Alberta Party draws thousands ahead of vote

Party memberships have soared for the Alberta Party during its leadership race.

The party sits at 6,543 members — up more than 600 per cent from the 1,024 it had this time last year. The deadline was Monday to secure membership in time to vote for a new leader.

Not at all surprised by those numbers is Bill Grady who joined the party this month when the leadership candidates were in town. His decision to join after being a longtime Progressive Conservative party member, and even president of the local constituency association, came down to appreciation of the leadership candidates and the principles of the party, he said.

“They’re much more socially conscious. They’re concerned about everybody in the province, not just those who have a lot of money,” said Grady. “I think the far more moderate approach to the political stream is more to my liking than the harshness of the current conservative party.”

The Alberta Party was expecting an increase in memberships but the numbers are higher than anticipated.

“It’s absolutely exceeded our expectations,” said Rhiannon Hoyle, president Alberta Party.

The numbers speak to the fact Albertans want a third option, said Hoyle. People are joining the party because they appreciate what the party stands for. One reasons for releasing the numbers was to be accountable and transparent, she said.

The leadership race was triggered after former Alberta Party leader Greg Clark stepped down in November 2017. He remains an MLA with the party and has said he will run in the next election.

The Alberta Party is an alternative to the NDP and United Conservative Party, but it is has so far not lured Jim Taylor, former PC party member and member of the former local constituency association executive.

“I haven’t joined the Alberta Party. Whether I will or not, I don’t know. I haven’t made a decision on what I’m going to do,” said Taylor.

The next provincial election must be called by May 2019, about 15 months away.

In the last provincial election there were about 400,000 votes cast in favour of the PC party, said Grady. There are probably not the same number of people in favour of the UCP. Grady believes with the right message, the majority of those votes could go to the Alberta Party.

“I think they’re going to make a difference in the next election,” said Grady.

In October 2017, just prior to the UCP leadership election, that party had nearly 63,000 members registered to vote out of about 106,000 members, according to a press release at the time.

The Alberta Party’s three leadership candidates are:

— Rick Fraser, who is in his second term as MLA for Calgary-South East. He was elected MLA in 2012 under the Progressive Conservative party banner and chose to sit as an independent after the Wildrose and PC parties merged to form the UCP.

— Kara Levis, a Calgary lawyer in favour of introducing a provincial sales tax and who believes Albertans would generally be supportive of that.

Stephen Mandel served as Edmonton’s mayor for many years and was briefly minister of health under the PC Party government of Jim Prentice.

Online voting for the new Alberta Party leader will start at noon on Feb. 25 and finish at noon on Feb. 27 using a preferential online ballot. The winner will be announced Feb. 27.