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Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel says he plans to appeal to the provincial government for funding after his party won nine per cent of the popular vote in the recent election.

On April 16, the Alberta Party received just shy of 172,000 ballots in a heated race that saw the UCP sweep to a majority government. The UCP earned nearly 55 per cent of the vote compared to the NDP’s 33 per cent.

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“When you’re a smaller party you have less people, less resources in order to represent the public,” Mandel said in a Friday interview. “We deserve to have some form of government funding in order to allow us to represent those people (who voted for the Alberta Party).”

He said he plans to raise the issue at a June board meeting, and wants the party to send a letter to Premier Jason Kenney.

The move echoes concerns raised by the Alberta Party in February, when then-MLA for Calgary Elbow Greg Clark accused the NDP and UCP of ganging up on smaller parties to slash their funding. Clark lost his seat to Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer.