Welcome back, Alberta PC's?

Danielle Smith says she will be reminding Elections Alberta that there's a law against reviving a legacy party and she expects it to be followed.

Just three weeks shy of the day that Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose members (with a large overlap) voted to bury their parties and unite under a single blue sign, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA, the Hon. Peter Guthrie, and Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair announced they are reviving the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.

Premier Danielle Smith, who swooped in like a bird of prey to munch on the carcass of Mr. United Conservative himself, the Hon. Jason Kenney, essentially told reporters at an unrelated press conference, “hey, it’s not me, it’s in the legislation and you know that stuff is ironclad.” I paraphrase.

“It’s in elections law, and it was my predecessor who passed that, saying that the name of the former legacy parties of the UCP could not be registered as new parties, and that is so we don’t have confusion for voters. I am going to raise that with elections officials and remind them that the law says that and we would expect the law will be followed,” she told Postmedia columnist Rick Bell, who was unable to hide his disappointment at the possibility of warring conservative options once again.

Ms. Smith had her talking points down pat as she repeated the answer for Mr. Bell almost verbatim from the first time she was asked. I kept the second one because she added that it wasn’t her decision; she’s just following the rules someone else put in place, as she is so well-known to do. Eye roll.

“We have always had multiple parties on the ballot. Even last time around, if you go and look at the number of parties that were on the ballot, I think there were four or five or six different conservative parties that were listed there. And I think our success demonstrated that people like the United Conservative Party, they like what we stand for, they like what we’re doing, they want to vote for us, they supported us in record numbers,” she added.

Mr. Bell seemed genuinely worried and asked if she was concerned.

”As you know, I had a long history with both parties, I was the campus club president of the Progressive Conservatives back in ‘92-93, and I was the leader of the Wildrose party and we saw what happened… we, we saw that when the movement splits, the NDP win. And I think that’s where the majority of conservative voters are; they realize that we have two cultures that we brought together under a single umbrella and we talk about the things we can agree on and we move forward with policies that get the consensus of the majority of the public,” she added.

I suppose it is relevant that the press conference she was giving Wednesday afternoon was to announce a new provincial police force; a question that is currently part of the Alberta Next panel to gather feedback from Albertans on whether they would like to replace the RCMP with an “independent” policing body.

Support for Ms. Smith’s independent policing plan has been low in rural Alberta where the province wants to deploy the “independent” force. Prior to the election in 2023, Ms. Smith said the party was removing the independent force from the party’s campaign because they could revisit it when voters wouldn’t have a say. Basically.

After the election, neither the Justice nor Public Safety Ministry mandate letters mentioned a provincial police force. It was, Justice Min. Mickey Amery said, a sign that Ms. Smith’s government was listening to Albertans.

Pollara Strategic Insights polling from June 2024 showed:

• 77% of respondents, in RCMP-served communities, are satisfied with the policing service they receive.

• 73% of respondents are satisfied with the RCMP’s response to natural disasters such as wildfires and floods.

• 86% of respondents want to retain the RCMP, some with local improvements.

• 84% of respondents agree that there are more important priorities in Alberta right now than changing who polices local communities.

• 87% of respondents agree that before any changes to municipal policing, there needs to be detailed accounting of costs and impacts on service levels.

Last September at the Alberta Municipalities conference, Alix Councillor Ed Cole had words for Public Safety Min. Mike Ellis.

“To be blunt, when are we going to put this Alberta provincial police to rest? Eight in 10 Albertans want to keep the RCMP,” Cole said.

“We can’t afford this. Let’s put the money back into the RCMP budget where it belongs.”

The issue remained contentious in April 2025, especially after the announcement that the province expects to have a $5 billion deficit in 2026. Yet, now we have an independent police body, pushed through despite not having anywhere near majority support.

And with that fantastic timing, two people with more ethics in their pinky toes than Ms. Smith has managed to demonstrate in her entire political career roll onto the scene with a principled conservative party on the agenda.

On the air with Ryan Jespersen

Earlier in the day, the Hon. Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair sat down with Ryan Jespersen on Real Talk to officially announce their plans to revive the PC party. Mr. Guthrie had teased the announcement on Canada Day with a photo of himself on social media in a PC Alberta t-shirt.

Mr. Sinclair said that they were excited to bring a reputable name forward with he and Mr. Guthrie, solid MLAs and represent a lot more mainstream Albertans. When asked why he thought another party was necessary when the UCP seemed to be doing well enough in the polls, Mr. Sinclair replied that their goal is to save conservatism in Alberta. He said that Danielle Smith took a big tent party and turned it into a separatist party.

“The analogy I’d use is when the Oilers were threatening to move out of Edmonton. If the owners would have said they really want to stay, they wouldn’t go and make it easier to sell the team. That’s what Danielle Smith has done with Bill 54. If you don’t want it, you don’t make it easier.”

“Neither Pete nor I are separatists; it shouldn’t be controversial to say ‘I’m conservative and I love being Canadian.’”

“You need to look at a person’s actions to determine who they are,” Mr. Guthrie added.

“If you look at Danielle Smith’s actions, she ran on the Free Alberta Strategy, she introduced the Sovereignty Act, during the federal election, she inserted herself into that election and tried to put herself in the media virtually every week, sort of one-upping Pierre Poilievre and the CPC when generally during those times you’re supposed to back away. Then the very next day, she introduces legislation to make it easier to separate and within days, the separatists have a petition ready. That’s not coincidence.”

In response to a question about whether either of them have heard much from the UCP, Mr. Guthrie said that it’s been very quiet but that’s to be expected considering what happened when both of them stood up and said they were not happy with what the UCP government was doing.

Mr. Sinclair was ousted after he wrote a social media post saying he would vote against the budget back in March, and Mr. Guthrie was suspended for 30 days after he resigned from his position as Infrastructure Minister, but was officially ousted from the party after voting with the NDP in favour of the UCP calling for a judge-led investigation into the contract and procurement scandal in April.

Mr. Guthrie said that it’s early days but so far they see four things that need to be properly addressed: fiscal responsibility, limited government, working within Canada for the best interests of Alberta, and transparency and accountability and introducing consequences for those who don’t follow them.

He also provides some additional details about what transpired with his decision to resign as Minister at 28:54. He had been more focused on fiscal issues and details some of the goings on that caused him concern, including the childcare deal with the federal government that had the province $1 billion short. He said that he tried to implement a fiscal responsibility framework that could help get procurement under control but it was ignored.

“The spicy stuff of politics isn’t, at the end of the day, what matters. We were there for highways, healthcare, and housing,” Mr. Sinclair added.

And coal.

Mr. Guthrie said that he never understood the government’s about face on coal mining. It’s been incredibly unpopular in Chelsea Petrovic’s riding of Livingstone-Fort MacLeod, as well as with farmers, ranchers, and townspeople who aren’t willing to risk their water. Mr. Guthrie also said that the lawsuit the Premier refers to doesn’t have much to stand on because they’re suing for $12 or $15 billion but they haven’t incurred the costs they’re trying to recoup. It’s Alberta’s resource, he said, and it’s still in the ground.

Bring on a new party

Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Guthrie are not wrong. Danielle Smith is a trainwreck. She’s making policy based on verifiably false information and she refuses to listen to anyone with the expertise to educate her. We’re beyond pretending that this isn’t a purposeful decision she makes every day. She’s a provincial Premier who can access any data and research she would like in order to make good decisions for the people who are affected by her policies. She actively chooses not to.

At the end of the day, real people are affected. Our money is being used for pet projects she is using to mollify a minority in her party while Albertans have been clear, and consistent in telling her party they do not want.

Mr. Guthrie said they want to respect the foundation and framework that Peter Lougheed began.

“Common sense is a word that gets thrown around but it’s about making decisions based on logic and reason; you create a team — not MLAs — experts in the field. Instead we have a loose idea that’s being rammed down your throat,” he said.

Mr. Sinclair added that he entered politics because he wanted to be part of something worth doing and is now focused on providing a healthy vision not just for the province, but for the province within Canada.

“The progressive in progressive conservative shouldn’t be a dirty word. We were told all conservatives were welcome and that’s not what’s happened. The party is no longer mainstream. The hostility, the way the parties have gone, is one of the reasons we think there’s a movement for a party that speaks for everybody and not just a small faction,” Sinclair concluded.

If you’re interested in assisting the rebuild of the PC party, you can reach out at connect@mypcalberta.ca.

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