As simple as that vision sounds, the practical building of the model was herculean. For about one year, Rob and Marilyn met with individuals and small groups around Alberta, trying to find a path for what has become known as Alberta’s grassroots movement. They called together members from the Progressive Conservative, Alberta Alliance and Social Credit Parties as well as Albertans who believed that Alberta should remove itself from Canada.

At long last, in June 2007, about one hundred people met in a Red Deer, Alberta hotel. They decided to start a new political party and chose the name ‘Wildrose Party” for the movement.

This Wildrose Party movement; however, did not become a registered political Party. Instead, this fledgling grassroots movement merged with the registered Alberta Alliance Party, taking the name “Wildrose Alliance Party”, but the vision of a member-owned Party lived on. Paul Hinman became the first Leader of this newly formed Party.

Danielle Smith followed Paul Hinman as Leader of this movement. The Wildrose Alliance Party dropped the name “Alliance” and simply became the “Wildrose Party”. The Wildrose Party flourished across Alberta as members grasped onto the idea of a member-owned Party. Members of the Legislative Assembly were elected across Alberta, but this hope was dashed when Danielle Smith infamously crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservatives,
with all but four Wildrose Party MLA’s choosing to move with her.

Wildrose Party members elected Brian Jean as the new Leader in the spring of 2015, with Drew Barnes as a formidable contender. Despite Wildrose Party members voting against merging with another political party at the fall 2015 Annual General Meeting, Brian Jean announced that the Wildrose
Party had its “dancing shoes” on, and began to work at tearing down the Wildrose Party. He and other prominent Wildrose Party members secretly formed two Societies in the late fall of 2015 to start a different political party, all unknown to the majority of Wildrose Party members.

Jason Kenney assumed the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party and he and Brian Jean worked closely to dismantle both the Progressive Conservative and the member-owned Wildrose Party with a dubious merge vote to form the United Conservative Party, using the pretext of uniting to defeat the NDP government.

A handful of loyal Wildrose Party members actively opposed the merge, including Sharon Maclise, David Inscho, Ed Goodliffe, Wes Petterson and Marilyn Burns. They let it be known in Alberta’s media and broadly, that if this merge occurred, they would initiate a renewed member-owned Party effort immediately.

One week after the UCP merge vote, about thirty-five people met in Nisku, Alberta and chose the name “Alberta Advantage Party” for the continuing member-owned Party movement. These members adopted the Wildrose Party’s Constitution and Policies and began to plug the holes in the Constitution that allowed Brian Jean and his federalist counterparts to demolish the Wildrose Party.

Starting a new political Party in Alberta is a monumental task. The members registered the name “Alberta Advantage Party” (“AAP”) with Elections Alberta and chose Marilyn Burns as this movement’s first Leader. In the February 2018 Leadership convention, she let it be known that she would be begging God for help to collect the signatures. Hardworking members began the difficult task of collecting about 8,600 signatures from Albertans who wanted to see another member-owned political Party in Alberta. This challenging task was accomplished in early November 2018.

The courageous and determined AAP members had worked to exhaustion to collect the signatures, and they met the April 2019 Provincial election head-on with twenty-seven (27) excellent pioneer candidates.

On September 29, 2020, Marilyn Burns stepped down as Leader to allow a fresh Leadership vote. Lenard Biscope became the Interim Leader until November 15, 2021 when Marilyn Burns again became the Leader.

The Alberta Advantage Party’s vision is to allow Albertans to chart our own destiny. This vision is alive and growing.  

We invite you to become part of this vision and history.