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Wildrose has never recovered from this perception problem, and it’s increasingly looking like it never will.

At this year’s AGM, held this weekend in Red Deer, an attempt to enshrine that equality statement in the party’s policy manual was voted down 148-109.

Despite the fact that Ms. Smith had bragged about the Wildrose’s more expansive definition in her speech on Friday, the party membership voted for a pared down version that excluded any explicit mention of “sexual orientation” on Saturday.

Instead, they decided to stick with the current policy, that the party would broadly “recognize that all Albertans have equal rights, privileges and responsibilities.”

This old policy is both all-encompassing and innocuous, certainly, and Ms. Smith did her best to play down the vote.

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“I think that the nature of the debate was that they were concerned there might be something excluded in that long list,” she said. “I think that’s a reasonable position to take. I certainly don’t think anyone should take offence to it.”

But the failure of the more thorough version to pass demonstrates that the leadership of the party has been unable to impress upon its membership the depth of the political problem it faces; unless Wildrose is able to expand its base and appeal to more centrist voters, it may remain Alberta’s opposition in perpetuity, at best, or, possibly, wither into a fringe protest movement. And those centrist voters, even in Alberta, won’t countenance a party that is perceived to be anti-gay.