Described as a, “small but mighty group,” 15 people turned up for the new Freedom Conservative Party’s (FCP) Chestermere-Strathmore Constituency Association founding meeting Sept. 11 at Camp Chestermere.
“Our party is starting right here. This is the capital of the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta,” said FCP Interim Leader and Chestermere-Strathmore candidate Derek Fildebrandt in his speech to the attendees.
Fildebrandt likened the founding of the constituency association to when he first joined and ran for the former Wildrose party in Strathmore-Brooks.
“All we needed was a few good men,” he said, “And then we built a constituency association that went from that small little group into a successful strong constituency association.”
Fildebrandt credits his volunteers for creating the winning team that helped him get elected to the Alberta legislature.
He plans to bring that same work ethic that brought success to the Wildrose when he contests the next provincial election in the Chestermere-Strathmore constituency.
“We’re not taking things for granted we are going to build an organization here that can win Chestermere-Strathmore,” he said.
“I think we’ve got a really good team,” said Fildebrandt.
Chestermere-Strathmore is a new constituency created from area’s formerly in the Chestermere-Rocky View and Strathmore Brooks constituencies.
Because of the creation of the new electoral district, voters in Chestermere-Strathmore will see the rare instance of two sitting MLA’s running against each other.
Chestermere’s current MLA Leela Aheer will be representing the United Conservative party in the next election.
Having been barred from running for the UCP after a series of political and legal scandals there’s no love lost between Fildebrandt and the UCP.
Fildebrandt said that his departure from the UCP has, “allowed me to take off the blinders of blind partisanship.”
“This allows me to see the moral corruption and decay that has set in…the UCP,” he said.
Fildebrandt told the meeting attendees that the FCP needs to be more than just what it stands against.
“We need to be for something,” he said.
Fildebrandt said that the party’s policies and constitution will be written and voted on by its member at the founding convention in October.
“Our party consists of conservatives, libertarians and Alberta patriots.
“We won’t necessarily agree on everything with the same enthusiasm, but our coalition is entirely consistent, it believes in the same things,” said Fildebrandt.
“And I believe we represent where the vast majority of Albertans are right now,” he said.
Fildebrandt views the founding of the FCP as part of a, “revolt brewing in the conservative movement in this country right now.”
Supporting the idea of a revolt in the conservative movement has been Maxime Bernier’s break from the Conservative Party of Canada to found his own party, the People’s Party of Canada.
Fildebrandt believes that the FCP and People’s party with closely align in their beliefs and policies.
Fildebrandt also blames the conservative establishment for the division which led to the formation of the FCP.
“I did not leave the UCP, the UCP left me,” he said.
Fildebrandt said his goal in the next election is to see a strong FCP caucus elected that will hold the balance of power in the legislature.
“I hope we will hold the balance of power and ensure that…we are doing a squealing 180 to completely eliminate and destroy the legacy of the NDP in Alberta forever,” he said.
The start of the long road to reach that goal came with the founding of the Chestermere-Strathmore Constituency Association.
Rona Klemmensen was elected president of the association.
Klemmensen has previously served as the President of the Strathmore-Brooks Wildrose and UCP constituency associations.
She is joined by 9 other directors on the Chestermere-Strathmore board.
The FCP founding convention will be held at Camp Chestermere on Oct. 20.
