The Wildrose Party will remain the Official Opposition party in the Alberta Legislature, speaker Gene Zwozdesky said.
The party was left with five MLAs after leader Danielle Smith and eight other caucus members defected to the governing Progressive Conservatives last week.
The speaker had to make a ruling, because the Liberals also have five MLAs.
Zwozdesky consulted with other speakers and relied on past rulings from other Canadian Legislatures to come to his decision. He said two rulings set precedent in favour of the incumbent party in a tie situation.
Zwozdesky confirmed that there was also talk of a coalition — not between parties, but among members.
“What I do know is that there was one independent member who has since gone public indicating that he was reviewing the possibility of something akin to not a coalition so much as a caucusing with,” he said.
