There’s a new federal party in town by the name of Maverick, and they’ve gained some serious momentum over the last nine months.
Joshua Wylie, of Millarville, will run in Foothills riding during the next federal election.
The Foothills riding runs north of Bragg Creek to the US border in the south, with the BC border on one side and the edge of Calgary on the other.
The Maverick Party is a West’s only federal separatist party, taking over from the Wexit Canada Party founded in January 2020. It was renamed the Maverick Party in September 2020.
The party now has members across the four western provinces, predominantly in Alberta.
“We’ve come a long way in basically nine months since we transformed to Maverick. We’ve now established 33 riding associations,” said Jay Hill, longtime Conservative politician who became the interim leader of the Maverick Party in 2020.
Hill hopes the campaign will reveal the next leader of the party
The Maverick Party will run only in the West and the Northern Territories, setting them apart from the Conservative party, according to Hill.
The party developed a twin track approach, track A requires greater autonomy, fairness, and respect for Canada through constitutional change, and track B paves the foundation for an independent Western Nation.
“The canadian constitution, which we believe is an archaic democratic instrument that clearly discriminates against Western Canada, [needs] to change and in that sense we have developed five proposed Constitutional Amendments,” Hill said.
For details on each amendment, go to their website maverickparty.ca.
Hill stated that if the amendments are enacted, it would enable the West to reach its destiny and goals while remaining within a united Canada.
The party’s first guiding principle states that Maverick welcomes all people from Western Canada, regardless of religion, age, ability, ancestry, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
“We have no bias for or against anyone, we’re not looking to be another conservative party, we don’t view ourselves as right or left. We view ourselves as being common sense Western Canadians,” Hill said.
Hill added that the Mavericks have always been people willing to take risks and work hard, no matter their background.
“The people we hope to attract are people willing to take a bit of risk, obviously we’re a new party, but we believe our goals and aspirations clearly distinguish us from others,” Hill said.
An inaugural one-day convention was held on Aug. 7 and hosted virtually on the Zooom Webinar platform. Hill stated that a leadership race would ideally occur in late November.
Hill was first elected to Parliament in 1993 under the Reform Party and later for the Conservative Party. He ended his career in 2010 when he was a cabinet minister with Stephen Harper.
Masha Scheele, HCN Staff
media@highcountrynews.ca
