By rdnewsNOW staff

Alberta's Progressive Future Launches

Alberta’s Progressive Future says it’s time to explore rebranding Alberta NDP

Nov 16, 2023 | 1:09 PM

Alberta’s Progressive Future (APF) is described by its founders as an organization created by members of the progressive movement in response to the results of the 2023 Alberta General Election.

APF officials say they believe their first goal needs to be laying the groundwork to ensure a progressive party can defeat the UCP in the next election. To that end, APF says they believe it is time for the Alberta NDP to begin exploring the potential benefits of a name change for the party.

“While the Alberta NDP is already completely autonomous from the federal party, sharing the same name as the federal party creates confusion for the average Alberta voter. This confusion is very effectively exploited by the UCP and will continue to be for as long as the provincial party has the same name as the federal NDP,” explains APF director Brian Malkinson.

APF officials say Janet Brown Opinion Research carried out polling on behalf of APF from Sept. 13-26, 2023, with the results highlighting a few key points:

• 50 per cent of respondents think that the federal NDP either has some or a great deal of influence on the provincial NDP.
• 12 per cent of respondents could vote for the Alberta NDP but do not support the party at this time
• An additional 12 per cent of respondents are not likely to vote for the Alberta NDP but would vote for another centre or centre-left party.
• Based on this poll, the Alberta NDP could be missing out on as many 24 per cent of voters that are within the party’s voter universe.

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While the results of this poll do not conclusively prove that a rebranding of the Alberta NDP would necessarily lead to more votes for the party, APF officials note, it does show there are many people in the Alberta NDP’s voter universe that did not support the party in the recent election.

At the same time, APF says the polling shows that about half of all voters have an incorrect assumption about the level of influence the federal NDP has on the policy of the Alberta NDP. Considering that support for the federal NDP has been consistently low with about 20 per cent support in Alberta, APF suggests the assumed influence from the federal NDP on the provincial NDP may well be a considerable millstone.

It is the intension of APF, officials point out, to further explore the reasons why so many ‘accessible voters’ chose not to vote for the Alberta NDP. APF says they also aim to explore the potential impact of a rebranding of the Alberta NDP and how that may change voter behaviour.

Officials say APF’s intention to explore the possibility of a name change is supported by a number of candidates in target seats in the recent 2023 election including:

• Taneen Rudyk (Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville)
• Michelle Baer (Red Deer-South)
• Rosman Valencia (Calgary-East)
• Michael Lisboa-Smith (Calgary-North West)
• Andrew Stewart (Calgary-Hays)
• David Cloutier (Calgary-Shaw)

“Having voters believe that the Alberta NDP’s policy is somehow written in Ottawa rather than right here in Alberta is especially unhelpful to candidates outside of the big cities,” adds Malkinson. “The party needs to support its rural candidates by at least considering what impacts a name change could have. I certainly believe voters would be more receptive to our party’s policy if it’s clear there is absolutely zero influence from anyone in Ottawa.”

APF says it is calling on all progressive Albertans who are interested in this conversation to visit www.albertasprogressivefuture.ca to donate and sign up to the mailing list for updates on opportunities to participate in this important discussion.

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