneously promoting the Conservatives.” But under the Election Act, a party “must not” be registered if in the chief electoral officer’s opinion it is “likely to be confused” with another political party that is currently registered or has been registered at any time in the past 10 years ... CLICK HERE for the full story

So let's put the conclusion up front. How much confidence can you place in two MLAs who want to revivify a party that's dead and buried and more particularly, didn't exactly embody the virtues they want to highlight in their new creation, whatever it's called? Not so much. Worse, it represents the kind of principled conservatism that splits the vote and gets the NDP elected ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Two former members of Alberta's governing United Conservative Party are resuscitating the province's once-dominant Progressive Conservative Party. Former infrastructure minister Peter Guthrie and legislature member Scott Sinclair were booted from caucus earlier this year for pushing back against the Premier Danielle Smith's government and now sit as Independents. Sinclair says the province's two-party system has become too divisive, and they want to galvanize support from Albertans who feel they don't have a political home ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

In the safest of UCP and NDP seats, by-election results come with few surprises ... If there were to be any surprises, it was to be in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills race to replace outgoing UCP Speaker Nathan Cooper. There, upstart Republican Party Leader Cam Davies was hoping for a repeat of a 1982 by-election in that same constituency that saw the Alberta nationalist Gordon Kesler of the Western Canada Concept Party win ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi mopped the floor with his opponents in the Edmonton-Strathcona by-election Monday ... ... “Danielle Smith and the UCP have now lost three by-elections in the last six months and have massively reduced their lead in a fourth,” Nenshi said in a statement after his victory was assured. “Voters sent a clear message tonight that the UCP doesn’t have a plan for a better future. No matter what the UCP throws at their campaigns, they come up short ... CLICK HERE for the full story