Unite-the-right issue dominates meeting

The debate over merging the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties into one entity dominated Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper's Town Hall Community Consultation Feb. 21.

About 30 people attended the event, held at the Evergreen Centre.

During his preamble to the meeting, Cooper suggested a number of topics the crowd could discuss: health care, education - even the Electoral Boundaries Commission, which is touring the province getting input on whether or how riding boundaries should be changed for the next election.

But virtually all the questions and observations from the crowd were on the unite-the-right idea.

"This merging, I'm not for it one bit because I think if we merge, we're just going to get one big mess," one audience member said.

"We know what happened years ago and I think if the Wildrose can't do it on its own I don't think to jump into bed with these Conservatives will help one bit."

Cooper sympathized with that thought. But he said there's a lot of concern that if candidates for two right-of-centre parties run, especially in the big cities, that will split the conservative vote, allowing the New Democratic Party to win. Analysts say that's what allowed the NDP to win the 2015 provincial election.

As for the possibility that the merging process could be messy, Cooper said "any time you put two groups of people together it's a bit like cleaning your garage; it's going to be messy until it gets clean."

Besides, he said, "there are inherent risks with doing something and there are inherent risks with doing nothing."

Cooper told the crowd he has surveyed a list of Wildrose supporters and asked them for their thoughts on the idea of uniting the two right-of-centre parties.

He said so far, he has contacted about 100 households of Wildrose supporters and of that group, 90 say there should be a single principled conservative party in the province.

Some audience members expressed concern that if the Wildrose merges with the PCs to form some new conservative party, principles upon which the Wildrose was founded could be thrown out to appeal to supporters of the more centerist PC supporters.

"I think that it depends on who's most involved in the process," Cooper said.

"If those who are passionate about keeping strong principles at the fore of the decision-making, if those who are passionate about ensuring Wildrose members are nominated to run in the next election, then I think a lot of those principles can remain strong in a unified party."

But he said the flip side could also occur; that the party could reflect more of the PC stand on issues if those members are more "passionate" and involved than Wildrose supporters.

One audience member said there are some PC members who would rather support the NDP than the Wildrose Party.

Cooper agreed with that. However, he added, "some of the reason the Progressive Conservatives got in the situation that they were in was because of that very reason."

Cooper told the crowd that if the two parties join to create a new one, it's "critically important" that that happens this year.

"I think it's far too risky to roll over into 2018 when it's very possible that the government might choose to call an early election and there would be significant turmoil if the right of centre was leaderless and it was just a giant mess," he said.

Afterward, Cooper told the Albertan he was not necessarily surprised that the unite-the-right issue dominated the Olds town hall meeting.

"I mean, obviously it is a big issue that a lot of people are talking about. Everywhere I go in the constituency people want to talk about uniting the right," he said.

Cooper said the topics people want to discuss seem to vary, depending where he is in the constituency. He noted that during his first town hall meeting of this tour, held Feb. 14 in Three Hills, jobs and the economy as well as education dominated the discussion, although the unite-the-right question came up there as well.