Like a voter who didn’t like his options and decided to run for office, Independent MP Derek Sloan looked at all the parties and thought it best to start his own..Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. (MST), the Western Standard will live stream Sloan’s campaign launch from Cochrane, Alberta..Two days ago, the independent MP for Hastings-Lennox & Addington talked to the Western Standard on the phone for 25 minutes, still buoyed by his previous night’s event at the St. Albert Curling Club. .“There was a meeting room place that can hold about 350 people, and we couldn’t fit them, so we had to bring them out onto the curling floor,” Sloan said..“We’ve been to 16 different places already. And it’s like standing room only we’re getting, major crowd. If we tour again, we’re going to have to start renting out arenas or something.”.Like Preston Manning did for Reform in 1987, Sloan has been drumming up support for a new political movement. The fourth-place finisher in the Conservative Party leadership race was booted from the party on January 20 for what leader Erin O’Toole called a “pattern of destructive behaviour.” But, as the saying goes, failure is the backdoor to success..“I’m basically glad that it happened to me looking back on it, I was able to achieve a lot more as an independent than as a member of the party. I hope to change the political discourse for the better, and I think I have already,” Sloan said..“People are really excited about what I’m doing. And in fact, everyone is willing – that I’m talking to anyways – to support somebody other than a Conservative. And so I’m doing my best to provide candidates in certain areas for people.”.Although Sloan is gaining a following, some other right-leaning voters are nervous about the launch of yet another right-leaning party to bleed away Conservative votes. Sloan said he won’t give anything to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that O’Toole didn’t already hand him. .“No one seems to think O’Toole’s going to win. He’s not going to win anyways, there is no vote to split. But I would say that a lot of places that we’re going to be running candidates are going to be in strong conservative areas, so, whoever wins is going to be a conservative. It will either be a Conservative or someone who’s more conservative, so you won’t have to worry about that.”.When asked why he didn’t join the other alternatives, such as the People’s Party, Sloan offered three reasons..“The first is the social conservative values part for the PPC is optional. It’s kind of like if you want them, that’s great, if not, that’s fine. And I think we need to have a party that actually stands for values. The second thing is that it’s kind of the party of Max, in the sense of, they’ve had three or so years to come up with a constitution and a leadership review and all of this, and they haven’t. There’s not a lot of democratic opportunity there,” Sloan said..“The final thing is they seem to have an incremental plan of winning, but we need a plan to win basically now. So, every election that I go into will be to win. Like, I’m not going to run 338 candidates just to do it. I’m going to run in areas and focus on them in a way that I think I can win.”.If social conservative values are crucial, why not join the Christian Heritage Party?.“The Christian Heritage Party hasn’t been able to win. And part of it is I don’t know if they even expect to, and they kind of want to be more of a [Christian] witness than a force. So, I think a lot of parties are carrying baggage whether fairly or unfairly for them. Nonetheless, they carry baggage. Even the PPC party carries baggage, right? They’re viewed as a conservative protest party, which frankly, can’t win. We need a party that can reach all Canadians, and they’ve been branded in a certain way. And so I really felt that we needed a new party,” Sloan said..“I’m a Christian, and I’m not ashamed of that. And my party will stand for the generic Christendom of the West, so to speak, but not in a dogmatic or doctrinaire sort of way. And as much as I like the Christian Heritage Party, when you read their founding document it’s more akin to what you might want if you were starting a church. And it’s not that I disagree with some of the things they’re talking about, but I just think it’s a little bit too doctrinaire for a party. They just haven’t been able to get traction. And I hope it doesn’t come across like I’m slandering them. I like the leader of that party and all this, but I just didn’t feel it was an option that Canada needs right now, or at least one that could win.”.Sloan believes the Maverick Party has unfortunate commonalities with the Bloc Quebecois..“Maverick will never be able to form government, they’ll never be able to pass a bill. And if you really want to get things done on a separatist or even a firewall sort of level for the West, that all has to be done provincially. Police force or pension system or any of that, that’s a provincial thing,” Sloan said..“The Bloc Quebecois is similar. They’re kind of useless, right? They can make some long-winded speeches, but they can’t do much. They never pass bills unless it’s some minor bill that everyone likes, like, Hey, we need to have more organ donors or something. But they never pass a standard bill. So it’s really just a protest vote. And if you have an option that actually is looking to bring the country together, you might as well vote for it..“And the other thing that bugs me about them is they didn’t say anything about COVID-19. So they say they’re standing up for the interests of the West. Well, where were they when 10,000 businesses in Alberta were shutting down because of COVID-19? They said nothing. So as far as I’m concerned, useless.”.Sloan isn’t a Westerner either, but he’s introducing his family to the culture. For the past two weeks, the Queen’s University law graduate has brought along his parents, wife, three children (aged 7, 6, and 4), and volunteers..“Our party was not approved prior to the writ dropping by Elections Canada, so that was a disappointment for our party. The paperwork’s been in for months, right? And I’m not implying that there’s foul play, but we will be running some candidates and they’ll be technically independents. So I would say to people to stay tuned. There’ll be some exciting announcements over the next couple of weeks.”.Lee Harding is a Western Standard correspondent based in Saskatchewan.
