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A new provincial political party that needs signatures to become registered is encouraging its members to collect them by consciously avoiding any mention of the party’s name or what the party stands for, and a rival party is calling the signature drive “deceptive.”

The Wildrose Party, a small-c conservative party launched in June, needs over 6,000 signatures to be officially registered with the government. “The Wildrose Party is really made up of a bunch of disenfranchised former (Progressive Conservatives),” says president Rob James, who calls the Conservatives “significantly left (of centre).” Currently, the Wildrose Party has about 4,000 signatures.

In a video on the party’s website, staff advise party members against talking about or even mentioning the party when collecting signatures. “It’s extremely weird,” says Paul Hinman, leader of the rival Alberta Alliance party. “I’m just flabbergasted at the way they’re doing it.”

On the Wildrose video, vice-president of membership Sharon Maclise instructs members on how to collect signatures using a method with “an 80 to 90 per cent effective rate.” To demonstrate, she does a mock cold-call at the door of party vice-president of communications Link Byfield. She begins by telling Byfield that she’s “registering a new political party here in Alberta.” When Byfield asks Maclise what the party stands for, she replies: “I can stand here at the door and tell you all about what the party stands for, and it really doesn’t do us — you and I — any good at this point. We’re just still trying to get the party registered.”

The video reminds members they’re not selling memberships — “you certainly won’t be able to do that,” says Byfield — and instructs members to focus on apartment buildings instead of residential streets, because apartments generally have younger residents. “Younger people are more open to things,” says Maclise on the video. “They’re more inviting. Sometimes as we get older we get a little more crotchety and difficult.” She then gives suggestions on how to get access to locked apartment buildings.

Hinman says that when his party collected its registration signatures in 2002, members informed signatories of the party’s political position before they signed. “That’s what we promoted ourselves on,” he says. “It was, ‘Hey, I’m Paul Hinman. We’re trying to start a new party here in the province…. We think that we need an alternative on the right. Would you mind signing so we can start our party?’” The Wildrose approach is “underhanded” and “deceptive,” he says. “I don’t think you should be able to gather signatures if people don’t know.”

However, Ried Zittlau, director of elections finance for Elections Alberta, says that while the Wildrose Party’s strategy of avoiding mention of the party’s political position is “unusual,” it’s not breaking any rules. “They don’t have to discuss their values, beliefs, mission, vision and things like that (at the door),” says Zittlau. “The petition basically says, ‘Are you in agreement with us becoming a registered political party? Whether they concur with their beliefs or not is secondary.”

James says the video was made several months before the party’s first annual general meeting in late October, where policies were approved by party members. “We’re in a founding state, and the reality is until the policies are adopted, there are no policies,” says James. “So it’s very difficult for somebody to start talking about what the party is when they don’t know.” It’s also too time consuming to talk politics when collecting signatures, James says. “If you’re out looking for signatures and you start talking about the policies of the party and what the party stands for, it becomes a five- or 10-minute conversation as opposed to a 30-second conversation,” he says.

The policies approved by the party call for the federal government to “stop spending money in provincial areas of jurisdiction,” including health care, education and social services. It also wants Alberta to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and create its own plan.

“It was really an outstanding group that got together (at the AGM),” says James. “What really impressed me was the moderate nature of the folks in the room. These are everyday Albertans.” The party decided against pushing for a ban on abortion and gay marriage, which were two of the policy options up for debate. “An awful lot of what someone might characterize as extreme views were clearly not adopted by the party.”

However, not everyone believes the party is as moderate as it claims. “They’re people so far to the right they wouldn’t eat leftovers,” says Bruce Foster, chair of policy studies at Mount Royal College. “Basically, it’s Cletus and the slack-jawed yokels coming for a party.” He calls the Wildrose Party a “fringe” party that will likely “go nowhere,” like the Separation Party of Alberta and the Alberta Alliance. “(These parties) pop up like dandelions,” says Foster. “It’s the usual gang of suspects, and it’s usually got a Byfield in there somewhere.”