MLA gears up to run for leadership of new party

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Freedom Conservative Party (FCP) interim leader and current Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt has his sights set on seeking permanent leadership of the FCP party and keeping his position in the next election.
Last week, the party founded its constituency association board, which is made up of 12 members, more than half of which are from Strathmore.
The party’s emphasis now is fundraising and increasing memberships, while Fildebrandt’s focus is on his bid for the FCP leadership at the party’s founding annual general meeting (AGM) on Oct. 20. Fildebrandt also confirmed he would be seeking the nomination to run for the Chestermere-Strathmore constituency in the upcoming election.
“It was always my intention to run in my constituency in the next election and the insistence that local conservatives would not get to pick their candidates because they had to protect an incumbent of only half the riding on the grounds of gender and race quotas has never stopped me from being committed to representing the people of our community and letting the people decide,” Fildebrandt said.
“Even though I am the interim leader and seeking the permanent leadership of the party, even I will face an open nomination contest to run for this seat in our constituency. We don’t believe in backroom deals and favours to protect anyone, and that it should always be up to the local members of a constituency to determine who their candidate is. That applies to absolutely everyone, from the newest member to the leader.”
Fildebrandt announced the creation of the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta in July, stating the party is a platform for grassroots conservatives, Alberta patriots and libertarians who believe in freedom, conservatism and a stronger place for Alberta within Canada.
According to Ronda Klemmensen, who is the current president of the Chestermere-Strathmore FCP Constituency Association and former president of the Strathmore-Brooks Wildrose and UCP Constituency Associations, memberships have been growing steadily.
“We’ve had way more interest than I thought we’d have this soon and I remember in 2012 when I first joined the Wildrose board there were half a dozen people at our AGM and four people on the board. I’m feeling optimistic because look where Wildrose went in a short period of time,” Klemmensen said.
“The biggest thing that we’re all excited about is the new party… this is true grassroots and we want the NDP out as badly as anybody so we’re certainly not going to do anything to disrupt that.”
According to Fildebrandt, the party is expecting to have candidates running in 25 constituencies throughout Alberta in 2019. While there’s been a public outcry in regards to vote splitting, Fildebrandt said candidates will only compete for a seat in the ridings where the NDP has no chance of winning. However, some people remain unconvinced, stating the creation of the party came at an inopportune time.
“There is never a wrong time to do the right thing and anyone that says we should wait until after an election to start a political party is not understanding that the elections are exactly the time when we need a political party that represents people,” Fildebrandt said.
“Our objective is to form a strong caucus of FCP MLAs who are dedicated to completely reversing the legacy of the NDP. In the last election we faced a big uphill battle. Everybody felt the Wildrose was dead, the party had been almost wiped out and we had to build from the ground up. They started small and by the end we built an unstoppable team and we’re going to do that again.”
Fildebrandt said he will announce his intentions for seeking the nomination for the Chestermere-Strathmore riding in an official capacity in the near future.