Wildrose Alliance
The Wildrose Alliance was a conservative political party in Alberta, Canada. It emerged in 2008 when the Alberta Alliance Party and the Wildrose Party decided to join forces. The party was first lead into Alberta's 2008 election by its interim leader, Paul Hinman. The lack of time to prepare for the election led the party to not win any seats, although it did gain more support than many other traditional small parties in Alberta.
Well-funded and under the leadership of its first highly charismatic leader, Danielle Smith since 2009, it not only won its first seat in the provincial legislature through a by-election, but also increased its seat number in January 2010 when two Progressive Conservative members crossed the floor to the Wildrose Alliance.
The party held 22 seats in the 87-seat Alberta legislature following the 2015 provincial general election, and successfully took official opposition status in the House of Assembly. However it faced an uphill battle against the very well entrenched Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, which had governed the province from 1971 to its 2015 defeat by the Alberta New Democratic Party. Despite this, polls showed the Wildrose Alliance ahead of the then-ruling NDP in voter support.[1]
Its policies called for lower taxes, more efficiency and less spending and push-back against the Trudeau Liberal government in Ottawa. It condemned then-Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley for her poor management of the province (including the imposition of a carbon tax on the public[2]), her embracing of social justice causes (including embracing "climate change" alarmism and attacks on the oil industry and the Alberta oilsands[3]) and the provincial deficit (now standing at over $133 billion as of October 2022), which has more than doubled under the NDP and is higher now than under any previous Alberta government.[4]
On May 18, 2017, a merger between the Wildrose Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta was announced. A vote to ratify the merger was held on July 22, 2017, with 95% of the membership of both parties voting in favor of the merger. The newly merged party is now known as the United Conservative Party and held a leadership convention on October 28, 2017 in Calgary, where former Alberta PC leader Jason Kenney defeated rival candidates Brian Jean and Doug Schweitzer to become the UCP's first leader.[5]
References
- ↑ Poll shows 'honeymoon' over for NDP, Notley at the Calgary Herald
- ↑ Majority of Albertans remain opposed to NDP's carbon tax: poll at the Calgary Herald
- ↑ Braid: NDP needs to heed widespread rejection of climate-change plan at the Calgary Herald
- ↑ Alberta provincial debt clock
- ↑ Jason Kenney declared leader of United Conservative Party at the Edmonton Journal
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