Last week the nascent Wildrose Independence Party named Wildrose veteran Paul Hinman as its interim leader. The move gives the new party an instantly credible leader, and someone who has the pertinent experience in building a party from the ground up. In fact, the parallels with the past are uncanny..Hinman was first elected as the lone Alberta Alliance MLA in 2004, but lost that seat in the big Tory sweep of 2008 under Ed Stelmach. Like yours truly, I lost my own seat as the lone Freedom Conservative party MLA in the Tory sweep of 2019..Hinman stayed as Alberta Alliance leader though, and led it through a merger with the new, unregistered Wildrose Association that same year, creating the Wildrose Alliance. Not the type to hog the stage if he felt that someone could do better than he could, Hinman stepped aside as leader for the energetic and young Danielle Smith; but not before re-entering the legislature as the first Wildrose MLA in a 2009. Soon after, the party attracted three PC MLAs to join the upstart caucus, and went on to nearly win the 2012 election against Allison Redford..Like the original Wildrose, the new Wildrose was created out of a merger of one official party (the Freedom Conservatives) and an unregistered party (Wexit Alberta). Like the original Wildrose, Hinman’s job is to build the party into fighting shape while the members elect someone for the permanent position. Many of the same crew involved in the early Wildrose are also involved in restarting its progeny..The parallels – thus far – stop there. There has yet to be a by-election to test the new party, and it has not yet managed to attract any disenchanted Tory MLAs to join its ranks. It may get the chance in the 2021 Senate election. Any of these events repeating themselves would continue to build their profile and gain mainstream recognition..While Hinman isn’t known as the loud, charismatic type, he has done it before. He has fused together two small parties, built its membership and fundraising, and placed it in a position to grow into real contention for power. He was a sort of conservative Moses, leading the party through the wilderness, but not entering the Promised Land himself..WIP hasn’t released any official numbers yet, but a source in the party tells the Western Standard that their official paid membership is between five-to-six thousand, with another five thousand unpaid members from the Wexit side still pending verification. It’s a far cry from the big UCP and NDP memberships, but it likely puts them at third place in the province..One of Hinman’s biggest challenges will be to coral the disparate independence movement behind Wildrose 2.0. While the FCP and Wexit Alberta were the two biggest players in sovereignties circles, the Independence Party of Alberta (IPA), the Alberta Advantage Party (AAP), and the unregistered People’s Party of Alberta (PPA) remain outside of the recent merger. Most small parties on the Alberta right prefer to remain in the own small, insular sandboxes, so it’s difficult to say if talks would go anywhere. Hinman would be wise to reach out and bring them into the fold; but if rebuffed, he will have to simply outdo them..Bringing them under the WIP banner one way or another, will require a difficult mix of principle and compromise. Unlike the old Wildrose, the new Wildrose isn’t a traditional conservative prairie populist party. It needs to combine these elements with an appeal for sovereignty that will peal voters away from the traditional big parties. Sovereignty means different things to different people. To moderates, autonomy and self-government within confederation. To more hardliners, total independence. In the UK, the Scottish National Party carefully walks this line, as did the Parti Quebecois until recently..Getting the disparate flavours of Alberta sovereigntists to walk together in common cause will be like herding cats. In his favour is his own credibility, which – like the re-entry of Jay Hill as the federal Wexit leader – could be a game changer..The party has a strong potential base to tap into in doing so, if it has the political finesse to do so..A poll conducted in late May for the Western Standardsaw between 45 and 48 per cent of Albertans backing independence. The same poll put the then-unofficial WIP at 10 per cent in third place..While it’s a strong base to build from, it’s no guarantee of success, and Hinman’s leadership of the WIP will matter as much as Kenney’s leadership of the UCP. Kenney is walking a fine line in trying to keep the federalists and sovereigntists in his party happy. With 52 per cent of his own voter base expressing support for independence (and 48 per cent opposed), this will be a difficult task. The Fair Deal Panel was an exercise in trying to do something about this sentiment, without alienating his federalist support..If he succeeds, he will govern for as long as he pleases. But if he fails, he now has a credible challenger on his flank licking its lips at the opportunity..Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher of the Western Standard and President of Wildrose Media Corp. dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com. The NDP have become a branch of the Liberals. They may as well make it official.
