The Representative Party of Alberta (first registered as the Political Alternative Association, and known as the Alternative Government Movement prior to registration in 1984) was a provincial political party in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada formed by former

Alberta Social Credit Party Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement w ...

parliamentary leader Raymond Speaker in 1984. The party was

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

in ideology, and considered a modern version of the

Canadian social credit movement The Canadian social credit movement is a political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. Its supporters were colloquially known as Socreds in English and créditistes in French. It gained popularity and its ...

without the

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

monetary reform policy.

History

Foundation

Prior to the 1982 Alberta provincial election, Speaker and another longtime

Socred MLA,

Walt Buck Walter Alexander Buck (December 16, 1930 – March 14, 2013) was a provincial politician and dentist from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) from 1967 to 1989. During his time in office he served i ...

, left the party and ran as Independents due to a collapse of their party and problems with organisation and leadership. The two MLAs were successfully returned as Independents to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

. After election they tried to form the official opposition over but were denied by the Speaker of the Assembly who gave the two-member

Alberta New Democratic Party The Alberta New Democratic Party (french: Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Alberta), commonly shortened to Alberta's NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. It is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Demo ...

the official opposition status. After being denied party funding, Speaker and Buck floated the idea for a new political party in 1982. The two MLAs set about trying to create a new party which began taking root in the spring of 1984. They began holding meetings across the province which they promoted under the name Alternate Government Movement. The party also hired

Preston Manning Ernest Preston Manning (born June 10, 1942) is a Canadian retired politician. He was the founder and the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance in 2000 which in tur ...

as a political consultant to present draft policies at its founding meetings. The founding convention for the party was held on 23 and 24 November in

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

. The party selected a board of directors and elected Ray Speaker as leader by acclamation. It also selected the name Representative Party of Alberta from four options. The other three options were United Party, Free Democratic Party and the Free Citizens Alliance Party. The paperwork submitted to

Elections Alberta Elections Alberta is an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta responsible for administering provincial elections, by-elections, referendums within the province. This is in accordance with the Alberta Election Act ...

and petitions of registration that had started before the convention were under the Political Alternative Association name. The party planned to submit a request to change the name as soon as registration was accepted by

. On 7 January 1985 Elections Alberta accepted the petition after it collected the signatures of over 4500 Alberta electors.

Collapse of the Alberta Political Alliance

In 1985 the Social Credit Party, the

Western Canada Concept The Western Canada Concept was a Western Canada, Western Canadian federal political party founded in 1980 to promote the separation of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories ...

and Heritage Party of Alberta began a merger movement that resulted in the Alberta Alliance Political Association. The merger was short-lived and broke apart, collapsing the parties involved. Many candidates and supporters moved to support the Representative Party which became the primary right-wing alternative party for that election.

1986 provincial election

In the 1986 provincial election, the Representative Party ran 46 candidates in Alberta’s 83 ridings, but only its two founding MLAs were elected. The party received 36,656 votes, or 5.1% of the popular vote.

The final years of the party

After marginal success of the party in the 1986 election, Walt Buck retired and Raymond Speaker ended up crossing the floor to the

Alberta Progressive Conservative Party The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (often referred to colloquially as Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta) was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta that existed from 1905 to 2020. The party ...

. The Representative Party remained registered but did not run candidates in the 1989 election. It was disbanded a short time later Members elected to the 26th Legislative Assembly: Elections Alberta
/ref>

History

Foundation

Collapse of the Alberta Political Alliance

1986 provincial election

The final years of the party

References

See also