Uniting the right supported by majority

Adelle Ellis
Times Reporter

 

Over 100 people showed up to Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s “Unite the Right?” town hall meeting at the Strathmore Legion on Feb. 1.
Around 95 per cent of members informally voted yes in support of unifying the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative (PC) parties into a single unified party before the next provincial election.
During the evening, Fildebrandt restated a commitment he made to voters during the last provincial election: that he will make no decision and no move forward without the explicit consent of his constituents.
“I do not support a return of the old government and I don’t think most Albertans want a return of the old government, but they do want a new government,” said Fildebrandt. “We need to ensure that whatever we do is principled, democratic and it is grassroots.”
While Fildebrandt is in full favour of uniting the two conservative parties in Alberta, he said unification can only successfully happen if the new party is driven entirely by the grassroots membership of the parties. He had said that any new party must be built on a firm foundation of conservative principles, and that there must be common ground found between the two parties to know what they want to do as a possible new unified government.
“I think that the grassroots structure that we have as a Wildrose party is very valuable and serves as a great template for the construction of any potential new and united party,” said Fildebrandt, adding that politicians must not put themselves before Alberta and that the new party must never go through the kind of backroom deals that the government had before.
Questions were raised about the concerns of returning to a one-party system and repeating that particularly shady history. Fildebrandt is not naïve.
“Entitlement sets into government after about eight years, no matter the government,” he said. He is confident however that if a strong grassroots structure is maintained and politicians are held accountable for their actions, and that if members can “turf” elected officials who are deemed corrupt without the need of a general election, then there should be no problems and no need for another Wildrose party in 20 years.
“I am a diehard Wildrose. I believe in this party through and through, I know a lot of you do, too,” said Fildebrandt. “But I think that we need to be big here and welcome all conservatives together as equals, as fellow conservatives.”
There are several major challenges that need to be solved before the two parties can unite, the first being that the Wildrose and the PC parties know what they want to do as individual parties, but they need to find common ground and know what they want to do as a united party.
“We need to ensure that a new party is built on a solid and firm foundation of conservative principals. I think that any political party is a group of people who may not agree on everything, but agree on a broad overarching set of values,” said Fildebrandt. “We have enough common ground as Wildrose and PCs that we can find common ground for the basis of a new conservative party.”
Another challenge is that “the PC party is two parties in one right now. There is a progressive and a conservative,” said Fildebrandt adding that there are some Liberal left members who joined the PC party years ago for the perks, which resulted in many true conservatives leaving the PC party.
“They are weeding themselves out, they know their days are limited,” he added.
There are also conservatives who don’t agree with joining the two parties to create one unified party. Fildebrandt believes that around 90 per cent of conservative members agree but that it is not worth putting Alberta’s future in jeopardy for the 10 per cent who disagree with uniting parties.
There are also legal challenges with unifying the two political parties as the law in Alberta does not explicitly allow two parties to unite. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t do it, but it means that it is going to be difficult,” said Fildebrandt, adding that some legal challenges will be sensitive to address.
Sensitive legality issues arise with the presented options from party leaders about how to form a unified conservative government. PC leader Jason Kenney wishes to deregister both the PC and the Wildrose parties, forfeit the financial assets of each party and register a legally new party. Wildrose leader Brian Jean wishes to create a new party, but keep the legal and financial foundation of the party that has the most money in the bank (namely the Wildrose by a substantial dollar figure), so that the new party has some money to operate with right out of the gate.
Fildebrandt acknowledges there are merits to both approaches but that the best solution may be somewhere in the middle. “I think the best path forward is going to be a new party that treats members equally from both legacy parties, but that definitely keeps the financial assets of the Wildrose party,” he said, also stating that the Strathmore Brooks Wildrose raised more money in 2016 than any constituency in any party in Alberta, and that he does not want the donations to be lost but instead be used to fight in the next election.
“Whatever legal obstacles that are in the way are not so great that we can’t overcome them if we are dealing with one another in good faith and thinking about Alberta first.”
Fildebrandt believes the Wildrose is the strongest party with the most members, most finances, best organization, the most support, and that they could win the next election on their own. “As strong as we are, the risk of vote splitting is very real. And that risk is not worth the cost,” he said. “We must not only defeat the NDP, we must destroy them, and undo their legacy – root and branch.”
“A true conservative is a conservative,” said Bart Hampton, member of both the Wildrose and PC parties. “The problem is that there is a progressive side to the conservative party. Those are the people that are not happy about this.
“Alberta is too important to the country and to Albertans to lead it down this street that the NDP are taking us. It has to end,” added Hampton. “We have to come back: Alberta first and Albertans first.”
By the end of Fildebrandt’s speech, only five “no” signs were held high in the air by people signifying they do not want a unified conservative party.
The big question asked at the end of the night was whether Fildebrandt would run for leader in the possible new united government. He quickly stated he had no intention of running for party leader.
“I have two jobs: to represent the people of Strathmore Brooks and to destroy socialism in Alberta,” he said.