A former MLA with a history of rankling conservative colleagues says Alberta voters need a new federal movement that focuses solely on Alberta.
Drew Barnes retired from being an MLA as an independent in 2023 after serving three terms in the southeast Alberta riding of Cypress as a Wildrose and United Conservative member.
This week he announced that he is attempting to form the “Alberta Now” federal party to solely promote provincial autonomy and the positions of conservative Albertans.
“It’s decades where Alberta’s voice has not been heard loud enough in Ottawa,” he told CBC News, saying his new party would only run candidates in Alberta and operate similar to how the Bloc Quebecois does currently or the early Reform Party did.
“It’s very feasible,” said Barnes. “The Reform Party, with the idea of the West wants in … were a strong voice for the West. When they decided to embrace the rest of Canada by merging with the (then Progressive) Conservatives, we lost our Western voice.”
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Duane Bratt, a political science professor with Calgary’s Mount Royal University, says the timing aligns with Albertans considering a sovereignty referendum. And that opens up possibilities, but it’s “hard” to create a viable new party, he said.
“There’s room for it, especially in the atmosphere of a separation referendum, but people have tried this before,” said Bratt, citing the Maverick Party that formed ahead of the 2021 federal election as a right-leaning, Western-centric option for voters.
That party dissolved early last year.
“Alberta has a history of doing that [creating new parties, but] most of these new parties go absolutely nowhere. But every once in a while, like the Wildrose Party, like the Reform Party, they capture something, and is the separatism movement part of that?”
Bratt said it could appeal to Alberta-based CPC supporters who believe the party is taking too soft a stance in Alberta’s upcoming provincial referendum on moving to a formal vote to separate.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party has campaigned on the slogan “a stronger Alberta within a united Canada” — very close to the provincial United Conservative talking points.
That, said Barnes, shows the CPC’s need to draw support in central or eastern Canada to win enough seats to form government.
“[Alberta Now] is not aimed at anyone other than it’s here to help Albertans,” he said. “The idea is to be the voice of Alberta in Ottawa and to support what’s best for Alberta.”
Barnes announced the project at an economics discussion, titled “Capitalism and Morality,” in Calgary last weekend, and told CBC News this week he’s in discussions with potential candidates and plans to register the party this fall.
He would like to contest any byelections before the next general election.
Retired Medicine Hat College instructor Jim Groom has observed politics in the region for years and said the road to success is narrow.
Barnes is well known in hard-line conservative circles, but also has his detractors, said Groom.
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The real estate agent and land developer was elected twice as a MLA under the Wildrose banner, and placed second in a leadership race prior to the 2015 election. After joining the UCP for the 2019 election, he was removed from caucus after criticizing then-leader Jason Kenney.
He did not seek re-election in 2023. Last year, he placed second in the race to become Medicine Hat’s mayor.
Depending on candidates the new party puts forth, Groom says he feels the difference for most voters might not be obvious.
“I don’t really see much to distinguish [a new party] from the Conservative Party,” said Groom.
“His platform seems to be capitalism, small government. It’s very, very similar to the Conservative Party of Canada’s position.”
Since the BQ dilutes the Liberal Party brand in Quebec, it therefore affects national election results, Groom said, adding the same would be likely in Alberta for the Conservatives.
In the 2025 federal election, most Conservative candidates outside of major cities in Alberta secured seats with two-thirds to three-quarters of the votes cast.
Across all of the province’s 37 races, only six CPC candidates received less than 50 per cent support, with three of them winning elections and three losing.
Barnes rejected the notion that his new party might weaken the CPC by splitting the conservative vote.
“I would hope not,” he said. “We just want to run in Alberta. We just want to focus on these 37 seats. And the Conservatives would be the second-best alternative.”
