RELATED STORIES
The NDP will face a single united conservative force in the next election after Alberta’s Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties voted overwhelmingly on the weekend to merge forces.
Both secured more than 95 per cent pro-unity votes from their members, setting into motion a monumental shift in provincial politics and sounding the death knell for the Tory dynasty that ruled Alberta for 44 years.
Rooms erupted as yes-vote wins were declared Saturday afternoon in Red Deer at a Wildrose special general meeting, and two hours later in Calgary at a PC celebration.
“With tonight’s vote, the NDP’s time in government is ticking down, and ticking down quickly,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean told the crowd.
“Together, we will send a message to all of Canada that Alberta is not apologizing for our industries or our way of life.”
In a nod to the old schism between the parties, PC Leader Jason Kenney said Saturday the vote was “not an ending, merely a new beginning where we learn from our past mistakes.
“The writing is on the wall,” he said.
“This accidental NDP government will be a one-term government.”
Now that the dust has settled on the vote, the leadership battle begins.
Jean is set to formally announce his candidacy Monday afternoon in Airdrie.
Angela Pitt, the region’s Wildrose MLA, sported a blue “I back Brian” button Saturday in Red Deer — the first sign of an inevitable rift in the new party’s caucus.
Earlier in the day, her Wildrose colleague Derek Fildebrandt, MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, vowed he would never support Jean in a leadership race.
Raising her eyebrows when told of the comment, Pitt said, “That’s unfortunate.”
“I suspect that you’re going to see many UCP members rally behind Brian Jean, because he’s the right man for the job and for the people of Alberta,” she said.
Fildebrandt is mulling over throwing his hat into the leadership ring, and it’s a foregone conclusion Kenney will do the same.
Fildebrandt declined to say why he’s not on Team Brian following the Saturday vote.
“We’ll have plenty to time to beat the crap out of each other in the coming weeks and months, but tonight I’m just probably going to (Red Deer bar) Billy Bob’s,” he continued.
Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer announced his bid to become UCP leader on June 1.
The unity question was the catalyst for the Wildrose party’s first special general meeting — and its last, given the results.
During the eight-hour online vote, 24,598 ballots were cast.
Of those, 23,466 voted yes and 1,132 said no to unity.
On the Tory side, 27,060 members voted, with 25,692 giving unity the thumbs up.
The turnout was around 52 per cent. The yes vote gives disenfranchised conservatives on both sides the excuse they need to pursue their own new parties.
Self-declared progressives have contemplated a united centrist movement ever since Kenney won the PC leadership in March.
On Sunday, talk turned to Wildrose 2.0.
The Edmonton-South West constituency association president, Marilyn Burns, is adamant that devoted Wildrosers want nothing to do with the UCP.
After all, she told the Journal Sunday, only 57 per cent of members bothered to cast a ballot.
Burns accused Jean and Kenney of whipping up fear of a second NDP term to push through the unity plan.
“Fear is a very powerful emotion,” she said.
“What (they) have done is very successfully raised that fear to a fever so they are now saying ... ‘Throw your dart at the UCP. We give you nothing, no promises, just take us instead of the NDP.’ ”
Burns and some of her fellow board members plan to hold a meeting July 29 in Nisku to drum up support for a new Wildrosetype party.