Republican Party of Alberta

There's a constellation of actors with varying levels of activity and some collaboration, but it's largely defined by the absence of a clear and disciplined organization, at least from my perspective as somebody who studies political parties, which are much more disciplined and organized than social movements.

And so to illustrate, the movement includes several provincial political parties that include the Independence Party of Alberta, the Wild Rose Independence Party of Alberta, the Wild Rose Loyalty Coalition, and the Republican Party of Alberta.

These are very small parties in terms of size.

They barely register during elections.

And lastly, the Alberta Prosperity Project and the Tea Party share the common objective of not trying to seek change by creating their own political party, endorsing candidates, and winning control of the legislatures to make these decisions, but instead, they are trying to pressure the existing mainstream conservative party to adopt their positions.

So the Tea Party had substantive policy concerns that were developed at town halls, and they worked tirelessly to what we call primary Republican candidates.

They wanted to endorse candidates who were affiliated with the Tea Party so that the Republican Party would move on their policy positions closer to where their supporters are.

And we see this now with the Alberta Prosperity Project.

[gentle music] Some interesting figures like their Chief of Staff, Chris Delaney, who was the leader of the BC Unity Party, a sort of defunct social conservative party in British Columbia.

And Finley also brought in as her political operations person, Apollo Cheung, who was once the executive director of the Alberta Republican Party, which is a separatist party.

So those staffing changes really affected the cohesiveness of the caucus.

It's important to note that despite these staffing changes, there was no actual change in policy.

Unity Party, sort of a socially conservative party, fringe party in B.C. that hadn't been around for very long.

They also brought in as their director of political operations, Apollo Chung, who was once the executive director of the Alberta Republican Party, which is a separatist party.

Now, to note, Apollo Chung was actually fired on August 26th, and we can get into that a little later.

And they also brought in for caucus communications, Cosmin de Zurza of Juno News.

Now, amidst the MLA turmoil, Finlay announced Wednesday this past week that she had fired caucus operations director Apollo Chung.

Now, Chung formally worked for the Republican Party of Alberta, which advocates for the province to separate from Canada.

Now, Finlay did not reveal any details of the firing, posting only a brief written statement online.

She said, quote, Now, the termination follows a draw-dropping, another leaked audio recording where Chung, who is a former campaign advisor, was caught plotting to siphon donor money from the Conservative Party to himself.