WATCH ABOVE: The Wildrose has emerged as the Official Opposition. As Vinesh Pratap reports, some suggest uniting the right is the way to go.
CALGARY – There are calls from within the Progressive Conservative party to reunite Alberta’s right after a devastating defeat at the hands of the NDP.
Many defeated PC candidates and party supporters were wandering around in stunned disbelief Tuesday evening in the minutes after Jim Prentice gave his concession speech and resigned.
Gordon Dirks, Prentice’s education minister who lost his seat to the leader of the upstart, centrist Alberta Party, noted that the Wildrose and the PCs combined took more than 50 per cent of the popular vote. He suggested it might be time for a drastic change.
WATCH ABOVE: Scott Fee takes a look at what the Alberta Legislature looks like now with the Orange Crush.
“In this province a split on the conservative side is not healthy for the conservative movement,” Dirks told reporters. “The two wings of that movement are going to have to come together in order to provide the kind of opportunity that I think many Albertans would want to see.”
Dirks wouldn’t say if he would be willing to join the Wildrose party.
“I don’t think anybody had the sense what the magnitude of it was going to be. Nor did anybody know how the votes were going to split.”
READ MORE: Orange crush: NDP stomps out 44-year PC dynasty, Jim Prentice resigns
When asked whether his party would be able to work with the remaining PCs, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean wouldn’t commit.
“We’re more than happy for the PC MLAs to vote for our private members’ bills, to support our legislation and our legislative initiatives,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll support, like the NDP does, our changes on election financing and cut out all corporate and union donations as they’ve promised to do.”
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PC party executive director Kelley Charlebois said the party constitution allows caucus to appoint an interim leader and he expects that will be done in a few days.
“Lots is left of the PC party. We have over 80,000 members. We took 28 per cent of the popular vote. There’s a bright future for us,” he said. “I think Albertans have spoken. They are the government elect and our congratulations go out to them.”
Former Calgary police chief Rick Hanson, who lost his Calgary Cross race to a New Democrat, said nobody could have seen this coming.
“I don’t think very many people in Alberta expected this, to be honest with you,” said Hanson, adding it is too early to decide if he might run for the leadership.
“The reality is it is what it is,” he said. “The province has gone into a major change tonight and the next four years are going to be significantly different.
“And what caused it will be the source of a whole lot of research papers by political scientists over the next few years, but the reality is things have changed.”
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