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A former Progressive Conservative MLA is now the acting leader of the Alberta Party.

Jacquie Fenske assumed the leadership role temporarily after the party’s board approached her.

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“I’m excited to be leading the Alberta Party and helping the party grow,” Fenske said in a Monday press release.

Although nine per cent of voters marked ballots for Alberta Party candidates during the April 2019 provincial election, the centrist party was shut out of the legislature.

The party has been without a figurehead since former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel resigned as party leader in June 2019.

Fenske was a teacher and a Strathcona County councillor for 13 years before her election as the PC MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville in 2012. In 2015, she lost the seat to the NDP’s Jessica Littlewood.

After the PC and Wildrose parties merged in 2017 to form the United Conservative Party, some former progressive conservatives shifted their allegiances to the Alberta Party.

Among them were Mandel, a former PC health minister, and Rick Fraser, who sat as an independent before joining the Alberta Party in 2018.

A race for a permanent Alberta Party leader could happen as early as this September or as late as September 2021, spokeswoman Jennifer Metituk said in an email. Fenske is advocating for an earlier race, she said.

jfrench@postmedia.com