Airdrie MLA Peter Guthrie launched the Progressive Tory Party Thursday night in Calgary. <\/p>\n
In just a matter of a year, the MLA for Airdrie-Cochrane went from sitting in the UCP government caucus, then as an independent, to leading and launching a new political party in Alberta.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been an easy road for Peter Guthrie, but Thursday he and newly formed Progressive Tory Party of Alberta held a launch party in Calgary<\/p>\n
Supporters gathered at the BMO Centre for the party\u2019s formal unveiling. A similar event was held in Edmonton last month.<\/p>\n
Guthrie was a member of the Smith government\u2019s caucus, but was expelled last April after criticizing the province\u2019s handling of the health contract controversy and aligning with the opposition on a public inquiry motion.<\/p>\n
Guthrie said his party is the alternative for Alberta conservatives whose values no longer align with the direction of the UCP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had every obstacle possible put in front of us,\u201d Guthrie said Thursday, \u201cbut there is a desire for that Progressive Conservative movement to be back \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of people that feel politically homeless in this province. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see it there tonight,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of energy, and it\u2019s building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guthrie said his party\u2019s key pillars are fiscal responsibility, accountability, limited government, Alberta remaining a part of Canada, and evidence-based decisions.<\/p>\n
With Albertans expected to head to the polls in 2027, Guthrie says his party wants representation in all 87 ridings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airdrie MLA Peter Guthrie launched the Progressive Tory Party Thursday night in Calgary. In just a matter of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[712,49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-580121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-calgary","11":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}