It sure took them long enough, but they appear to have done it. The main political players in Alberta’s nascent independence movement have holstered their guns to come together and fight Ottawa rather than each other..Nine months in the making, the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta (FCP) and Wexit Alberta signed a deal to put a lengthy unification agreement to their members in a referendum scheduled for June 29. If that happens, the memberships of both parties will come together under the new name Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta (WIP)..Full disclosure, as the former leader of the FCP, I was consulted in the agreement, so I am not watching as a pure outside observer, but mostly..The pending merger has the potential to upset the boring applecart of Alberta politics. Potential..Under the Wildrose redeaux banner, there could be a good many Albertans less than happy with the United Conservative Party (UCP), which swallowed up the Wildrose in 2017. When that happened, independence was little more than a cranky fringe, with most Albertans pinning their hopes on Equalization reform and getting a better deal from Ottawa. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney understood this well, and made Equalization and a fight with Ottawa his calling card from the UCP leadership race, straight through to the general election a year ago..Since then, not much has happened to improve Alberta’s situation. Justin Trudeau was re-elected on a platform of fighting “oil-barons“. The Bloc Quebecois dominated its province on a platform to lay a Carthaginian waste to the West. And the massive Teck Frontier oilsands mine was killed by Ottawa’s clear intention to not allow it to move forward..Premier Kenney struck the Fair Deal Panel with a strong start, but after six months, it has delayed its report, and signs are coming that it will not live up to its promise. And even if its recommendations turn out to be strong, it’s highly unlikely that Ottawa will concede any real reforms on its part..The strongest move to date came from four rogue Conservative MPs in issuing the Buffalo Declaration, which was laughed off by Eastern politicians and media. Even Andrew Scheer and Kenney wouldn’t back it, with its message of “equality or independence”..With polls showing north of 40 per cent support for independence in Alberta, it’s a wonder that the constellation of small parties supporting it haven’t found the common sense to come together sooner. The FCP-Wexit talks have been on-again-off-again for nine-months. The thirst-quenchingly named Independence Party of Alberta (IPA)’s public statements made clear that it was not interested in potentially unifying with other sovereigntist parties..In early December, Western Standard columnist Cory Morgan wrote that “Alberta’s independence parties will unite, or they will fade away.” Two of the three independence-supporting parties appear to have gotten the message. They either will come together to attempt a run into relevancy, or they will go on like the dozens of other bridge-club parties that exist in Alberta. Morgan – who founded the original Alberta Independence Party and was a part of the merger that created the original Wildrose Alliance – knows what he’s talking about..The Tories are likely to attempt to ignore the upstart party for the time being, as they did with Wildrose 1.0 from 2009 until 2012. If that doesn’t work, they will most certainly turn toward the prospect of “vote-splitting”. It’s a powerful boogieman for many voters, but it only works if the challenger is proposing to “split” votes on the same issues and policies as the defender..In the WIP’s case, it is likely to be conservative-libertarian in its outlook, but it front-window policy agenda is independence. Neither the UCP or NDP are offering anything like it. In essence, the WIP will likely serve crispier fries than the UCP, but while the Tories main dish is fries, the WIP’s main dish is beef..The Wildrose Independence Party has a strong name brand to work with, if it can successfully establish itself as the successor of Wildrose’s Beta version. If they can manage to corral the existing supporters of independence behind it and grow the movement into the credible mainstream, they have a chance. That chance will depend on several factors..They will need to attract a credible leader. Someone with media savvy, capable of raising money, organizationally strong, and who is willing to spend hundreds of gruelling hours on the road travelling to every small two-horse town in Alberta.. AFL launches website for people to boycott businesses that donated to UCP .Their leader won’t necessarily need to be or have ever been elected. Danielle Smith was a non-politician when she won the Wildrose Alliance leadership in October of 2009. While her leadership ultimately ended in the near collapse of the Wildrose, she undeniably played a critical role in moving the upstart merger of the Wildrose Party and Alberta Alliance, into the centre stage of Alberta politics..The party went from losing the one seat that it had in the 2008 election, to nearly defeating the 39-year-old governing Tory dynasty. It’s a tall order to replicate, but it’s been done more than once in Alberta before..The WIP will also need to demonstrate political maturity. If it wishes to be a big player, it cannot govern itself the way most small parties in the wilderness do. Those parties spend hours at internal board meetings debating small potatoes, and have few members outside of the board itself. There are roughly a dozen such parties in Alberta today that few have heard of..In my own experience, we spent days debating the logo design for the FCP. Of course we all thought we were right, but those kinds of things sap energy..They will need to focus on the big goals and practical work like selling memberships, raising money, and building local constituency associations. They will need to understand that the real work of building a political party from a bridge club into a vehical capable of winning government isn’t done in board meetings, but out on the streets..New political parties have popped up never to see the light of day in the mainstream media’s headlines, and it’s too early to tell if the WIP has what it takes. But the key ingredients to do it are all there..Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher & CEO of the Western Standard.dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com.,.Twitter: @dfildebrandt. The NDP have become a branch of the Liberals. They may as well make it official.
