Former Green Party leader, Wildrose Party MLA, Independent MLA, and Progressive Conservative nomination candidate Joe Anglin has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate inRimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre months after he publicly mused about running for Derek Fildebrandt’s populist Freedom Conservative Party.
A relentless and fearless advocate with a reputation for being a lone-wolf, Anglin is one of the more colourful characters to have graced Alberta politics over the past decade.
Anglin was elected as MLA Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre in the 2012 election and first served as a Wildrose Party MLA and then as an Independent MLA until his defeat in the 2015 election.
Anglin lost the Wildrose Party nomination to Jason Nixon in 2014 and left the Wildrose Caucus shortly afterward. He attempted to mount a campaign for the PC Party nomination in the district in early 2015 but was denied entry into the race. He then ran as an Independent and earned 11.3 per cent of the vote in the 2015 election.
With service in the United States Marine Corps, the Canadian Coast Guard, and a New Hampshire police service under this belt, Anglin burst on to the political stage in the mid-2000s, leading the Lavesta Area Group in a landowners revolt against the construction of giant electrical transmission lines through rural central Alberta and soon after took over the leadership of the Alberta Greens. He earned the best result ever for a provincial Green candidate in Alberta in 2008, when he earned 22 per cent of the vote in Lacombe-Ponoka.
He left the Greens soon after the election as the party dissolved. He won a seat on Rimbey Town Council and was rumoured to be considering numerous political options, including a potential jump to the then-renewed Alberta Party, but ended up joining the Wildrose Party instead.
Anglin has been on a legal crusade over the past few years as he pursued lawsuits against Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Alberta, alleging abuse of process and challenging financial penalties. Most recently, he asked the RCMP to investigate Nixon for alleged obstruction of justice.
His nomination as a candidate for the Alberta Party is a surprising because of his previous statements about the Freedom Conservative Party, but not surprising because of his history of party-hopping. His return to the world of electoral politics will undoubtably bring a level of entertainment value that will make this race worth watching in the upcoming election.
Anglin will face Alberta Advantage Party candidate Paula Lamoureux, Green Party candidate Jane Drummond, New Democratic Party candidate Jeff Ible and United Conservative Party candidate Jason Nixon.
Non-Joe Anglin related nomination news
- The NDP have nominated Melissa Langmaid in Chestermere-Strathmore. And Kyle Johnston is seeking the NDP nomination in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. Johnston is the former president of the Red Deer & District Labour Council and a member of United Steel Workers Local 1944 Unit 205.
- The Alberta Party has nominated Vincent Rain in Lesser Slave Lake.
- The Liberal Party has nominated Steve Cochan as its candidate in Edmonton-Gold Bar and Ryan Campbell in Calgary-Varsity.
- The Green Party has nominated Stuart Andrews as its candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona.
- Alberta Advantage Party leader Marilyn Burns will run as a candidate in Edmonton-South West.
- The Freedom Conservative Party has nominated Regina Shakirova in Calgary-Bow and Wesley Caldwell in Camrose.
- Eight more candidates affiliated with the Alberta Independence Party have filed their papers to run as Independent candidates:: Buster Malcolm in Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock, Thomas Manasek in Calgary-Fish Creek, Richard Fontaine in Calgary-South East, Christopher McAndrews in Calgary-Varsity, Terris Kolybaba in Edmonton-Manning, Dallas Price in Edmonton-Mill Woods, Dan Irving in Highwood, John McCanna in Lethbridge-East, and Vern Sparks in Livingstone-Macleod.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Six members of the Livingstone-Macleod UCP Constituency Association Board of Directors have walked away from the Board and the Party in recent days.
According to a report by High River Online:
“Board President Maureen Moncrieff says, for her, this has been coming for a while.
“I have not been happy with the UCP Party as a whole. I don’t like the fact that it’s supposed to be “grass roots guaranteed” and that flew out the window a month after it was told.”
She says she’s been growing disillusioned with the Party, and in particular Leader Jason Kenney, who she says promised a grass roots party, but has shown it to be anything but.
“It’s too top down, It’s not what I expected it to be. I came from the Wildrose side and it was all about being grass roots. And I’m really disappointed that there is no grass roots in the UCP Party.”
