‘Having choice is essential’: MLAs ousted from UCP look to revive PC Party

Independent MLA Peter Guthrie speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about plans to relaunch the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Why revive the PC identity of the past? Why not just pursue a whole new political identity?

Peter Guthrie: We want to be able to restore confidence and bring back discipline and accountability. Right now, the UCP party, they’ve increased expenses by 23 per cent in just three short budget periods. If you look back to 2019, that’s a 42-per-cent increase from a bureaucracy standpoint.

When I was elected in 2019 through to 2022, we reduced the size of government by seven-and-a-half per cent. Danielle Smith and the UCP have increased that by 14 per cent, creating new layers of bureaucracy, as well as expanding Crown corporations.

They’ve also been shrouded in suspicion and scandal, and have now implemented a separatist agenda. So we want to be able to bring back that PC name, go back to the roots of the party, and reestablish that fiscal discipline, the limited government philosophy.

Working within Canada and building alliances with other provinces for the betterment of Alberta, and then naturally bringing back transparency, accountability, and creating consequences for those, including politicians, that do not want to follow those rules.

MH: How much of this is about a difference between parties and how much of it is about leadership?

PG: As far as looking at the UCP and whether or not it’s salvageable, I don’t think so. They have just gone down a path of driving out moderate voices. The PCs have been pushed out of the party.

It has a dwindling membership that is mainly supportive of a separatist agenda, and the PCs, they’re not coming back to this party. With the scandal that they have there, with the separatist agenda, there is a number of significant risks. Even without this current leader, I don’t think that the party can survive. I think that it will turn into the Wild Rose Party pre-2015.

MH: What leads you to conclude there is a sufficient enough group of disenfranchised conservatives out there to warrant or even legitimize your efforts?

PG: I guess that dwindling membership. I think that’s indicative of the population. The UCP, as well as the NDP, they’re focusing on 20 to 30 per cent of the population. Their strategies have been to build mandates that don’t focus on the majority and all of the province.

I think that there’s a market here now. Since being removed from the party, the number one thing that both Scott (Sinclair) and I hear is that voters don’t have a political home. We’re here to be able to offer that. I think a three party system would work very well and work in favour of the constituents of this province.

MH: We all know you were elected as a UCP MLA. How committed are you to this Progressive Conservative push? What if you encounter pressure from within the existing provincial, federal conservative movement here in Alberta to back off?

PG: We’re not feeling that. About 10 days or so ago, we were trying to keep this under wraps, and once we started reaching out, it started growing and growing. We went from about half a dozen people within our small group just 10 days ago, to hundreds that have been flooding in since we made this public last Wednesday.

There is definitely a market for this. There’s no question that there’s going to be certain segments of the population, those that support the current premier and separatism, that may not agree, but from our perspective, we’re coming here to instill confidence. And we think, by leading with integrity, we can gain the support of all Albertans.

MH: Is this a fresh start for the PC party, or do you seek out names, associations from the past that that maybe create a link to the progressive ideology?

PG: We’re not wanting to reestablish what there was at the end. We’re trying to go back to those (Peter) Lougheed days, back to the roots of principled leadership. We’re trying to grow that back. We know that there were issues in the past, but we’re looking forward. It’s a new time, and we’re looking ahead. We’re looking to the future, and are very excited about it.

MH: Is splitting the conservative vote at all a concern? Might any degree of success on your part not open up a potential door for Naheed Nenshi and the NDP?

PG: Alberta is the only two-party system in all of Canada. We used to have several parties here. If you look back to 2015, we had the accidental government — the implementation of the NDP. At that time, it had nothing to do with splitting the vote. It had everything to do with corruption and cronyism and entitlement.

Conservative governments have won every election for the last 50 years, and that was with multiple parties. I think there’s plenty of room here. Just looking at the federal election as an example: the federal Liberals won four consecutive elections for the first time in Canadian history, and they did so with three major parties on the left and only one conservative on the right. I think that a vote split in that case didn’t make a difference to the outcome.

I think having choice is essential, and Danielle Smith herself, and the risks that she and the UCP are taking with policy, being shrouded in scandal and having the separatist agenda that could really swing voters one way or another, very, very quickly, that’s where the PC party can come into play.