Cast away by the UCP, Fildebrandt returns in own party
Alberta has another new conservative party.
It’s called the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta, or FCP.
This party has another new conservative leader.
It’s Derek Fildebrandt. He’s the Independent Strathmore-area MLA who was excluded from the United Conservative Party caucus and denied a nomination by leader Jason Kenney.
Anybody with the slightest knowledge of Fildebrandt had to know it wouldn’t end there.
A new party on the right was sure to form eventually, with support from disaffected Wildrosers, libertarians and hard-line economic conservatives.
The animosity between Fildebrandt and Kenney just sped this up a bit.
Kenney runs a party that is “already top-down, dictatorial, meddling in local constituency nominations,” says Fildebrandt.
He calls Kenney’s outfit the Tory party because “that’s how it looks to me.”
Fildebrandt and some FCP board members will hold a Calgary event Friday to formally roll out their plans.
Built on the legal framework of the former Alberta First Party, the FCP is registered with Elections Alberta.
“We in the FCP are conservatives, libertarians and Alberta patriots,” said Fildebrandt, interim leader pending a vote.
“We want government not just out of your wallet, but out of your church, your school and your bedroom. We believe in applying the principle of limited government everywhere.”
Fildebrandt’s main enemy is the NDP and Premier Rachel Notley.
“She’s content to roll over and show her belly to Ottawa,” he says, in one of those charming Fildy originals that shows there will be no political correctness from the FCP.
Fildebrandt is, of course, very controversial, after renting out his legislature-subsidized Edmonton condo on Airbnb, double-dipping on meal expenses and being convicted for leaving the scene of an accident.
All this has cost him support. Some readers think his name shouldn’t even be mentioned.
But he remains popular with some conservatives who love his head-on style and his fierce attacks on Ottawa. These folks think Kenney is a lefty.
The FCP’s interim president, Bob Lefurgey, sums up his own political credo as “Alberta first, last and always.”
Fildebrandt wants Alberta to take much more constitutional authority within Canada.
In an interview, he spent much of his time blasting Kenney and the UCP.
“In many cases, it’s being betrayed by a clique of backroom insider politicians that think the party is simply a vehicle for them to exercise power, rather than for average conservatives to be heard in the larger movement.”
Top-down meddling is endemic, he alleges.
“If this kind of thing had been limited to just my own constituency, I would have run as an independent. But this is happening across the province, in many constituencies, some of which have broken into the news, many of which have not.”
Asked if this is a grudge match after Kenney dumped him for allegedly being less than truthful about an illegal hunting conviction, Fildebrandt said: “Well, if Jason Kenney believes mistakes can be honest, then I’m willing to believe expensing an entire fundraiser to the taxpayer is potentially an honest mistake.”
He’s talking about the $7,245 MLA Prab Gill charged to the legislature, not the party, for an event that turned out to be partisan. The UCP has promised to repay the money.
Gill resigned from caucus after a report on ballot stuffing in his own riding. He says he won’t run again.
These are classic sins of oldtime, entitled parties, Fildebrandt argues.
“With the merger of Wildrose and the PC parties, it’s become apparent that it’s been more a reaffirming of the old establishment parties.
“We need to stop the NDP, but we can’t simply return to where we were with (former PC premiers) Redford and Prentice.”
He says the FCP won’t run candidates in ridings where the NDP has a serious chance of winning.
“While the ( Wildrose-PC) merger was a failure in terms of its ability
If this kind of thing had been limited to just my own constituency, I would have run as an independent.
to get the best of both legacy parties, the UCP can still have a benefit in swing seats, especially in the big cities where the NDP needs to be defeated.
“But we in the FCP have made a decision very consciously that in constituencies where NDP has no chance of winning, that we are going to run people.”
He vows that FCP MLAs would keep a UCP government honest by “making sure it isn’t becoming ensconced on the left.”
Some already say the FCP is really the Fildebrandt Conservative Party. That may not be far from the truth.
You can push him aside, but it’s very hard to make him stop.