Estranged United Conservative MLAs aim to create new party to challenge Premier Smith

Ousted United Conservative Party MLAs Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair want to revive the former Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.

Two sitting Alberta legislature members kicked out of Premier Danielle Smith’s governing United Conservative caucus seek to form a rival party to challenge her.

And they plan to use a famous historical Alberta political name to do it.

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Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair announced Wednesday they aim to sign up enough signatures to resurrect the once-dominant Progressive Conservative Party.

The PCs held power for more than four decades in Alberta before losing to the NDP in 2015 and then eventually merging with the rival Wildrose Party to form the current United Conservatives.

Guthrie and Sinclair, both voted out of caucus earlier this year for challenging UCP policies, say Smith has lost her way, is catering to a narrow band of extremists and separatists, and that centrist conservatives need a place to park their vote.

“Can the UCP be salvaged in the end or are we seeing the decline of it now?” Guthrie said in an interview. “We think that it’s heading for its demise.”

Announcing the plan on the Ryan Jespersen podcast Wednesday, Sinclair said the province’s two-party system has become too divisive, and they want to galvanize support from Albertans who just want the “meat and potatoes” of governing — like health care, highways and housing — handled.

“We believe we’ve woken a sleeping giant of people that don’t feel like they have a home politically,” he said.

Sinclair said Smith is morphing what was supposed to be a mainstream, big-tent party into a separatist one.

The premier has repeatedly said she supports a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, but her government also lowered the threshold for citizens to initiate referendum questions, including on seceding from Canada.

Meanwhile, groups are planning to collect signatures for and against to force just such a vote.

Guthrie told the Jespersen podcast that not only has Smith abandoned fiscal conservatism by hiking public spending on an expanding bureaucracy, she caters to separatist sentiment by saying different things to different audiences.

Guthrie, a former Smith cabinet minister, estimates that one-third of the United Conservative caucus supports Alberta leaving Confederation. He’s been vocal in criticizing the government’s handling of a health-care contracting scandal, joining the New Democrats in calling for a public inquiry into allegations of corruption.

The NDP won government in 2015 largely due to vote splitting between the Wildrose Party and the PCs in many ridings.

Smith, asked about the new Guthrie-Sinclair party plan at a news conference in Calgary, reminded reporters about that.

“We saw that when the (conservative) movement splits, the NDP wins,” she said.

Smith added that the UCP is enjoying popular support and is out-fundraising the NDP.

“We have two cultures that we brought together under a single umbrella, and we talk about the things that we can agree on, and we move forward with policies that get the consensus of the majority of the public,” she said.

There is also a dispute over using the Progressive Conservative name.

Smith said election rules prevent anyone from using the name of a legacy party of the UCP.

But Elections Alberta spokesperson Michelle Gurney confirmed to The Canadian Press that the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta name is only reserved. When a name is reserved, applicants have six months to fulfill the registration requirements or up to a year if they are granted extensions.

Guthrie and Sinclair will need to gather roughly 8,800 signatures. They could also qualify to become registered if they hold three seats in the legislature — which would require another elected MLA to cross the floor.

The PC name itself carries different meanings for different voters. The party of Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed was accused of fiscal mismanagement and entitlement in its waning years.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi quipped Wednesday that Guthrie and Sinclair are creating a “party that says they’re not corrupt by using the name of a previously corrupt party.”

Nenshi added, “As much fun as this to watch as the Opposition, it means that (Smith’s) doing an even worse job of focusing on the things that Albertans really need because she’s only focused on saving her own political skin.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press