Merging parties in Alberta no easy task

Even if the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties decide they want to merge — and that’s a massive if — there is no straightforward path to do so under provincial law, the head of Elections Alberta says.

Talk of uniting the political right in Alberta has been in the air since the NDP’s victory in last spring’s provincial election.

But chief electoral officer Glen Resler noted there is no ability under provincial legislation for parties to simply unite.

“Under the current rules, you can’t merge,” he said in an interview.

Provincial political parties in Alberta are also forbidden, by law, to transfer their assets to one another.

If parties deregister in Alberta, any assets left after they pay their bills are put in trust by Elections Alberta.

Those assets can be claimed if the party reregisters, but only as the same entity.

Resler said there are options if two parties decide to join together.

One party could deregister or become inactive — doing the bare minimum to keep its legal status — with its members joining the other party.

That party could then apply for a new name, a relatively simple process, Resler said.

“That’s what we would recommend.”

While various unite-the-right groups have sprung up in Alberta since the election, there is a disagreement about tactics.

Rick Orman, one of the organizers of the Alberta Can’t Wait event that will be held Saturday in Red Deer, believes a merger of the two conservative parties won’t fly, either legally or politically.

Speakers at the meeting will instead make the case either for the status quo, folding one of the parties into the other or forming a new party.

But the Alberta Prosperity Fund issued a news release Friday slamming the idea of a new party and calling for a PC-Wildrose merger.

“No matter where we’ve been and what size or type of group we have in the room, grassroots Albertans have told us of the need to bring together these two parties to ensure that the NDP is defeated in the next election,” said Dave Rutherford, spokesman for the political action committee.