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CKA - Canadian Kinesiology Alliance - Alliance Canadienne de... cka.ca |
The Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta is a fiscally conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. It includes both socially libertarian and socially conservative factions,[1] and has been led by Danielle Smith, who belongs to the former, since October 2009.[2] Though it won no seats in the 2008 election, winning its only seat in the Legislative Assembly in a 2009 by-election, a November 2009 poll found the party with 28% support: just 6 points behind the governing Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.[3]
[edit] HistoryThe Wildrose Alliance was named after the Wildrose Party of Alberta and the Alberta Alliance Party. The new party was named for the flower Rosa acicularis commonly known as the Alberta Wild Rose, which grows in Alberta and other areas in North America. The Alliance portion of the name comes from the former Alberta Alliance Party that existed from 2002 to 2008. The party was created by merger at a special convention on January 19, 2008. The Alberta Alliance Party changed its name to the "Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta", and accepted the members, assets and liabilities of the Wildrose Party.[4] By-laws were adopted that were substantially similar to those of the Wildrose Party, and a new executive committee was elected. Alberta Alliance leader and Member of the Legislative Assembly Paul Hinman was selected by an agreement of the executive councils to lead the new party into the 27th Alberta general election. On February 1, 2008, the President of the new party, Rob James, resigned.[5] John Hilton-O'Brien was selected to serve as interim President of the Party. Hilton-O'Brien was the Alberta Alliance candidate for Grande Prairie Wapiti in the 2004 election. He was elected to the party executive at the merger meeting. At the Wildrose Alliance's first AGM on June 21, 2008 in Red Deer, Alberta, Jeff Callaway was elected president of the party. He ran un-contested again at the AGM on June 5 and 6 2009 in Calgary, Alberta and was re-elected as a result. [edit] Elections[edit] 2008Main article: Alberta general election, 2008 The party kicked off its 2008 pre-writ election campaign with a tour of towns and small cities across Alberta. The party ran on a platform of:
[edit] Election resultsOn election night, Hinman lost his seat and no other Alliance candidate won a seat. The result in Hinman's riding was close and a recount was held which confirmed Hinman's loss to PC challenger Broyce Jacobs.[6] The Wildrose Alliance received 6.8% of the popular vote across the province, performing on par with the Green Party (4.6%) and the NDP (9.8%). On election night the Alliance's website was attacked by five computer addresses which blitzed it 100,000 times in 24 hours, making the website difficult to access. The Liberals' website was also experiencing downtime from a possible attack.[7] [edit] Leadership election 2009For more details on this topic, see Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta leadership election, 2009. On April 20, 2009, Paul Hinman announced his intent to step down as Wildrose Alliance leader at the 2009 Annual General Meeting on June 6, 2009 in Calgary, triggering the party's first leadership election under the Wildrose Alliance banner. On June 7, 2009, the party had attracted two candidates to the race, former Canadian Federation of Independent Business provincial director Danielle Smith and Calgary chiropractor Mark Dyrholm. On July 24, 2009, Jeff Willerton became the third candidate. Following the Calgary leadership debate on September 16, 2009, Willerton dropped out of the race. On October 17, Danielle Smith was elected leader of the party, which subsequently shifted its focus to fundraising and selecting candidates for a future election.[8] Although standing down as leader, Paul Hinman managed to win a by-election in Calgary-Glenmore, a Progressive Conservative riding for over 35 years,[8] in the midst of the party's leadership election. Hinman's election returned Wildrose to the legislature, and was said to have earned the party a shot of credibility.[8] The by-election result was arguably the first strong showing by the Alliance in an urban seat. [edit] Danielle Smith eraAfter Smith was elected she appointed Stephen Carter as the party's first interim Chief of Staff.[9] On November 25, 2009 Carter resigned the position after it came to light in the public his business Carter McRae was collapsing financially.[10] He notified Smith and the party about the failure of his business interests before accepting the job.[11] Carter had been involved in a controversy over twitter a week earlier to which Premier Ed Stelmach's communication director Tom Olsen accused him of insulting Ukrainian heritage.[12] Smith announced in her first month of leadership to set up a task force to develop a detailed energy policy for the party[13] and a second task force to independently determine elected Members wages and benefits.[14] [edit] References
[edit] External links
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