Everything about Alberta Alliance Party totally explained
The
Alberta Alliance was a
right wing political party in
Alberta,
Canada. Many of its members were former supporters of the now-defunct
Canadian Alliance federal political party and its predecessor, the
Reform Party of Canada. Members also joined from such other provincial fringe parties as the
Alberta First Party, the
Alberta Party and
Social Credit. Alliance supporters tended to view themselves as "true
conservatives", and believed the
Progressive Conservative government of
Premier Ed Stelmach to be out of touch with the needs of Albertans. Critics viewed the party as a far-right fringe party.
Paul Hinman was elected the party's leader at a
leadership convention held on November 19, 2005.
On
January 19 2008, the party voted to change its name to the
Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta when it merged with the
Wildrose Party.
Early history
The party was registered on
October 25,
2002, and its founding convention was held for two days beginning on
February 14,
2003, in
Red Deer,
Alberta.
Former
Social Credit Party of Alberta leader
Randy Thorsteinson was selected as the first leader of the party on the second day of the founding convention on
February 15,
2003. Thorsteinson had previous experience in Alberta politics as he was former leader of
Social Credit from 1992 to 1999.
The new party never sought a formal link with the Canadian Alliance, and had it done so, the overture would likely have been rebuffed, since many Albertan CA members continued to support the
Progressive Conservatives. However, the Alberta Alliance used the same blue-and-green colours used by the CA, and its logo bears a striking resemblance to that of the federal party. The Alberta Alliance continued to grow following the Canadian Alliance's merger with the
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the new
Conservative Party of Canada.
The Alliance gained its first Member of the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) on
June 29,
2004, when
Gary Masyk crossed the floor. Masyk quit the Progressive Conservative Party to protest
Ralph Klein's handling of
health care issues during the
2004 federal election. Masyk had represented the electoral district of
Edmonton Norwood since 2001.
2004 election campaign
The Alliance nominated candidates in all 83
electoral divisions and three candidates for the Senator-in-waiting, for the
2004 Alberta election, which was held on
November 22,
2004. The party was excluded from
Global Television's leaders' debate because it hadn't elected any members in the
2001 election, which was held before the party was founded. Some Alliance members noted that in the
1997 election, the
Alberta New Democratic Party leader was allowed in the debate (as was then Social Credit leader Thorsteinson), even though the NDP had no MLAs at the time. They also noted that the NDP didn't even have a full slate of candidates in the 1997 election.
The Alliance hired an
American firm, Campaign Secrets, to help run its campaign. Campaign Secrets, which has extensive experience working on
Republican campaigns, produced advertisements that were criticized by some Albertans for employing "U.S.-style"
negative campaign tactics. The Alliance leadership defended their use of American strategists, claiming that most right-leaning Albertan consultants were already hired by the well-heeled
Tories.
"I Blame Ralph"
The Alberta Alliance Party devised a campaign strategy in September 2004 prior to election called "I Blame Ralph", the purpose of which was to court voters who were uncomfortable with Ralph Klein's behaviour, and highlight his tight controls over the governments decision making.
The party kicked off the "I Blame Ralph" tour holding pre-election campaign events in numerous cities including opening its Campaign Headquarters in Red Deer. Part of the promotional package used by the party was bumper stickers a variety of fliers for different problems and a television ad, as well as t-shirts and a website. "I Blame Ralph" received significant attention, but didn't include any of the standard Alberta Alliance logos or colours, instead using red and white leading many to believe the Liberals were responsible.
Senate campaign
The Alberta Alliance party ran three Senator-in-waiting candidates in the
2004 Alberta Senate nominee election. The Alberta Alliance was the only party besides the Progressive Conservatives to successfully nominate candidates. The Social Credit Party had intended to run a candidate but failed to get the signatures required to field a candidate.
The candidates finished 7th 8th and 10th out of the field of 10 candidates in the block vote.
Legislature results
On
election day, results for the party could be described as mixed. Most analysts didn't expect the two-year-old party to seriously challenge the Progressive Conservative government. The party made a few in roads finishing second in a number of rural districts and a few respectable third place showing in Calgary.
The party's lone incumbent MLA,
Gary Masyk, was defeated running for re-election in the new electoral district of
Edmonton Decore, placing a distant fourth. Masyk's old electoral district
Edmonton Norwood had been merged in
Edmonton Highlands, the district represented by popular New Democrat leader
Brian Mason.
The party on the whole did very poorly in the urban ridings of Edmonton and Calgary. The Alliance appears to have played
spoiler in some urban seats, siphoning off enough votes from the Tories that
Liberals or New Democrats were elected.
The Alberta Alliance had its best results in a number of rural seats where it manged to finish second. Party Leader Randy Thorsteinson placed second running in
Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. The party managed a narrow victory in Progressive Conservative strong hold of
Cardston-Taber-Warner, where
Paul Hinman became the first MLA elected under the Alliance banner defeating incumbent
Broyce Jacobs. The rural results were mixed and it was badly defeated in other districts.
|
Candidates |
Seats |
Votes |
% |
Place
| 83 |
1 |
77,506 |
8.7% |
4th
|
Aftermath of the 2004 election
On
March 7,
2005, Thorsteinson announced his resignation as leader of the Alberta Alliance, citing that he wouldn't be able to devote the time and energy into the party. He stepped down on
April 15,
2005. A
leadership convention was called for
November 19,
2005.
Eleanor Maroes was appointed leader by the Provincial Council to serve in the interim until the new leader was chosen.
2005 leadership convention
The party replaced former leader Randy Thorsteinson in a two day leadership convention held on
November 18, and
November 19,
2005 in Red Deer.
The Nominations closed on
September 20,
2005. Candidates were eligible if had been a party member for at least 90 days prior to the convention, obtain 100 signatures from party members in good standing, and provide a $5,000 deposit.
The Alberta Alliance had four candidates were officially nominated.
Paul Hinman was elected as the party's new leader on
November 19,
2005, after a bitter leadership campaign. He was elected on the third ballot defeating Marilyn Burns.
Merger talks
Following the leadership convention, the party entered discussion about merging with the
Social Credit Party of Alberta and re-entered merger talks with the
Alberta Party in order to unite the political right in Alberta.
Merger talks with the Social Credit collapsed after a motion was put forward at the 2006 Social Credit policy convention to break off merger talks and focus on electing members in the next provincial election.
The Alberta Alliance Party and Alberta Party held their Annual General Meetings on
March 23,
2007 and
March 24,
2007, in Edmonton and Red Deer, respectively, to vote on a new party constitution that would have merged the parties. The new party would have kept the Alberta Alliance Party name and Paul Hinman as leader. Talks between the two parties had been on-going prior to the election in 2004. The Alberta Alliance party membership voted to withhold a potential merger until after the Alberta Party deals with its current legal troubles.
2006 Progressive Conservative leadership convention
In an unorthodox political move, on
October 11,
2006, Alliance leader
Paul Hinman encouraged his party members to buy memberships in the rival
Progressive Conservative Party and vote for candidate
Ted Morton in the PC Party's upcoming
leadership race, as Morton is considered the candidate that's ideologically most in sync with Alliance philosophies.
The idea wasn't well received by the provincial council and voted down.
It has been argued by some that parties such as Social Credit and Alberta Alliance could, with sufficient support, possibly threaten the now-traditional Progressive Conservative dominance in the province despite the much greater levels of support currently attained by parties such as the Liberal and New Democratic parties. The basis for such an argument is that both Social Credit and Alberta Alliance would most likely to compete for the "rural vote"- traditionally PC heartland. However, this has so far failed to materialize despite the promising showings by both parties in a number of ridings in recent elections.
2007 by-elections
The Alberta Alliance began its campaign for the
Calgary Elbow and
Drumheller-Stettler by-elections at the Annual General Meeting held on
March 24,
2007. The same meeting also saw former party leader Randy Thorsteinson return to the executive as the President of the party.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Alberta Alliance Party'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://alberta_alliance_party.totallyexplained.com">Alberta Alliance Party Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
