Article content

A plethora of new parties has mushroomed across Alberta’s political landscape over the last two years.

The biggest player is the United Conservative Party, birthed from the marriage of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives, but smaller parties continue to pop up as the spring election rolls near.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Alberta's smallest political parties fighting the good fight, but face long odds of breakthrough Back to video

There’s the Alberta Independence Party, which is yet to get official status, and the Freedom Conservative Party led by ousted UCP MLA Derek Fildebrandt.

The new arrival list also includes the Alberta Advantage Party, created by a coalition of former Wildrosers who sided against unity with the PCs.

Despite the proliferation of new parties, University of Calgary political scientist Melanee Thomas doesn’t think they, or already established fringe parties, will play much of a role when voters head to the polls.

She attributes that to a few reasons, including the fact a majority of voters, when polled, identify with major, seat-winning parties.