Wildrose Party and Progressive Conservative memberships voted overwhelmingly in favour of uniting both parties July 22.
The Wildrose needed a vote of at least 75 per cent in favour of uniting and members went well beyond that with 95.4 per cent voting yes.
There are more than 42,600 Wildrosers with memberships. About 57.7 per cent turned out, with 23,466 voting yes and 1,132 voting no.
The PCs similarly had 95 per cent vote yes on July 22. Of the 49,200 members, just over half at 55 per cent cast ballots. Nearly 25,700 were in favour of unity and about 1,350 were against. There were 24 spoiled ballots.
“We have the opportunity to redefine the spectrum of politics in Alberta,” Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean said at a rally at the Westlock Inn July 21, the day before the decisive vote.
“We have a real opportunity to get rid of the PCs as Liberals and move them into the conservative benchmark and then control those brands. It is a little bit strategic and it is a business decision in part, but it’s truly, in my mind, a business decision that will give us 20 years of good governance that is accountable not to the elites but to you the membership.”
By a show of hands, about half of the audience said they would vote yes while a quarter said no. The remainder was undecided.
Jean’s rally appeared to have been the final knell for the Wildrose in lieu of the United Conservative Party (UPC), though staunch Wildrosers were not shy to hide their disagreement with the unity agreement.
“I’m possibly calling you are a liar on what you’re telling us about your deal,” Morinville member Wes Petterson said to Jean during an open mic last Friday.
“Can we believe what you’re saying?” Petterson continued.
“I’ve had other lawyers tell us your agreement is nothing but taking a chance at the wind that guarantees nothing of the Wildrose, that guarantees nothing of our constitution, nothing of our policies. We’re hyped up on Wildrose because yes we’re Wildrosers, but the next time we come together it’ll be the stinking Conservatives sign up behind you and the stinking government that I’ve had my whole lifetime.”
“I’m not a liar,” Jean replied. “What we’re doing is making sure the members are in charge,” adding that it was giving members options, but acknowledged that members had differing opinions.
“That unity message is resonating with more and more Albertans.”
Edward Goodliffe of Busby questioned Jean on how the Tories would get Alberta back on track when poor government since the 1970s has caused Alberta’s problems.
“Seeing how they got us into this mess, how is it going to get us out of this mess to join back up with the very people that lead us to this destruction?” he asked.
Jean replied that the new party would be built on a Wildrose foundation with the party’s 12 principles, from property rights and low taxes to law and justice.
“Where we used to split votes, we’ll be tied together and have the same foundation that has served Wildrose members so well,” he said.
“That is where I think it will be different. We will hold those people to account through our membership and the cronies are not invited because they’ll be rejected by the membership.”
Another audience member said he was voting no because he was uncertain how the new party would unite the rural and urban population through policy that represents Alberta’s diverse demographic and identity.
“You have to ask yourself, how do you satisfy both worlds to be elected to into a majority government,” he stated. “Some of the urbanites will side with the Conservatives as the devil they know and some will side with the NDs in fear of being eliminated from the political scene by ‘country bumpkins’ as it were. I feel your approach to combine with the Conservatives to beat the NDPs is totally the wrong approach. You are still pitting urbans against rural and the result will not be as good as expected.”
What the policies may be will have to be decided by UPC members in the near future. In the meantime, the leadership race is gearing up with Jean, PC leader Jason Kenney and Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt throwing in their hats for the top spot.
