Wildrose Party

For the unregistered 2007 party, see Wildrose Party of Alberta. For the unrelated present-day party, see Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta.

51°02′36″N 114°04′28″W / 51.0434°N 114.0744°W / 51.0434; -114.0744

Wildrose Political Association
Former provincial party
FoundedOctober 25, 2002[1]
Renamed Wildrose Alliance January 31, 2008[2]
DissolvedJuly 24, 2017 (de facto)
February 7, 2020 (de jure)
Merger ofAlberta Alliance Party
Wildrose Party of Alberta
Merged intoUnited Conservative Party
HeadquartersEdmonton, Alberta
IdeologyConservatism
Social conservatism[3]
Direct democracy[4]
Political positionCentre-right to right-wing[5][6]
ColoursBlue and Green

The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association,[7] formerly the Wildrose Alliance Political Association) was a conservative[8][9] provincial political party in Alberta, Canada.[10] The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Alberta Alliance Party and the unregistered Wildrose Party of Alberta. The wild rose is Alberta's provincial flower.

It contested the 2008 provincial election under the Wildrose Alliance banner, and was able to capture seven percent of the popular vote but failed to hold its single seat in the Legislative Assembly. Support for the party rose sharply in 2009 as voters grew increasingly frustrated with the Progressive Conservative (PC) government, resulting in a surprise win by outgoing leader Paul Hinman in an October by-election. In the fall of 2009 Danielle Smith was elected as leader and by December the Wildrose was leading provincial opinion polls ahead of both the governing PCs and the opposition Liberals. Wildrose's caucus grew to four members in 2010, after two former PC members of the Legislative Assembly defected in January and an independent MLA joined the party in June of that year.

In the 2012 election, the party failed to have the breakthrough predicted by most media pundits, many of whom predicted that it would become the government. However, it increased its vote and seat totals and became the official opposition.

In December 2014, nine Wildrose MLAs, including the leader, Danielle Smith, left the party to join the Progressive Conservative caucus under its recently elected leader, Jim Prentice.[11] All of the defectors to the PCs who sought re-election in the 2015 general election lost their seats by losing either the nomination process in their riding or the general election to the Wildrose challenger.

Effective February 3, 2015, the party's registered name was changed from Wildrose Alliance Party to Wildrose Party.[12]

On May 18, 2017, the leaders of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta announced a merger, which was ratified with 95% support of the membership of both parties in July 2017. The combined United Conservative Party held its inaugural leadership election on October 28, 2017.[13] Due to previous legal restrictions that did not formally permit parties to merge or transfer their assets, the PC Party and Wildrose Party maintained a nominal existence and ran one candidate each in the 2019 election in order to prevent forfeiture of their assets. The UCP government later passed legislation allowing parties to merge, clearing the way for the Wildrose to formally dissolve on February 7, 2020.

  1. ^ "The Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Chief Electoral Officer" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference namechange was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Alberta election pits PC's 'red' versus Wildrose's 'blue' conservatives, experts say". nationalpost.com. 9 April 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  4. ^ "5 things to know about the Wildrose party".
  5. ^ Tom Lansford (2014). Political Handbook of the World 2014. Sage Publications. p. 242. ISBN 978-1-4833-3327-4.
  6. ^ Marshall, Tabitha (April 12, 2019). "Jason Kenney". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 4, 2019. he wanted to unite the province's centre-right parties [...] In July, the PCs merged with the Wildrose Party
  7. ^ "Wildrose Party Constitution" (PDF). Wildrose Party. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-01-15.
  8. ^ Duane Bratt (2012). Canada, the Provinces, and the Global Nuclear Revival: Advocacy Coalitions in Action. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-7735-4068-2.
  9. ^ Kleiss, Karen (April 9, 2012). "Alberta election pits PC's 'red' versus Wildrose's 'blue' conservatives, experts say". National Post. Retrieved 2015-05-23.
  10. ^ "Wildrose drops 'Alliance' from name". CBC News. 26 June 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  11. ^ "9 Wildrose MLAs, including Danielle Smith, cross to Alberta Tories". CBC News, December 17, 2014.
  12. ^ "Parties". Elections Alberta. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  13. ^ "Wildrose-PC members to vote on new united party July 22". edmontonjournal.com. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2018.