Alberta Now is a federal political party in the making that says it will run candidates only in Alberta’s 37 federal ridings, openly modelled on the Bloc Québécois. It was unveiled in mid-September at the Capitalism and Morality conference in Calgary, five weeks before Alberta’s October 19 referendum, and it is not yet registered with Elections Canada.The public face, and self-described co-founder, is Drew Barnes, 65, a Medicine Hat real estate broker and businessman. Saskatchewan-born and Medicine Hat-raised, he earned a commerce degree from the University of Alberta and spent decades in real estate. Voters in Cypress-Medicine Hat elected him three times: twice under the Wildrose banner, and once as a United Conservative in 2019. His time in government ended badly. The UCP ejected him from caucus in May 2021 after he repeatedly criticized then-premier Jason Kenney’s leadership and pandemic policies. He sat as an independent, did not run again in 2023, and finished second in Medicine Hat’s 2025 mayoral race. Along the way, he served on Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel, where he broke with the majority to argue an independence referendum should be on the table.www.x.com/albertanowpartyNo other founding executive has been named publicly. The only other marquee name so far is Tamara Lich, the 2022 Freedom Convoy organizer, announced on the party’s X feed as a founding member in late October, a supporter rather than a founder.The party’s argument, laid out on its website, is that MPs from national parties must trade Alberta’s priorities against vote-rich regions elsewhere. So Alberta needs a caucus that answers only to Albertans. In interviews, Barnes has filled in what that means: scrapping equalization, more pipelines, provincial control over environmental regulation and immigration, an Alberta pension plan and provincial police force, smaller government, and lower taxes. “It’s decades where Alberta’s voice has not been heard loud enough in Ottawa,” he told CBC News. “Thirty-seven is a lot of seats,” he told CityNews, noting the NDP has held the balance of power with fewer than 10..On the question consuming Alberta politics, the party is deliberately hard to pin down. Barnes stayed neutral in the referendum and says Alberta Now is not an independence party: it will respect whatever Albertans decide, and its site says only that Albertans have the right to decide their constitutional future “peacefully, lawfully and democratically.” Barnes keeps his own position ambiguous. Alberta must be the freest, most prosperous place in the world, he told Le Journal de Québec, “whether within Canada or outside it. Either option works.” The pitch is aimed squarely at voters frustrated with Ottawa but unwilling to leave. He calls the Conservatives “the second-best alternative” and dismisses vote-splitting worries.The timing is no accident. The party launched into referendum season, and while Option 2, the first step toward a binding independence vote, lost 75% to 25% in the official results, more than half a million Albertans still voted for a harder line with Ottawa. Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt told CBC there is “room for it, especially in the atmosphere of a separation referendum, but people have tried this before,” pointing to the Maverick Party, a Western protest party that won under 2% in 2021 before folding. Concordia’s Chris Beach notes many soft sovereigntists “want to send Ottawa a message,” exactly Barnes’s niche, but warns a splinter party could cost the Conservatives seats. Others, like longtime Medicine Hat political watcher Jim Groom, struggle to distinguish the platform from the Conservative Party’s own.For now, Alberta Now is a membership drive rather than a party. Because Elections Canada requires hand-signed declarations, it is collecting wet-ink forms by mail. It claimed more than 500 in September, and its X account, posting since August to about 1,700 followers, is now pushing to reach 500 founding members by Remembrance Day before submitting its application. Barnes hopes for registration by early 2027 and wants to contest any federal byelection before the next general election. Whether Alberta Now becomes a second Reform Party or a second Maverick is the open question, but the grievances it is built on are not going away.
