Alberta Party members vote to change name to Alberta Progressive Conservative Party

We seem to be a province of almost 50/50 progressives and conservatives; that's a starting point.

It’s officially gone full circle for me.

The first political party membership I ever bought was for the Alberta Party in 2015. That year’s election campaign was probably no different than any other before it, where every party was gunning for the long-running governing Progressive Conservatives, but it was the first one I’d ever paid constant attention to. Even then, I wasn’t a great partisan. For me, it mattered less who won so long as someone, anyone, finally could.

I may have been incredibly new on the scene, but even I understood that a one-party state that never credibly feared it could lose power was too easily at risk of tuning out those it is meant to serve. Though “at risk of tuning” Albertans out feels like it was a far better place than where we are now with a UCP government that has no problem saying they “will not listen to” and “will not take advice from” people on the opposing side who were not only chosen to serve Albertans, but whose job it is as the official opposition is to hold this government to account.

It makes the Conservative Party of Canada’s latest complaints that the Liberal government is “stealing” their policy ideas look even more unhinged. The last thing anyone should want is a government who is so full of itself that it can’t recognize a good policy because it’s coming from those in opposition.

Unfortunately, that’s where we’ve been in Alberta since 2019 and the ease with which the current iteration of the UCP has gone all-in on corrupt practices, acting as if they are above being accountable to the public, or the opposition, is why I renewed my membership in the Alberta Party and voted for a name change.

I’ve said it before…

I’m neither progressive enough to be a progressive nor conservative enough to be a conservative, but I’m both too progressive to be conservative and too conservative to be progressive. I don’t fit in the prescribed boxes.

The thing is, I don’t actually care if good policies are considered either progressive or conservative — if they’re good policies then we should be able to have them; full stop.

Alberta is a weird place where we have been groomed for generations to support anyone who says they’re conservative, without question or proof. Our mascots are men in blue coveralls or men in cowboy hats, but they’re almost always men and our government has no problem commissioning promotional videos for the province that don’t show a single woman. We have a provincial identity that has been bound with a particular ideology but most people likely don’t know what that really entails; they just know the brand, and they are loyal customers.

As such, being NDP in Alberta is rather foreign to most and if you’re a person who believes that your entire identity is tied to supporting a conservative party, then that is not going to change easily.

That reality is, effectively, as if the United Conservative Party has no opposition because they know for a fact that their voters have nowhere else to go. Their voters will stay home rather than vote for a non-conservative party — and conservative parties know this. It’s why the current iteration of the UCP is throwing fiscal responsibility out the window, and isn’t concerned about accountability; the worst thing that can happen is that some of their voters don’t show up.

That is, it was the worst thing that could happen.

That was before the Republicans showed up to take a piece of the separatist pie. In all likelihood, they could have used it to their advantage by claiming the party wasn’t beholden to separatists anymore (while Danielle winks at them from across the room). It probably would cause them at least some concern electorally, but since separatist sentiment is stronger in rural, where they have no competition, it wouldn’t cause too much alarm.

However, if inaccessible NDP voters in urban and rural had another place to park their vote, then it does become a problem for them.

I also don’t care if the UCP were to remain government, so long as they are scared enough of potentially losing it that they stop making ideologically motivated policy that is harmful to either Albertans, our economy, or our future generally.

However, I also understand that if the UCP is no longer the de facto home for the separatists, or moderates, their entire reason for being evaporates and I’m perfectly fine if it cannot survive under those circumstances.

It’s just the beginning

Elections Alberta still has to approve the new name. I argued in the past that the UCP owns the “Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta”, not “progressive conservative”, nor “Alberta”, nor even “association” — they own PCAA specifically. If they couldn’t even hold onto “Wildrose Party of Alberta” when the new version just added “independence”, I’m not expecting Elections Alberta to put up much of a fight.

As for trademarks, I had one lawyer tell me they had argued to get trademarks released before for non-use. Apparently, one might not be able to just sit on a trademark with no intention of ever using it again. Who knew?

I’m not saying that a name change is a silver bullet. There’s a lot of groundwork that will need to be done to build a political party that will be competitive in the next election, and there’s always the possibility that the UCP will be scared into calling a snap election.

The UCP currently has favour from the public, and it looks like the economy is beginning to show signs of fatigue either from the Trump taxes or the party’s pandering to separatists, or all of the above.

The slowing economy was one of the reasons the late former Premier Jim Prentice called an early election in 2015. The fixed election date would have been spring of 2016 and since he knew that oil sands companies had shelved their projects due to the downturn, he also knew there would be mass layoffs and cutbacks. It’s also why he campaigned on a tax increase for Albertans — he knew what was coming.

Then again, Finance Minister Nate Horner tabled a deficit budget in the face of Trump taxes, plus handed out a tax cut that would be paid for with borrowed money. He claimed he didn’t like it and hinted that it was a bad decision, but if knowing the decision was bad for the province, there were ways he could have actually stood up for the principle and he chose not to.

The caucus is Alberta’s last line of defence against poor leadership and the majority has chosen to maintain support for Danielle Smith’s twisted brand of logic. Yes, she can keep blaming the federal government for how they spend their tax dollars but provinces are responsible for their own fiscal house. It’s why every other province has higher provincial taxes, and a sales tax — their voters won’t let them get away with whining about the federal government while ignoring their own responsibilities.

I just want us to be friends again

Many have said that “progressive conservative” is an “oxymoron”, or “ideologically incompatible” but I’ll argue that it’s simply a willing coalition of people who understand that we need to work together; no different than than the one created to put people who despise our country together with those who love it and call it “united”.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Alberta is almost 50-50 progressive and conservative, which is a far more equal coalition than the 22 per cent who want to separate with 78 per cent who do not. Governance is not about “wishing” things would work, it’s about taking responsibility and doing what’s necessary to make them work. That means looking not just at ways to “cut red tape” and “make government more efficient”, it means making sure there is enough revenue to pay for the services that make Alberta one of the best provinces to live in.

It means seeking the best of what most people in this province have said they want. No, it won’t make everyone happy all the time, but it might make the most people happy enough most of the time. And right now, that would be a vast improvement on where we are.

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