{"id":384712,"date":"2025-11-17T07:16:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384712\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T07:16:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T07:16:19","slug":"alberta-ucp-launches-lawsuit-against-former-caucus-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384712\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta UCP launches lawsuit against former caucus members"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair, left, speaks with members of the media at the Alberta legislature building in Edmonton on March 10. Then-Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie, right, is sworn into cabinet, in Edmonton, in June, 2023.The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s<\/a> United Conservative Party has filed a lawsuit against two of its former MLAs, alleging they have conspired to damage the party\u2019s reputation by using the Progressive Conservative name.<\/p>\n

Peter Guthrie and Scott Sinclair, both named as defendants, have been trying to start a provincial party under the PC banner since being expelled from the UCP caucus earlier this year. The PC Party governed Alberta for 43 consecutive years before merging with the Wildrose Party to form the UCP in 2017.<\/p>\n

The United Conservative Association, which operates the UCP, filed a statement of claim on Nov. 7 in the Court of King\u2019s Bench of Alberta. The association says it still has ownership over the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta name and it cannot be legally appropriated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United Conservative Association has suffered damages \u2013 including harm to its goodwill and reputation \u2013 as a result of the Defendants passing-off on the PCAA name and associated goodwill,\u201d states the court document.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guthrie resigned from his cabinet position in February in protest of Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s handling of allegations<\/a> that her government interfered in health care contracting and procurement. He was later removed from caucus. Mr. Sinclair was booted in March after refusing to support the UCP budget.<\/p>\n

Independent Alberta MLAs revive Progressive Conservative name to create new provincial party<\/a><\/p>\n

The back-and-forth on the legacy name has been continuing for months. The UCP has sent two cease-and-desist letters to the former caucus members. Ms. Smith has accused the pair of stealing the name to boost their own reputations.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the United Conservative Association also filed an injunction application in hopes of restraining Gordon McClure, the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta, from approving registration of a political party using any derivative of the PC brand.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the association is asking the court to order the defendants to \u201cremove and destroy\u201d all promotional materials, communications, webpages and social-media posts using the PC brand.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Sinclair joined forces with the centrist Alberta Party in July. The following month, an application was filed to Elections Alberta to change the party name to the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. The Alberta Party and its president and leader, Lindsay Amantea, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

A decision on the name change has not yet been announced. Elections Alberta did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Former Alberta cabinet minister calls government health contract probe \u2018whitewashing\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

On the allegation of conspiracy, the United Conservative Association claims there was an agreement between some or all of the defendants to improperly use the \u201cPCAA name and associated goodwill\u201d to confuse Albertans and directly compete with the UCP.<\/p>\n

None of the allegations have been tested in court.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guthrie, <\/b>in an interview on Sunday, said the UCP is trying to suppress legitimate political competition and attempting to undermine the independence of Elections Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit is politically motivated but it\u2019s legally deficient,\u201d he said. \u201cThe intention of the United Conservative Party will be to keep us in court as long as possible, certainly to keep us in court until after the next election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Conservative Association, in the statement of claim, said it takes \u201caffront to its efforts to protect its legacy, history, and brand being misrepresented as efforts to stifle political competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Alberta minister removed from caucus alleges Premier \u2018deliberately misled\u2019 cabinet<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Guthrie, who currently sits as an Independent, said the UCP sees the renewal of a PC party as a threat to its conservative voting base. He said he hears regularly from people who say they don\u2019t feel as if they have a political home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not being represented by either of the two political parties that exist right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sinclair did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Dustin van Vugt, executive director of the UCP, in a sworn affidavit filed on Friday, said that rebranding the Alberta Party as PC will cause confusion among voters. He said the likely result is that a \u201csignificant number of Albertans\u201d will inadvertently vote PC instead of UCP.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical positions and policies that may be taken by [one] political entity are likely to be associated with the other. This is likely to cause irreparable political harm to the United Conservative Association and the UCP,\u201d said Mr. van Vugt.<\/p>\n

UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco, in a Sunday statement, said the Alberta Party\u2019s attempt to rebrand under the PC banner is misleading, noting that neither Mr. Guthrie or Mr. Sinclair were ever members of PC Alberta. (Mr. Guthrie said this is irrelevant.)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them to now try to steal that legacy without having earned it is an insult to the thousands of former PC members who built that party and who now contribute to the United Conservative Party,\u201d said Mr. Prisco. \u201cIf the Alberta Party wants support, they should build their own movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The office of Ms. Smith did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Damages sought by the United Conservative Association include $500,000 and declarations that the defendants have engaged in a conspiracy and infringed on UCP trademarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Lesser Slave Lake MLA Scott Sinclair, left, speaks with members of the media…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-384712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}