CALGARY — With the Alberta NDP leadership race now in full swing, the idea of “cutting ties” with the federal NDP has, once again, become a topic of conversation within party circles — and an especially popular idea among backers of “post-partisan” front-runner Naheed Nenshi.

But new developments in a five-year-long defamation dispute involving ex-United Conservative party candidate Caylan Ford call into question whether the “Alberta NDP” even exists, in a legal sense.