Alberta Party sees membership boom with leadership race, rise of the UCP

The Alberta Party, currently in the middle of a leadership race, has seen a dramatic uptick in membership.

According to figures released by the party Thursday, it has grown more than 500 per cent in less than 12 months.

The province’s third party was starting from a low floor, with just 1,024 members in March 2017.

When the eligibility window to vote in the current leadership race closed this week, that number had grown to 6,543.

Close to 2,000 of those memberships were sold in the 48 hours between Feb. 11 and 12.

The leadership race kicked off last year when Calgary-Elbow MLA Greg Clark resigned from the top job.

Three hopefuls are vying to replace him — Calgary lawyer Kara Levis, former Edmonton mayor and former Progressive Conservative MLA Stephen Mandel, and Calgary- South East MLA Rick Fraser, who recently crossed from the United Conservative Party to join the ranks of the Alberta Party.

Members will cast their votes later this month, with the new leader announced Feb. 27.

The numbers released Thursday back up claims Alberta Party brass have made about increased interest in the party since Jason Kenney won the leadership of the UCP in March.

At the time, then-leader Clark said he was ready to welcome displaced red Tories into his party with open arms.

Still, the numbers are well short of the 82,000 or so members of the now-defunct Wildrose and PC parties ahead of the unity vote last summer.

When members of the new UCP voted Kenney as leader, it had 106,000 members.

The increase may reflect a hike in fundraising, in which the party saw its donations triple between quarters last year.

In late October, former NDP MLA Karen McPherson, MLA for Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill, joined Clark in the Alberta Party corner, citing the increasing polarization of Alberta politics.

Fraser followed suit this year. McPherson has since endorsed her Calgary colleague for leader.

In a news release, party president Rhiannon Hoyle said she was excited about the upswing in membership, but it’s just the first step.

“These numbers demonstrate that Albertans are excited about the Alberta Party and the potential for a clear third option,” she said.

“We will continue to work diligently to expand our reach across Alberta by bringing positivity and solution-based opposition to Albertans.”