With a traditionally rebellious nature and a disinclination to support the status-quo, why is it that Alberta has such a long history of dynastic party rule? The Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta held power for 44 years despite swinging numerous times deeply into the progressive end of the pool and ignoring the conservative base. Many felt that the PCs had lost their way during Ralph Klein’s last term, yet it still took a decade before a conservative alternative really began to gain any steam..A big factor in what has kept reigning parties in power is that we have new parties constantly springing up on the landscape like daisies..I was working on creating an alternative to the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta back in 1998 when I was on the executive of the then conservative-minded Alberta Party. I then founded the Alberta Independence Party and led it into the 2001 general election. I then got involved with the Alberta Alliance Party which later merged with Wildrose Party to become the Wildrose Alliance, which only then finally began to truly challenge the PC government by the 2012 general election. A long and winding road from fringe to viability to say the least..During those years, parties came and went and all were fighting with each other to claim dominance in what was a pretty limited pool of alternative-right party supporters. The PC Party never had to worry about us as we dedicated all our time to battling with each other while giving the actual party in power a pass..The turning point in Alberta came in 2007 when Premier Stelmach released his “Fair Share” royalty review and proposed a large rcash grab from Alberta’s energy sector. At that time the Alberta Alliance Party and the breakaway Wildrose Party were fighting each other tooth and nail. We had a government induced crisis looming over our energy sector and the alternative parties were too busy lobbing bombs at each other to do anything about it..Some of the main financial backers for the alternative parties took the main players aside and laid it on the line for them. They essentially said: “Merge or we won’t give a nickle to either of you!”.Money is like oxygen for political parties, particularly nascent ones. We had to get our crap together and we had to do it in a hurry..We quarantined the presidents of each party as they both had fought the merger with all they had, and hammered out an agreement in principle. Members gladly embraced the new entity when given the chance to vote on it and the movement finally had some real numbers and momentum under the Wildrose Alliance banner..A number of other key events took place in coming years including a key by-election win, Danielle Smith’s leadership, and some floor crossings which really helped the party explode onto the political scene. None of those things would have happened if the Wildrose and Alberta Alliance parties had not merged..Today the Freedom Conservative Party and Wexit announced that they had reached an agreement in principle and that their members would be able to vote at the end of June to form a merged entity entitled the “Wildrose Independence Party”. While currently still a long way from being a party which can threaten Jason Kenney’s UCP on the electoral front, this could indeed a turning point for the independence movement which leads to electoral viability..Support for an unabashedly pro-Alberta if not outright independence minded government is at a high unseen since the early 1980s when Pierre Trudeau decimated Alberta with his National Energy Program. With Jason Kenney unwilling to even endorse the Buffalo Declaration, he is appearing to be unwilling to take on Ottawa and is leaving his flank open for an independence party to fill the void. We are in tumultuous times, and as Alberta tries to climb towards economic recovery, we can be sure that clashes with Ottawa will ensue. We will need strong, uncompromising leadership standing up for Alberta and nothing will help foster such an attitude from government more effectively than having a growing independence party waiting in the wings..Stubborn, narrow minded people often dominate the boards of political parties. It is hard for pragmatic members to see progress when party leaders and executives remained mired in personal agendas and hang themselves up on points of pride. It was no small accomplishment for the FCP and Wexit to hammer out an agreement in principle. It means some key players swallowed some pride and chose to look at the bigger picture. The presence of that sort of forward-thinking leadership bodes well for the new entity in the future..A larger, better-funded, and better-organized entity should be able to dominate the alternative-right party scene. They can and should invite the remaining alternative right parties to get on the bandwagon. If the other parties won’t play ball, the Wildrose Independence Party will be able to afford to ignore them. Members and donors join parties that are showing momentum and the Wildrose Independence Party will be the only right-of-center one displaying that..There are many hurdles for the new party to overcome in the next few years. A leadership race and a new leader will set the tone and direction of the party along with a consistent set of policies and principles. Those things can be minefields which may destroy the new party as well but one step at a time here..Another thing a newly merged entity will have to deal with is toxic members within their ranks who will never get over the merger, even if members overwhelmingly supported it. It took years before a number of party executive members in the Wildrose Party stopped self-identifying as being either “Alliance or Wildrose” people. The merger really couldn’t be considered complete until that stopped and it took the purging of some folks in order to make that happen. Internal division kills new parties more than any external factor ever could..The potential merger of Wexit and the Freedom Conservative Party has not been making national headlines but then, neither did the merger of the Wildrose and Alberta Alliance parties. They have gained resources, energy and momentum now with this critical step. Let’s hope that a large majority of members turn out and vote in favor of this merger. Our government is in terrible need of a voice of conscience coming from the right, and the Wildrose Independence Party may very well provide that if they keep this attitude of pragmatic growth initiatives going..Cory Morgan is a columnist for the Western Standard
