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The Progressive Conservative party that dominated Alberta politics for four decades has laid off all but one of its staff members and plans to close its two offices in Edmonton and Calgary following last week’s election loss, former party president Bill Smith said Friday.

Smith, co-chair of a postelection transition committee with party president Terri Beaupre, said the move, which includes the dismissal of party executive director Kelley Charlebois, was made for financial reasons.

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“At this point it comes down to a cash decision,” he said.

“It’s expensive to run the party the way that we’ve run it. The election was very expensive and there’s just not a lot of money laying around and we suspect it will be a little more challenging to raise funds as the third party in the legislature. We’re trying to be as prudent as we can going forward.”

The PCs have been in power in Alberta since 1971 but were brought down in the May 5 election by Rachel Notley’s NDP. The Wildrose Party took 21 seats to form the official Opposition.