Smaller political parties hope to break through UCP-NDP dominance in Alberta election

Alberta Liberal Leader John Roggeveen launched his party's provincial election campaign on Sunday in front of a handful of media in the cavernous atrium of a Calgary office building.

Flanked by two candidates, Roggeveen addressed the difficulties his party expects to face during the campaign leading up to the May 29 vote. 

"We don't have the resources that the UCP or the NDP have," he said. 

"No question we've been at a low ebb … up until the last election we had at least one member in the legislature and now we don't."

Trying to break the province's two-party deadlock — Albertans elected 63 UCP and 24 NDP MLAs to the 87-seat assembly in the 2019 election — will be a challenge for the smaller parties.  

The Alberta Liberals were once the province's official opposition. Their numbers have dwindled over the past 15 years to the point where Dr. David Swann was their last elected representative in the legislature from 2015 to 2019. 

Swann didn't run again. Then-leader David Khan was not able to keep the Calgary-Mountain View seat for the Liberals. The centrist Alberta Party, which had four MLAs when the writs were issued for the 2019 election, were also shut out in 2019. 

Since then, both parties have struggled at getting their message out when the political discourse is dominated by the back and forth between the free-enterprise UCP and socially-progressive NDP. 

The Alberta Liberals party have nominated 12 candidates so far. Roggeveen hopes to have as many as 22 by the time the nomination period ends on May 11. 

"We don't have any outlandish expectations, but what we do hope to be able to hold the government to account by getting some members elected," he said. "One would be enough."

Moderate voice

The Alberta Party also hopes to get at least one MLA elected to the provincial legislature after four years in the political wilderness. 

Interest in the centrist party peaked in 2017 after Jason Kenney was elected as leader of the new United Conservative Party. Former Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers and MLAs were spotted among the crowd at the party's AGM in Red Deer late that year. 

Shortly afterwards, party leader Greg Clark stepped down, triggering a leadership race won by former Edmonton mayor and Progressive Conservative health minister Stephen Mandel. 

The party fielded a full slate of 87 candidates in the 2019 election. Not one of them won or kept their seat. Mandel resigned two months later. 

Former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita became leader in 2021. He said the party has been hampered by poor fundraising and the current political climate dominated by the two major political parties. 

The 2023 campaign will be a far more modest effort for the Alberta Party with 18 candidates nominated so far. 

Morishita said politics have become more divisive with the UCP and NDP in the legislature. He said Alberta Party MLAs could provide a more moderate voice and encourage collaboration. 

With polling suggesting the UCP and NDP are running neck and neck, the Alberta Party could play a large role if Albertans elect a minority government, he said. 

"We're under no illusions, we're not running for government," Morishita said.  "We're running to hopefully make a difference in a minority situation and that's what we're concentrating on."

One of the difficulties candidates from smaller parties inevitably face is the fear that a vote for them could take away votes from a larger party that has a better chance at winning government or defeating a disliked incumbent.

That sentiment is heightened with such a close race. Morishita said people should avoid allowing fear to dictate who they vote for. 

"Vote for what you want, vote for where you align and eventually, we'll get the government that we really want," he said. 

Proportional representation

Like Morishita, Green Party Leader Jordan Wilkie is hoping to play a role in a possible minority government.

Wilkie, a firefighter with Edmonton Fire Rescue, is running in Edmonton-Rutherford.  The party has nominated 31 candidates so far. 

Wilkie said Alberta's current two-party legislature is more focused on fighting than collaborating. He said that doesn't enable the solutions needed to solve the challenges faced by the world, including climate change and poverty. 

"At this point we need to demand better from our politicians so that we have a better people creating policy that can change things for Albertans," Wilkie said. 

Wilkie and Morishita said the polarization could be solved by Alberta dropping the first-past-the-post election system and moving to proportional representation which allocates seats based on the proportion of the vote.

Political watchers say this may not be the answer.

Brendan Boyd, an assistant professor in political science at MacEwan University in Edmonton, says the public doesn't like the effects of the current polarization in politics but may not see proportional representation as a solution.

"Proportional representation comes with its own drawbacks," he said. 

"I'm a little bit careful about pushing this forward as sort of a panacea that would solve all of our problems."

The smaller parties are figuring out how to get their message out there. They will rely on social media, and face-to-face contact at voters' doors. 

Donna Wilson, a retired professor of nursing at the University of Alberta, is launching her third run for the Alberta Liberals, this time in Edmonton-Whitemud. 

Wilson ran in the 2014 byelection in Edmonton-Riverview and again in 2015. 

After sitting out the 2019 election, the current state of Alberta political discourse compelled her to run again. 

"We need more than two political parties slinging mud at each other," Wilson said. "The focus is so much on their power and politics. I think they've lost sight of what a government is supposed to do."

Other parties running candidates in this election are: the Buffalo Party, the Independence Party, the Wildrose Independence Party, Advantage Party of Alberta, the Communist Party and the Pro-Life Alberta Party.