Independent MLA reacts to political party name restrictions, believes UCP may call early election

Peter Guthrie on Alberta Primetime Dec 5, 2025

Independent MLA Peter Guthrie joins Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins to discuss new rules around naming political parties, the possibility of a referendum on Alberta separation, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: What do you make of the roadblock in front of your efforts to change the name of the Alberta Party to the Progressive Conservative party?

Peter Guthrie: I was very surprised they would do something like this. Then again, when you think of, each week that’s going on in the legislature the UCP seem to outdo themselves.

Looking at this, analyzing it, the way I see it is the UCP know they have no legal footing. We’ve looked at this. We’ve explored it. We have followed every rule put forth by Elections Alberta. We feel we were on a sound, legal ground. This ultimately proves the fact they’re having to cause delays in the court, file a lawsuit against us, an injunction against Elections Alberta, just in pursuit of bringing forward this legislation. Ultimately it’s because they’re terrified.

They’re terrified of the fact that with a PC party in the mix the UCP are relegated to third place in all the internal polling that we’ve seen. I can tell you the UCP does a ton of polling, so they would have these numbers. They know very well they’re in big trouble. They’re swinging for the fences here to try to eliminate their political competition.

MH: At the end of August, you started the ball rolling on the name change with the Alberta Party.

Is there still a possibility Elections Alberta could rubber stamp it before the legislation clears?

PG: We sent out a notice last night to Elections Alberta. We asked them to release his ruling. The commissioner has stated he has a ruling in hand. We’re asking them to let the public see what that ruling was supposed to be.

The UCP have backdated this legislation to July 4, 2025 in order to make sure they get it back far enough, because they don’t know exactly all of the dates in which we corresponded with Elections Alberta. So they’re trying to pre-date everything. That said, we’re just asking Elections Alberta to release the information, release your judgment. We’ll adhere to what you say and let us battle it out in the courts.

MH: Beyond the Elections Alberta element, what other options are available to you to fight this?

PG: If it becomes law, I think we’re going to have to look for an alternative. Internally we’ve been joking around that we’re going to call ourselves the “Progressive Redacted” party. After we oust the UCP and reverse a bunch of the legislation they’ve put forward that has overstepped its bounds, we’ll put the “conservative” back where it belongs, call ourselves PCs after that.

MH: Where does this development leave you with the Alberta Party, do you continue that relationship?

PG: Yeah, absolutely. I would stay tuned next week for some announcements on that.

MH: The bill also amends the Citizens Initiative Act. Where do you feel that leaves the likelihood of a referendum on independence?

PG: There’s absolutely no choice for the premier. She has to have a referendum on independence. A couple of weekends ago with the AGM, the separatist independence group took over the board. These are the same people that got the premier elected. She’s been working with them all along. They gave her high numbers, 91 per cent, last year in her review. They are expecting their pound of flesh and that is an independence referendum.

So [the UCP government] needs to make some adjustments because Elections Alberta could get in their way on that. They had to take that authority away from Elections Alberta to make sure they could pursue that independence referendum. With the UCP, they’re constantly using the language that they believe in a strong Alberta within Canada, something along those lines. Really it’s the actions that you need to follow. It’s pieces of legislation like this, as well as how they carried on with the Alberta Next Panel, where you see really what their goal is and their game plan is.

MH: Were you surprised to see the government leave recall legislation alone for the time being?

PG: That’s a fascinating twist - unless you consider the fact the UCP might be considering going to an election in the spring. If that’s the case, if any of these recalls are successful, they wouldn’t have to worry about a byelection. They could just go into a general election. It’s a distinct possibility.

Everything the UCP is doing right now is leading me to believe they may call an early election. I don’t think the result is going to be good for them. When you look at the path, the budget they’re putting forward, the projections for oil. You look at the forthcoming Auditor General’s report. There’s going to be some long nights.

There’s a number of bills that still have not passed. They’ve put through time allocation on some outstanding bills. I imagine they will with Bill 14 as well to try to get through this in a timely fashion. I would expect you’re going to see a lot of opposition to what you’ve been seeing here lately.