Former Alberta Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith says Tuesday’s historic NDP win is proof she was right to try to merge her party with the Progressive Conservatives to avoid a left-wing government.
With the Liberals no longer a factor at the polls, progressives united under the NDP while conservatives found themselves split.
“Wildrose and PCs split the vote in a number of ridings and that caused (NDP Leader Rachel Notley) to get a much bigger win than she otherwise would have,” Smith said.
Notley’s NDP secured 41 per cent of the popular vote, while the PCs got 28 per cent and the Wildrose got 24 per cent.
However, Notley ended up leading or elected in 54 seats -- nearly two-thirds of the 87-seat legislature -- while the Wildrose ended up with 21 seats and the PCs with 11. The Liberals and Alberta Party won the other two seats.
It’s a result Smith says she saw coming -- though perhaps not so soon.
And it’s a result, she fears, that will be repeated.
“As long as the conservative vote remains divided, they’re never going to be able to get enough seats or enough traction to form government,” she told Power Play host Don Martin on Wednesday.
Smith now thinks Alberta conservative voters are going to have to either “en masse decide to vote Wildrose in the next election, or there’s going to have to be a formal merger or some kind of coalition.”
Smith said her decision to stop fighting against the PCs and instead join them under leader Jim Prentice late last year was “clearly done the wrong way.”
The merger didn’t go as planned. While eight members of her fiscally conservative Wildrose Party followed her to the more-centrist PC Party, five Wildrose stayed put and Smith then failed to get a PC nomination.
The eviscerated Wildrose Party, meanwhile, pushed ahead with new leader Brian Jean, found candidates for 86 of 87 ridings, and retained its official opposition status on Tuesday.
In addition to blaming herself for the NDP win, Smith also blamed former PC leader Jim Prentice’s budget for the NDP victory, because she says Prentice turned off conservative voters with tax increases and a large deficit.
“I think that Jim unfortunately missed an historic opportunity to be able to bring the conservative movement together,” she added
Pollsters believed Smith was going to win the 2012 election but the PC Party under Alison Redford won after a last-minute surge in support. Redford didn’t last long, however, resigning last summer after a series of spending scandals.
“When Albertans decide to change government, they do it massively, and they do it surprisingly, and they do it with a brand new party,” Smith said Wednesday.
“I’d always hoped that was going to be the Wildrose.”
