What’s in a name? A lot, apparently, if the name is PC
By Lethbridge Herald on July 29, 2025.
Scott Sakatch
Herald Editor
NOTE TO READERS: In the interests of full disclosure, I campaigned for the provincial Progressive Conservatives in three elections between 2008-2015, after I had left journalism.
For a long time, Alberta’s provincial government has made a habit of blaming its predecessors for problems, even though the same party – the Progressive Conservatives – was in power for the better part of a generation. Ralph Klein blamed Don Getty, Ed Stelmach blamed Ralph Klein, Alison Redford blamed Ed Stelmach, and Jim Prentice blamed Alison Redford.
It was never direct finger-pointing, of course, because that’s not politically expedient, but policies were routinely reversed, plans by previous premiers were shelved and replaced by entirely new ones, ad infinitum. “That wasn’t us,” the premier and cabinet would assure Albertans. “That was the ‘other’ government.”
Then, of course, came the NDP’s brief time in power, making that party the whipping boy for the newly formed United Conservative Party on every issue under the sun. After the opposition PC and Wildrose parties amalgamated to become the UCP in 2017, everything bad was the NDP’s fault. The validity of that is very much open to debate, of course, but it’s the nature of politicians to blame the other guy.
There was a honeymoon phase after the UCP was elected in 2019 under Jason Kenney. The former PCs and Wildrosers all smiled and put on a public show of unity.
But once Kenney was ousted and replaced by Danielle Smith, it wasn’t long before the PCs were in the government’s crosshairs once more. The most visible, and astounding, example of this was when Ed Stelmach stood at a podium in 2023 and said, essentially, that Alberta Health Services – which he helped created in 2008, arguably his only legacy as premier – wasn’t working and needed to be replaced. In other words, “Hey everybody, I screwed this up royally. Thank goodness this new government is here to right my wrongs.”
It didn’t end there. Smith has also thrown previous PC governments (which she once crossed the floor to join, let’s not forget) under the bus over the Heritage Trust Fund. She flat-out accused decades worth of conservatives of mismanaging Alberta’s “rainy day” fund, to the point where only she and the UCP can possibly rescue it.
All of this is politics as usual, of course. Other than the generational government aspect, the same thing has happened in every other province: blame the previous guy. Down south, Donald Trump has taken this to its most ridiculous extreme. It’s just the nature of the beast.
But there’s a new twist here in the form of Peter Guthrie and Sam Sinclair, the former MLAs who were ousted from the UCP caucus for demanding answers from their government on the “Corrupt Care” scandal. The pair, who now sit in the Legislature as independents, were looking to resurrect the PC name and resurrect the party as a separate entity from the UCP. They had high hopes of using that brand to woo conservative voters with a more moderate option that wasn’t obsessed with “sovereignty” and fighting with the federal government.
The UCP immediately sent them a cease and desist letter, saying the PC brand was the property of the UCP. Undeterred, Guthrie and Sinclair deftly pivoted toward the Alberta Party, which may result in that party having an actual identity for the first time in its 40-year history.
So the question I have is this: if the PCs were so inept, so useless as a government, why cling to the brand? Clearly the UCP is not the PC party of old, so why not let its former members take up the name, if that’s where they align politically?
Could it possibly be because Smith and her cronies are afraid that a resurrected PC party might be able to draw a significant number of conservative voters away from the UCP? Voters who don’t want to see their chaotic government careen off a right-wing cliff of separatism and U.S.-style political pugilism?
All I know is that the following months will be very interesting as we watch what happens with an Alberta Party that offers an actual ideological platform and some recognizable names. And the results of Alberta’s next provincial election could be far different from any in the province’s history.
15-14
Yes ! They are afraid conservative voters will jump the UPC ship … I’m definitely one ! I hate that I have to hold my nose and vote NDP as the only viable alternative to the corrupt, inept, pandering to the crazies UCP .
Given Rachel Notley moved the ANDP closer to the center, I’m puzzled by the fact you had to “hold your nose” to vote NDP – I’ll assume, In the last election. Nevertheless, I say “Yes !” with you vis a vis Sakatch’s op-ed.