Striving to Become a Strong & Free Nation of Alberta

Wildrose Party

Let’s start with the Wildrose Party. Named after the provincial flower, the Wildrose Alliance Party was formed on 19 January 2008 from the merger of two small conservative groups — the Wildrose Party of Alberta and the Alberta Alliance Party — by conservatives unhappy with the Alberta Progressive Conservative (PC) Party’s spending and federalism. The party’s first leader was Paul Hinman, previously elected to the Alberta legislature in 2004 under the Alberta Alliance Party banner.

Hinman was defeated, however, in the 2008 election, and in April 2009 announced he would step down as leader. In September 2009, Hinman won a by-election in a Calgary riding. This was followed in October by the election of Danielle Smith, a former member of the provincial Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, as party leader.

In December 2014, Smith and eight other Wildrose MLAs — including Rob Anderson (Airdrie), her current Chief of Staff, and Bruce McAllister (Chestermere–Rocky View), who currently serves as the Executive Director of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office — crossed the floor to join Jim Prentice’s PCs in a surprise “unification”, arguing alignment of values. The defections, one of the most stunning political betrayals in Canadian history, left Wildrose with only five seats in the legislature, and an uncertain future.

Effective February 3, 2015, the party’s registered name was changed from Wildrose Alliance Party to Wildrose Party.

With Smith’s defection, Paul Hinman was once again the leader of the Wildrose Party. A leadership election was organized to choose a new leader, and former federal MP Brian Jean was elected party leader on March 28, 2015.

Premier Jim Prentice called a provincial election for May 5, 2015, which resulted in an upset victory by the Alberta New Democratic Party under Rachel Notley, returning an NDP majority government. Most of the defectors (including Smith) lost their seats or nominations in 2015. The remnant Wildrose Party, under Brian Jean, rebounded as Official Opposition after the NDP’s 2015 victory ended decades of PC rule.

In 2017, under Brian Jean, Wildrose members and the PCs voted to merge into the United Conservative Party (led by Jason Kenney), which formed the government in 2019. The original Wildrose entity effectively dissolved as a result. Noteworthy that through such a merger, the Wildrose Party’s paramount loyalty to the wild rose, Alberta, and not to the maple leaf, Canada, was diminished. It is interesting that, likewise, the heart and soul of the federal Reform Party was lost with its merger together with the federal Progressive Conservative Party.

Jason Kenney has since, like Danielle Smith, argued that ‘a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada’ was adopted as a party principle at the founding convention in May 2018. However, that was not the case, as is evident by the absence of such a principle on page 3 of the Policy Declaration document, which recorded the resolutions that the membership had adopted at the Founding General Meeting held May 4 to 6, 2018 in Red Deer.

Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta

The Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta (WIPA), advocating for Alberta sovereignty and independence, emerged from the Wexit Alberta movement, which gained momentum after the October 2019 federal election in which Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were re-elected with minimal Alberta support. Wexit held large rallies and reserved a party name with Elections Alberta. On April 27, 2020, Wexit Alberta and the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta announced a merger; members of both approved it on June 29, 2020. The party was officially registered with Elections Alberta on July 23, 2020. The name deliberately evoked the earlier Wildrose Party, which had merged into the United Conservative Party in 2017.

Paul Hinman — former MLA and leader of the Alberta Alliance and the original Wildrose Alliance — was named interim leader in July 2020 and confirmed as leader in July 2021 after a founding convention. Membership was reported around 8,000 in 2021. Although gaining momentum, the party was subsequently destroyed by the party’s authoritarian Board of Directors at the 2022 AGM, with its refusal to give authority to the party’s members, declaring that its agenda for the AGM could not be amended. The party subsequently lost the support of the party’s Constituency Presidents and its membership, decimating it to a shell of its former times.

Wildrose Loyalty Coalition

As a result of that fiasco generated by WIPA’s rogue Board of Directors, Paul Hinman and a group of patriotic supporters of the Alberta independence movement set out to create a new Alberta independence party by endorsing a candidate in at least half of the 87 electoral ridings in the May 2023 provincial election.

The Wildrose Loyalty Coalition (WLC) officially became a registered political party with Elections Alberta on May 1, 2023 for those who have been loyal to our Wildrose roots, dedicated to the wild rose and not the maple leaf, stretching back to January 2008 — giving Albertans a choice and a new voice. The name and positioning emphasize loyalty to what supporters see as original Wildrose principles of grassroots accountability, Alberta-first policies, and resistance to federal overreach.

In an interview with CTV’s Vassy Kapelos on May 7, 2025, Danielle Smith made clear her attitude and approach with respect to Alberta independence.

Given that Smith was clear that she didn’t want a referendum on independence to happen, saying, My job is to make sure it doesn’t get to yes, she was asked if it wasn’t easier to quell separatism by taking it off the table. Smith responded:

If there isn’t an outlet, it creates a new party.

Premier Danielle Smith, May 2025

Thereby, Smith made clear why she has played the independence movement along, dangling a carrot and still dangling a carrot, so that a party dedicated to independence would not emerge.

Well, we’re here!