Alberta’s Progressive Tories nominate 1st candidate, eye upcoming byelection

Alberta’s Progressive Tories nominate 1st candidate, eye upcoming byelection

Bonnie Critchley is the Progressive Tory candidate in Camrose

Alberta’s fledgling Progressive Tory Party has nominated its first candidate and is looking to run someone in the upcoming byelection in Calgary-Shaw.

The provincial party, led by Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, got its new name late last year after Guthrie took over the dormant Alberta Party. Guthrie is a former UCP MLA and cabinet minister who now sits as a Progressive Tory member in Alberta’s legislature.

Bonnie Critchley, the retired Canadian Armed Forces member who ran against Pierre Poilievre in the August 2025 federal byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot, is the Progressive Tory candidate in the provincial Camrose riding. In last summer’s federal byelection, Poilievre won 81 per cent of the vote while Critchley came second with 9.8 per cent of ballots cast.

In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Critchley said she initially had no plans to seek political office again after making her point about Poilievre running in a riding he had no connection to.

Independent candidate reacts to losing byelection to Poilievre

She said that changed when the UCP government passed a bill forcing an end to last fall’s teachers strike, the first of several bills that invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield them from court challenges.

“The UCP gave themselves the ability to make and get royal assent for a bill in a single day that removed rights of Albertans,” Critichley said.

Critchley said people were asking her to do something about it. After meeting with Guthrie, she decided to “reluctantly” throw her hat in the ring for the 2027 provincial election.

“I would much rather be out riding my horse and doing retired veteran things,” she said.

“But suddenly Canadians’ rights are under fire and that's unconscionable. It's unacceptable and something needs to be done.”

Critchley said a Progressive Tory government would enact new accountability legislation as its first order of business to ensure politicians face real consequences for corruption.

UCP limits political party names

Critchley’s nomination is a big step for a political party that is pretty much starting from scratch.

Last year, Guthrie tried to revive the provincial Progressive Conservative Party several months after he was expelled from the UCP caucus for publicly advocating for a public inquiry into procurement practices at Alberta Health Services.

Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government passed legislation last fall banning words that new political parties could use in their names — “conservative” was one of them.

Guthrie decided to use “tory” instead of “conservative” in the name of the new party.

PC party renamed to Progressive Tory Party of Alberta, ex-UCP MLA announces

Guthrie has been working since January to build political infrastructure like constituency associations. He said the party now has 30 and plans to nominate more candidates in the coming weeks.

He said he wants to field a full slate of candidates in the provincial election that will be held in the fall of 2027. He also plans to have a candidate run in the upcoming — but still unannounced — Calgary-Shaw byelection to replace former UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz, who resigned in May.

“It's very heartening to see actually the high quality and high calibre of people that are coming forward,” Guthrie said.

“It's our intention to compete all across the province in all 91 constituencies. It's a big task, but we're up for it.”

Dave Prisco, director of communications for the UCP, said he believes voters will stick with the governing party in the upcoming votes.

“We firmly believe that Albertans recognize the UCP as the only conservative choice in Alberta, the party lowering taxes, creating jobs and getting pipelines built,” he said in a statement to CBC News.

“We recognize that others have a role to play in the democratic process through their own parties.”

Both Guthrie and Critchley have dismissed complaints that fielding a second conservative party will lead to vote-splitting which could end up benefiting the Opposition NDP.

Guthrie said the creation of the UCP was meant to stop a vote split on the right side of the political spectrum. He argues the UCP leaned hard towards populist Wildrose Party views after its creation, pushing out the more moderate Progressive Conservative members.

He said he believes the current iteration of the UCP is more interested in pursuing wedge issues than being fiscally responsible and taking measures to limit the size of government.

Guthrie said the Progressive Tory Party is also firmly in favour of Alberta remaining a part of Canada. Critchley said this will not harm her political prospects in Camrose, as she believes the majority of voters in the riding disagree with separatists.

“I am in the heartland of the separatist area … but [separatists] are by far a minority,” she said.

“They're a very loud minority, but they're a minority.”

The Progressive Tories’ effect on a provincial election could be that they will take votes from UCP candidates, ultimately benefiting the NDP.

But a former NDP MLA and cabinet minister says she sees the situation differently. Shannon Phillips, who is a partner with the policy advice firm Meredith Boessenkool and Phillips, said she believes the Progressive Tories would likely hurt the NDP more as both parties are occupying the centre of the political spectrum.

“It is not clear to me that there's space for them within the Alberta political system right now, if only because there already is a centrist option and that's the NDP,” Phillips said in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.

“The NDP is not a particularly far-left option. That is why they compete for power in Alberta.”

Phillips said it isn’t clear to her what the Progressive Tories stand for. She said she believes the party needs to have a clear purpose and message that goes beyond not being the UCP, a problem the former Alberta Party also faced.

Phillips said she believes the new party would be better off spending its limited resources on focusing its brand than running a candidate in the Calgary-Shaw byelection. She said working on a brand will give candidates and volunteers a short and clear message to deliver when they meet voters during a campaign.

“Who are you? What do you stand for?” Phillips said.

“Invest in that first because outside of the highly informed bubble, as soon as you go talk to voters, you will find, boy, that there isn't a lot of patience for you, for politicians explaining who they are and what they stand for.”

Guthrie said he’s aware of naysayers who believe his new party won’t have an impact on Alberta’s political landscape. He said things can change quickly in the world of politics.

“Our goal is to take government,” he said. “I think things can swing and change in a hurry. We just need to be ready when they do.”

Critchley said she has spoken to people in her constituency who say they are ashamed they voted for the UCP in the last election.

“People need to be able to vote for who represents them, not against who scares them,” she said.

“My biggest answer is honestly: make the Wildrose fringe again.”

Michelle Bellefontaine covers the Alberta legislature for CBC News in Edmonton. She has also worked as a reporter in the Maritimes and in northern Canada.