EDMONTON – The only politician to sit in the legislature as a member of the Alberta Party is suggesting the party might need to fold the tent after getting shut out in the recent provincial election.
Former Liberal MLA Dave Taylor, who crossed to the Alberta Party last year but did not run in the April 23 election, posted a blog Friday in which he suggested his party’s mantra had been largely usurped by Premier Alison Redford.
“We need a good, honest, adult conversation about whether there is a place or a purpose for the Alberta Party in Alison Redford’s Alberta,” he wrote on his personal website.
“Don’t get me wrong. I like the positive attitude reflected in the Alberta Party’s forward-looking values. It’s just that the Alberta Party’s values are now the Redford PC government’s values. They stand for everything we stand for – and they’re in power. Who needs us?”
The fledging party had set an election goal of winning four or five seats, but failed to come close to winning even one.
Taylor said the Alberta Party came into creation at a time of political stagnation under former Premier Ed Stelmach, but the situation changed following the ascendancy of Redford, who would have made “an ideal Alberta Party member.”
“There are compelling arguments for ‘folding the tent’ as a political entity,” Taylor wrote. “With the PCs now occupying the middle, there may not be a market for us.”
He said the party should continue if it can differentiate itself from the Tories, but that will be a challenge to accomplish without abandoning its core values. Moreover, the party doesn’t possess the necessary political experience, or a legislature presence, to convince moderate voters to leave the PCs, Taylor said.
He suggested one alternate path would be for the party’s creative and innovative talent to reorganize into some kind of think-tank.
The former MLA’s comments will undoubtedly be a topic of discussion Saturday as Alberta Party members gather in Edmonton for a postelection party.
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