Unite the Right

[Fuzz]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...561181?cmp=rss

It seams their has been a meeting:

About 400 participants from around the province were given four options. Stick with the status quo, unite under the Wildrose party, unite under the PCs or form a new entity.
"The vote was clear," Orman said.
"The overwhelming resolution here when there was a show of hands … was for a new entity so that is what we will continue working towards."
He said that new party would be focused on finding middle ground ahead of the 2019 provincial election.
"What we have to identify is the sweet spot between the concern about the reactionary right wing of the Wildrose and the radical right wing, if you will, of the PC party," Orman said.

The solution is, they clearly need a new party. Uh huh. I just can't see a situation where the PC's and The Wildrose fold it all up and call it a day. To many egos. Which will mean there will be 3 parties.
Reminds me of this:

Spoiler!

As to the bolded bit, good luck with that one. Here's hoping the Alberta Party can get something organized.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Here's hoping the Alberta Party can get something organized.

Exactly; why not unite under the center and a now-established party with a well-liked leader who's in the legislature already?

[Fuzz]

I'd rather the Alberta Party not get taken over by the wacos though. That's why we need a WRP. Give a home to the crazies so they don't invade the other parties. For the life of me though, I can't figure out why we need a PC party anymore...Let the Alberta Party be kind of their replacement, but without the corruption, cronyism and some of their social stances.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The solution is, they clearly need a new party. Uh huh. I just can't see a situation where the PC's and The Wildrose fold it all up and call it a day. To many egos. Which will mean there will be 3 parties.

Except that almost the exact same scenario played out federally where the PC's and Reform party merged under a new banner, won shortly after, and formed government for 10 years. A new party called simply the "Conservative Party of Alberta" makes the most sense by far.

What makes no sense is thinking that they will fold it all up and unite under the Alberta Party banner. If anything the Liberals should call it a day and join the Alberta Party.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'd rather the Alberta Party not get taken over by the wacos though. That's why we need a WRP. Give a home to the crazies so they don't invade the other parties. For the life of me though, I can't figure out why we need a PC party anymore...Let the Alberta Party be kind of their replacement, but without the corruption, cronyism and some of their social stances.

I thought the NDP already had most of the crazies.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Exactly; why not unite under the center and a now-established party with a well-liked leader who's in the legislature already?

The Wildrose has 22 seats and the PC's have 9, they combined for over 50% of the votes in the last election and both parties have won byelections recently. Why would they get behind Greg Clark with his 1 seat in a party that nobody cares about that got 2.29% of the vote last election?

The Alberta Party only mamnaged to run 36 candidates in the last election, they aren't even close to being ready to govern.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Fire

I thought the NDP already had most of the crazies.

There are crazies in all the parties. It just depends on your own views, which ones you think are "crazies" and which ones you think are just a little too far over the top on certain issues.

[GullFoss]

I like the structure the way it is tbh. The PC party owns the centre, not the right or the left. The guys who want to unite the right seemingly forget how many of alberta are pragmatic and fiscally conservative centerists. A unite the right party would bleed a lot of seats.

As a life long pc party guy, i voted ndp in the last election because the pc party platform was a joke. I Fully intend to vote pc in the next election, but i would take another term of notely over a united right wing party any day of the week.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Fire

I thought the NDP already had most of the crazies.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/04/29...d-after-outcry

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

There are crazies in all the parties. It just depends on your own views, which ones you think are "crazies" and which ones you think are just a little too far over the top on certain issues.

Centrist parties tend to have a lot less crazies though than parties on the edges.

[Azure]

If you think about it now would be a good time to create a new party whose views are fiscally responsible and socially liberal. People clearly don't trust the WRP, and the NDP government is a gongshow. 4 years to build support and boom you are elected.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'd rather the Alberta Party not get taken over by the wacos though. That's why we need a WRP. Give a home to the crazies so they don't invade the other parties. For the life of me though, I can't figure out why we need a PC party anymore...Let the Alberta Party be kind of their replacement, but without the corruption, cronyism and some of their social stances.

Originally Posted by Jacks

Except that almost the exact same scenario played out federally where the PC's and Reform party merged under a new banner, won shortly after, and formed government for 10 years. A new party called simply the "Conservative Party of Alberta" makes the most sense by far.

What makes no sense is thinking that they will fold it all up and unite under the Alberta Party banner. If anything the Liberals should call it a day and join the Alberta Party.

The Alberta Party has nothing though. They routinely poll at low single digits, if that. In the last by-election (Greenway) they didn't even run a candidate, which I think was a major strategic error. I suppose if you're going to get 2% of the vote then it might be better to not run at all, but I would think that party that thinks they're onto something would be in the mix in a by-election where getting some attention is a little easier than a general election.

Really the PC's look poised to regain credibility as a centre-right option and step in to the gap between the NDP and Wildrose. They still poll well in Calgary in particular, and that spells some tough times for the Liberals/Alberta Party. I'm not sure where they fit here if the NDP remains somewhat strong. They might just get squeezed out and battle hard for 1-2 seats.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Jacks

The Wildrose has 22 seats and the PC's have 9, they combined for over 50% of the votes in the last election and both parties have won byelections recently. Why would they get behind Greg Clark with his 1 seat in a party that nobody cares about that got 2.29% of the vote last election?

The Alberta Party only mamnaged to run 36 candidates in the last election, they aren't even close to being ready to govern.

I'm not exactly suggesting this. More that the PCs, with all their corruption and baggage and inherent trust deficit, can simply vanish as a party (along with the AB Liberals, although for all intents and purposes they already have), and the AP can rise from the ashes as the new party in the center. So you've got the center-right and center uniting behind the Alberta Party, and the WRP and NDP on the fringes on either side. That, for me, would be a perfectly acceptable result of this upheaval.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you that they're not ready for it. This opportunity came a bit too early in the process. Needed another election cycle to gain some steam.

[RinkRat]

The Alberta party fits the bill for what people claim they want, but they are lacking traction. You would think they were the Christian heritage party the way they poll.

Greg Clark has a good head on his shoulders and their shadow budget was responsible and well thought out.

I haven't heard any real ideas out of the P.C and Wild Rose camps other than "rabble, rabble, rabble!!!"

[PsYcNeT]

Yep every time I spend a day at the leg Greg Clark is a breath of fresh air, Brian Jean is the most punchable man, and McIvor just looks uncomfortable being within 3 feet of another human.

[Ozy_Flame]

Alberta Party will not unite with the right. They are small, but will become a viable alternative in a few years for those looking to vote for a socially liberal, fiscally responsible centrist option. Also, Greg Clark is awesome and should continue to grow the AP with his leadership.

[peter12]

How are people even close to considering the Alberta Party and WRP as equally representative of Albertans? This forum is a bubble.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Except that almost the exact same scenario played out federally where the PC's and Reform party merged under a new banner, won shortly after, and formed government for 10 years. A new party called simply the "Conservative Party of Alberta" makes the most sense by far.

How many years and how many elections did it take for the PCs and Reform to figure that out and merge? And how long did it take the new party to purge the loonies and broaden their appeal enough to win an election?

The Reform party was founded in 1987. The Canadian Alliance was founded in 2000. The Conservative Party of Canada was founded in 2003. They formed a minority government in 2006, so 20 years after Reform was founded. The Wild Rose party was founded in 2007.

Any Alberta merger won't happen any time soon because of the same animosities. Many PCs hate the WR and many WRers hate the PCs. That's true of the rank and file, and doubly true of the party leadership.

[Resolute 14]

The biggest problem the Alberta Party has is that it exists to serve a very tiny sliver of Alberta's political spectrum. Centre-left hardly exists in the first place - which is a reason why the Liberals and Alberta Party hold only two seats combined. So Greg Clark really has two options. Move centre-right, at which point he would simply be lost to irrelevance under the weight of the PCs and Wildrose - or try to capture some of the protest vote that went to the NDP as it retreats back toward the PCs. I think his ability to do so will depend more on what the PCs do than what he does.

[CliffFletcher]

I think we'd find the policies of the Alberta Party matches up pretty well with the preferences of a large number of Alberta voters. The problem is that voters these days, in Alberta and elsewhere, seem less concerned (or informed) about policy than with identity and ideology. And as a small, centrist party, the Alberta Party lacks both.