Representative Party of Alberta

The Representative Party of Alberta was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada formed by Raymond Speaker in 1984. The party was right of center, conservative in ideology and considered a modern version of Social Credit without the monetary reforms.

Roots of the Party

Prior to the 1982 Alberta election, Raymond Speaker and Walt Buck left the Alberta Social Credit Party and ran as Independents, despite being elected successfully to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta they were denied Official Opposition status by the Speaker of Legislature and funding reserved for political parties.

The party was created in response to this decision, and Raymond Speaker was elected leader in November of that year.

Collapse of the Alberta Political Alliance

In 1985 the Social Credit Party along with the Western Canada Concept and Heritage Party of Alberta began a merger movement that resulted in the Alberta Alliance Political Association.

The merger was short lived and broke apart, collapsing the parties involved. many candidates and supporters moved to support the Representative Party which became the primary right wing alternative party for that election.

1986 general election

In the provincial election of 1986, the Representative Party ran 46 candidates in Alberta’s 79 ridings, but only its two founding MLAs were elected. The party received 36,656 votes, or 5.14% of the popular vote.

The final years of the party

After marginal success of the party in the 1986 election, Walt Buck later retired and Raymond Speaker ended up crossing the floor to the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. The Representative party remained registered but did not run candidates in the 1989 election.It was disbanded a short time later [ [http://www.electionsalberta.ab.ca/2004rpt3.pdf Members elected to the 26th Legislative Assembly: Elections Alberta] ]

References

ee also

*Representative Party of Ontario
*List of Alberta political parties