Paul Hinman

Paul Hinman (born 1959) is a Canadian politician and businessman who is currently the leader of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition.

Hinman was born in Edmonton in 1959.

He grew up in Calgary in the neighbourhood of Haysboro.

As of 2022, Hinman lives in the town of Raymond, Alberta.

Hinman's grandfather Edgar "Ted" Hinman was a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Cardston and as Provincial Treasurer in the Social Credit government under Ernest Manning.

Before politics, Hinman was an irrigation farmer, cow-calf producer, purebred-cattle breeder, feedlot operator and small-business entrepreneur.

He attended the University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy.

Hinman served as vice-president of policy for the Alberta Alliance Party from its founding convention on February 14, 2002, until he was named deputy leader on January 8, 2005.

He served two terms as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, from 2004 to 2008 representing the electoral district of Cardston-Taber-Warner and then from 2009 to 2012 in Calgary-Glenmore.

As a candidate for the Alberta Alliance Party, Hinman was elected to his first term as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the constituency of Cardston-Taber-Warner in the 2004 provincial election on November 22, 2004.

He defeated incumbent Broyce Jacobs the Progressive Conservatives candidate by 129 votes.

Hinman was the only Alberta Alliance Party candidate elected in 2004.

After the 2004 provincial election, former Alberta Alliance leader Randy Thorsteinson stepped down as leader of the party.

Hinman was one of four candidates who ran in the 2005 Alberta Alliance Party leadership election.

The other three candidates were Ed Klop, Marilyn Burns and David Crutcher.

Hinman won the election on the third ballot at the leadership convention held on November 19, 2005, in Red Deer, Alberta.

Under Hinman's leadership, the Alberta Alliance and the Wildrose Party of Alberta merged to unite the right wing of the political spectrum in Alberta at a convention held on January 19, 2008, in Calgary.

In the 2008 provincial election, Hinman lost to Jacobs by 39 votes after three recounts.

However, the party increased its vote in the riding.

The party also gained popular vote in most of the other ridings where it ran candidates, but did not win any seats.

Hinman is a libertarian, telling Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid in 2009 "I'm all about sharing ideas and inspiring others, not requiring others to do things. It's just so necessary for peace and prosperity to flourish. If people impose their will on others, it's just wrong."

He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He spent two years in the Philippines serving as a Mormon Missionary and learned to speak Tagalog.

He described a divorce he went through as a painful and difficult trial in his faith that he overcame.

He remains an active Mormon and still holds to its values.

Hinman worked for the Reform Party of Canada in policy and election committees.

He later worked for the Conservative Party of Canada.

He served as a board member for the federal Conservative Party of Canada in the electoral district of Lethbridge.

In provincial politics, he was the southern regional director for the Alberta First Party.

A year later, Hinman stepped down as leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party, triggering a leadership convention in October 2009 in Edmonton.

Hinman remained interim leader of the Alliance until the election of Danielle Smith as party leader on October 17.

On May 15, 2009, Calgary-Glenmore MLA Ron Stevens announced his resignation to accept a position as a judge.

Hinman ran in the ensuing by-election Hinman was selected as the Wildrose Alliance candidate and won the by-election with 37% of the vote.

On September 8, 2017, Danielle Smith of NewsTalk770 and Hinman's successor as Wildrose leader announced that Hinman would be running for the leadership of the newly formed United Conservative Party (UCP).

However, Hinman later declined to run and posted to his Twitter that he was endorsing Jason Kenney.

In December 2021, he told Fort McMurray Today that he was no longer a supporter of Kenney or the UCP, and that "Jason Kenney and the UCP have betrayed us by not standing up to Ottawa."

He was the leader of the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta from 2020 to 2022, and was the leader of the Wildrose Alliance (2008–2009) and Alberta Alliance Party (2005–2008).

Hinman was made interim leader of the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta in July 2020 and elected leader in 2021.

The party campaigns on Alberta separatism.

It has no connection with the former Wildrose Party that merged with the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta to create the United Conservative Party.