Breaking ranks with his own leader, Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt is calling for a merger between his party and the Alberta PCs.
“The NDP are too dangerous, they are too ideological, and too destructive to the future of this province to take chances,” Fildebrandt told a Whitecourt radio station Wednesday evening.
“I’m willing to put everything I’ve accomplished in politics on the line for this.”
Fildebrandt, the MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, said he has heard from his own constituents, from “conservatives of different flavours,” and from Wildrose members across Alberta.
“Frankly, I’ve heard enough,” he said. “I think that people are pretty clear. They want a single conservative option to face against the NDP in the next election.
“In 2019, we’re going to have a chance to elect a new government in this province, and if I have anything to do with it, that new government is going to be a business-friendly government. We’re going to cut taxes, we’re going to cut regulations, we’re going to cut red tape. We’re going to make Alberta open for business again.”
Lynden McBeth, news director at Whitecourt station XM105, said Fildebrandt brought up the merger idea in response to a question from the audience. He was speaking to the Whitecourt Chamber of Commerce.
On Thursday, Fildebrandt declined interview requests from CBC.
“I’m just going to let my comments in Whitecourt stand for now, but I really appreciate the offer,” he said in a text message.
PC leadership candidate Jason Kenney is campaigning on a platform of uniting the Wildrose and PC to fight the NDP.
In October, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean rejected the idea of a merger with the PCs in a speech to the Wildrose annual general meeting in Red Deer..
“That party still remains confused about its values, its principles and what it stands for. And, right now, their party is rife with uncertainty, division and instability,” Jean said, adding it was not time for Wildrose to be distracted by a possible merger and putting the province’s future at risk by not being ready for the next election.
“We’ve already been very successful consolidating conservative-minded Albertans,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Wildrose said Jean would not comment on Fildebrandt’s remarks.
Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Fildebrandt and PC MLA Mike Ellis previously hosted a couple of pub nights to try to bring the two groups together. But those discussions happened before Kenney launched his leadership bid.
“Now it looks like the unification will be around Jason Kenney,” Bratt said. “So it seems to be an endorsement of Kenney as opposed to Brian Jean.”
Bratt pointed out that Fildebrandt and Jean have clashed in the past.
“There’s also been a tension between Fildebrandt and Jean, and observers have thought that Fildebrandt actually wanted Jean’s job.
“I don’t think he wants Jason Kenney’s job. I think he would perfectly happy to work under Jason Kenney. And so that’s the news element.”
Before the legislative session ended this week, Jean removed Fildebrandt from his position as co-chair of the legislature’s public accounts committee.