Another MLA quits

EDMONTON — Another member of Alberta’s new United Conservative Party has quit caucus to sit as an independent.

Rick Fraser, the legislature member for Calgary South East, said in a statement Thursday that the current fractious party leadership race makes it clear Alberta will continue down the road of divisive, polarized politics.

“Since Premier (Alison) Redford stepped away, multiple leadership races, cabinet changes and an election, there has been an overwhelming focus on politics in Alberta and not on the people of Alberta,” Fraser wrote.

Redford stepped down as premier in March 2013 and was followed by interim Progressive Conservative leader and former premier Dave Hancock. Former federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice took over when he won the party leadership in 2014, but led the Tories to defeat in the 2015 election. They were led by another interim leader, Ric McIver, until they merged with the Wildrose party in July.

Fraser said a protracted partisan fight between the new party and Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP does not serve Albertans well.

“The current process underway in Alberta also focuses on party lines and tactics that will play itself out between the two dominant parties in Alberta, that being the NDP and the UCP,” wrote Fraser.

“We need to fundamentally approach our politics differently, shifting paradigms that will create and grow common-sense policies that are also politically sustainable and that don’t divide Albertans but rather bring them closer together.”

Fraser is the third member of the UCP caucus to leave since the Wildrose-Progressive Conservative merger.