Is a shake up in store for Alberta politics?

CTV Calgary: Is a merge in the making? Several Wildrose MLAs are expected to cross the floor and join the PCs. Chris Epp has the latest on the possibility of a merge…

The future of the Wildrose is up in the air as sources inside the party say several MLAs are considering crossing the floor and joining the PCs.

A few months ago the Wildrose had 17 MLAs in the legislature that formed the official opposition but the defection of three members reduced that number.

In October, the party lost four byelections and two of its MLAs crossed the floor to join the PCs.

A third Wildrose MLA, Joe Anglin, also quit the party at the beginning of November, citing internal issues.

The party's status as official opposition could be in jeopardy depending how many people leave.

Many of the 20,000 party members say they are shocked and some feel betrayed by what they are calling a 'power grab' by those who are turning their backs on the people who put them in office.

"We have trust in our MLAs and elected officials to carry forth on that and so for them to walk away from all of those people, even if you just voted for us in the election or our local constituency volunteers, or whatever, um it's tremendously disappointing," said Wildrose Party VP, Jeff Callaway.

Several Wildrose MLAs met on Tuesday afternoon to talk about their future but so far they are not revealing what was discussed.

Drew Barnes, the MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, says he is not going anywhere and that he was elected as a Wildrose member and told voters he would represent them as such for the next four years.

"I hope my caucus mates don't do this reunification agreement, whatever it is," said Barnes. "I hope we stick to the policies and the principles that we were elected on."

He says he was invited to the meeting but has no interest in crossing the floor.

Alberta Premier Jim Prentice says any attempt to join his party would be decided by the PC caucus.

"We'll see what happens," Prentice told reporters. "Our caucus meets tomorrow, and all these matters are dealt with in our caucus."

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is reportedly driving the exodus and is said to be among those who are looking at jumping ship.

A document leaked to the media outlining the conditions of combining the parties states that Prentice has adopted many Wildrose fiscal accountability measures, so it would make sense for the two right-of-centre parties to join.

The document also states that Wildrose MLAs who wish to cross the floor would be allowed to keep their seats and would get the premier's endorsement for a PC nomination to run in the next election, slated for the spring of 2016.

(With files from The Canadian Press)