Episode #53: Can Alberta's UCP stay united?

When the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties merged to form the United Conservative Party of Alberta, it was always going to be an open question whether the new entity could remain as united as its name suggested.

The rise of the right-wing, populist Wildrose Party was a reaction to the growing anger and fatigue with the PCs, who governed Alberta for an uninterrupted period stretching from 1971 to 2015. But after the PCs were booted from office, the two rival parties became aligned in their opposition to Rachel Notley’s NDP government.

Merged and under the leadership of Jason Kenney, the UCP defeated the NDP in 2019. Mission accomplished. But little more than three years later, Kenney is on his way out as leader and the party is already at a crossroads as it tries to find his replacement and avoid defeat in next spring’s election.

The Writ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

On this week’s episode of The Writ Podcast, I’m joined by Elise von Scheel, CBC politics reporter in Alberta, to break down who is in the running to lead the United Conservative Party and what happened in Wednesday’s leadership debate in Medicine Hat.

As always, in addition to listening to the episode in your inbox, at TheWrit.ca or on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, you can also watch this discussion on YouTube.

To watch past discussions and to be notified of new videos being posted, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel here.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thewrit.ca/subscribe