'Like a coup': Concern mounts over growing influence Take Back Alberta
CTV
Some have speculated it's already "the power behind the throne" of the UCP, but a controversial right wing group appears to be grabbing even more influence ahead of Alberta's May election.
Some have speculated it's already "the power behind the throne" of the UCP, but a controversial right wing group appears to be grabbing even more influence ahead of Alberta's May election.
Conservative Lisa Sygutek says a mid-March Livingstone-Macleod meeting was "packed" with people who identified as Take Back Alberta (TBA) members.
It was an event she won't soon forget.
"There was a sense of hostility in the building," she told CTV News. "I've never seen anything like it."
The meetings, according to Sygutek, typically involve some light debate, conversation about issues in the riding, and then a vote for new board members. She says every other similar association event she's attended has had a handful of new candidates and some slight turnover.
March's meeting was different.
"A couple people were saying, 'I'm a member of Take Back Alberta,'" she said, "and that's when it started to tweak on me that things were getting a little bit too aggressive and extremist for my liking."
