The upstart Maverick Party says it will run candidates in up to 49 ridings in the West in the event Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls an early election or his minority government falls..Of the projected ridings, 30 are located in Alberta, nine in Saskatchewan, and five each in B.C and Manitoba..Interim party leader Jay Hill told the Western Standard in an interview the ridings were selected because there was “little or no chance” that vote splitting with the Tories would allow other candidates to sneak up through the middle..“If Trudeau calls a snap election the Maverick Party board would have to appoint candidates,” said Hill, while taking a break from helping family combine on their B.C..“In order to get candidates through the vetting process, we will target ridings where vote splitting is not an option.”.Hill said when the Reform Party first ran candidates in the 1988 federal election, Tory leader Brian Mulroney successfully put the fear of vote splitting in the mind of voters. The result was zero wins for Reform..Those fears were laid to rest in the 1993 election, with the Reform electing 52 MPs..The independence-leaning party hopes to hold the balance of over in Parliament after the next election..In Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Conservatives won 47 of the 48 seats with very comfortable margins. In both provinces, there are 13 seats the Conservatives won with 70 per cent or more of the vote. In some ridings, the Liberal and the NDP share of the vote was in single digits, the Hill Times reported..The Maverick Party was born out of the Wexit movement and officially adopted their new moniker last month..Hill has said he will not run as a candidate nor for the leadership when a convention is held..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
