Two Edmonton conservative municipal parties merge: PACE and TAPYeg

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Two conservative-leaning groups in Edmonton are merging into one local political party for the 2025 municipal election.

The Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE) and TAPYeg, two groups that announced early intentions to form municipal political parties, are merging under the PACE banner. Leaders from both groups told Postmedia Thursday the goal is to unite for a better chance at winning votes next October. Neither are officially registered as local political parties and no candidates have been announced.

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The two groups share values of keeping taxes lower, safety and security, business-friendly policies, sticking to the city’s core responsibilities, and accountability, said Doug Main, currently a vice-president for PACE. The board of the refreshed party will include an equal split of PACE and TAPYeg.

Main called the merger “historic.” He and Jeffrey Hansen Carlson, a co-founder of TAPYeg, are hoping to build an established municipal party in the city that will live beyond the 2025 election. They heard about a need for co-ordination from business leaders and some in the community to avoid splitting the vote come next October. After some early discussions, plans firmed up to join in recent weeks.

“I don’t want to oversell this, but really it’s huge. You’ve got an opportunity for a political party. You’ve got two disparate yet philosophically aligned groups coming together — the heft, the muscle, the commitment, the talent. I’ve been around politics, federally and provincially, for quite a while. I’m pretty impressed,” Main said.

“There are still some details to work out — selecting candidates and some of the formal aspects that are necessary for this to be a trusted institution in the city for decades to come. But the people, the values, the effort, the commitment — this is a very unique and significant opportunity for Edmontonians,” Hansen-Carlson said.

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While neither party has announced candidates, both had individuals working in different parts of the city to start building momentum and gather support — “ward champions” for TAPYeg and “pace setters” for PACE. Currently they are working to get the 1,000 signatures needed to register as a political party and hope to reach that goal by Christmas.

Mayoral candidate and current city Coun. Tim Cartmell is also planning to launch a municipal political party with a similar focus on safety and security and fiscal responsibility.

‘Common sense’

Main, a former Progressive Conservative MLA in Alberta, isn’t opposed to the “conservative” label for PACE, but it’s not a word he would use himself, nor is it one he’s heard at their meetings. Rather, he hears “common sense, business-friendly, community-oriented.”

The party will stay away from a “hard left, hard right kind of ideology,” focusing on local issues instead of getting “distracted by trying to solve international problems.”

“We want the city to focus on the things that a city should focus on — clear the snow, fix the potholes, mow the grass, collect the garbage. Those aren’t ideological, partisan issues,” Main said. “There’s no way anybody in Edmonton is going to solve forest fires in Australia. Focus on what’s going on here.”

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He agrees the party could also be seen as a referendum on Edmonton’s municipal plan, the City Plan, with frustrations around bike lanes, neighbourhood renewals, public consultations, and the 15-minute city planning principle — though he knows the conspiracy theory is not true.

PACE is not affiliated with provincial or federal political parties.

Hansen-Carlson said they want to be a party that enables good ideas and empowers experts regardless of where they may fall on a political spectrum.

“Good ideas come from all across the spectrum,” he said.  “This city needs to get really good at doing great ideas, and we need to empower people that want to take risks and build it.”

Hansen-Carlson will be known to some Edmontonians as the man behind the push to build a gondola across the North Saskatchewan River. But since city council grounded that idea in 2022, he doesn’t think it’s coming back.

“This mayor and council chased away $175 million (of private money) that was going to be invested in building the experience economy in our core at a time when the city was desperate for something, because their egos got in the way of a sound decision,” he said.

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“But that money is never coming back to Edmonton.”

Neither Hansen-Carlson or Main plans to run for office.

[email protected]

@laurby

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