Danielle Smith tells UCP separatists to accept Alberta referendum result or leave the party
Matthew Scace ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/matthew-scace/[/url])
Edmonton
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/topics/danielle-smith/[/url]) is urging separatists to accept the results of Monday’s referendum or leave her United Conservative Party in an effort to stave off an internal civil war that she says would sink the party in next year’s provincial election.
Ms. Smith, in a video posted to social media on Wednesday, stressed the need for unity within the province’s conservative movement and warned that infighting would hand the general election scheduled for next October to the Alberta NDP.
But Ms. Smith was not clear about what measures she’s willing to take to smother separatist leanings inside her party. She said she expects MLAs, UCP nominees and members of her party’s board and constituency associations to be committed to “a strong Alberta within a united Canada.”
“As a party, we cannot permit the next year to be one of internal division and endless debates about separation, when Albertans have spoken so clearly against it,” Ms. Smith said in the video.
Until now, Ms. Smith had not shared how she planned to address the large segment of her coalition that supports separation – particularly after the possibility of a future referendum was soundly defeated on Monday night.
Robyn Urback: Danielle Smith is in a world of trouble ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-danielle-smith-alberta-referendum-results-trouble/[/url])
Albertans rejected the prospect of separation, with roughly 75 per cent of voters preferring to remain in Canada rather than hold a second, binding secession vote.
Ms. Smith has pledged not to hold another separation referendum ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-smith-vows-to-push-for-more-alberta-autonomy/[/url]) as long as she’s Premier, while pointing to her plan to carve out more autonomy from the federal government. She decided in May to put the question to electors after a separatist petition trying to force a binding vote ran into a legal roadblock.
The Premier was explicit in her Wednesday video about the party’s position on separation: “The United Conservative Party is not an independence party.”
“And for those few who cannot reconcile this fact and remain intent on dividing and turning our party into a vehicle for the independence movement, I would respectfully invite them to join a different party.”
She indicated on Wednesday that her party is turning its focus to the next provincial election. Her popularity has suffered in public opinion polls over recent months, underlined by a shocking by-election loss for her party last month in Calgary’s conservative heartland.
Opinion: Danielle Smith’s referendum was a lemon. Alberta voters made lemonade ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-danielle-smith-alberta-separation-referendum-was-a-lemon/[/url])
Leading up to the referendum, the Alberta NDP under Leader Naheed Nenshi attempted to paint Ms. Smith as a separatist. Ms. Smith said she voted for Alberta to remain in Canada, and she campaigned for the remain side last week with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Ms. Smith has been facing frustration from many of those in her party who felled former premier Jason Kenney and subsequently hoisted her to the Premier’s Office in 2022, largely on the back of frustration over COVID-19 restrictions. Many of those people now harbour separatist sentiment.
In the days since the referendum, the same group has set its sights on electing allies to the party board at the UCP’s annual meeting in November and as party nominees for the next provincial election. Some have vocally agitated to oust Ms. Smith from office while others have quietly supported her leadership.
The separation issue has, at times this year, pitted her against party brass.
In May, UCP President Rob Smith said he believed a majority of party members would vote to leave Canada, and that the party wouldn’t take a position on the referendum.
Last week, Mr. Smith, who holds no relation to the Premier, wrote on social media that there would be no purity test for party members. He did not respond to an interview request on Wednesday.
“No one will be ‘banned’ or disqualified from membership,” Mr. Smith wrote. “Under no circumstances will that happen. No way. Never.”
The video was Ms. Smith’s first public attempt at stifling separatist rumblings in her party. But she refused to clarify whether she would take steps to limit secessionists from running in party board or nomination races.
”I think a lot of people, when they do their own self-reflection, they make their own decisions about what their pathway would be," she told reporters.
“I’m asking people to do some self-reflection, and if they are able to accept the results and the mandate that Albertans gave us through a free and democratic process, then we can have a reset.”
Keith Wilson, a lawyer and co-chair of Let Alberta Decide, said in an interview that he thought the Premier was implicitly shutting the door on a key segment of the party.
“It felt like what the Premier was saying today is that if you’re a separatist, you’re not welcome in the UCP,” Mr. Wilson said. “I don’t think she said that expressly, but I know that’s how it’s being felt by many members.”
He added: “Rather than trying to correct the split and unify the party, she might have inadvertently driven a bigger wedge into it.”
Mitch Sylvestre, chief executive of the Alberta Prosperity Project, said this week that he’s continuing to try getting like-minded members elected to the party board, while his separatist colleague Jeffrey Rath has continued his calls for the party membership to oust Ms. Smith.
Mr. Sylvestre said on Wednesday in an interview that he’s not leaving the party and argued the blame would be on Ms. Smith if the UCP loses the next election.
“We put them there to do a job. They have not done the job,” he said.
Mr. Sylvestre said Ms. Smith has failed on three issues that he believes would give Alberta greater autonomy: withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, creating a provincial police force and taking strong action on immigration.
Mr. Wilson, however, encouraged Ms. Smith to ignore Mr. Sylvestre’s agitating, adding that he supports her desire to pursue greater autonomy within Confederation.
The Alberta NDP declined to comment on the UCP’s internal party politics.
Elections Alberta was still counting ballots on Wednesday evening on the other nine questions Ms. Smith put to voters in Monday’s referendum.
With 96 per cent of polls reporting, most of those proposals on immigration and constitutional issues had received support ranging between 50 per cent and 55 per cent. Two constitutional proposals on judicial appointments and federal funding had dropped below 50 per cent and one proposing proof-of-citizenship at provincial election polls had earned 60-per-cent support.
Ms. Smith said the results provide her a mandate to work with Ottawa to give Alberta more say over immigration.
But she hedged on whether she would move forward with the other proposals, such as limiting some non-permanent residents’ access to social services and charging them premiums for using Alberta’s education and health care systems.
“I would say that the results that I saw suggest we proceed with caution,” she said.
Matthew Scace ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/matthew-scace/[/url])
Edmonton
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/topics/danielle-smith/[/url]) is urging separatists to accept the results of Monday’s referendum or leave her United Conservative Party in an effort to stave off an internal civil war that she says would sink the party in next year’s provincial election.
Ms. Smith, in a video posted to social media on Wednesday, stressed the need for unity within the province’s conservative movement and warned that infighting would hand the general election scheduled for next October to the Alberta NDP.
But Ms. Smith was not clear about what measures she’s willing to take to smother separatist leanings inside her party. She said she expects MLAs, UCP nominees and members of her party’s board and constituency associations to be committed to “a strong Alberta within a united Canada.”
“As a party, we cannot permit the next year to be one of internal division and endless debates about separation, when Albertans have spoken so clearly against it,” Ms. Smith said in the video.
Until now, Ms. Smith had not shared how she planned to address the large segment of her coalition that supports separation – particularly after the possibility of a future referendum was soundly defeated on Monday night.
Robyn Urback: Danielle Smith is in a world of trouble ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-danielle-smith-alberta-referendum-results-trouble/[/url])
Albertans rejected the prospect of separation, with roughly 75 per cent of voters preferring to remain in Canada rather than hold a second, binding secession vote.
Ms. Smith has pledged not to hold another separation referendum ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-smith-vows-to-push-for-more-alberta-autonomy/[/url]) as long as she’s Premier, while pointing to her plan to carve out more autonomy from the federal government. She decided in May to put the question to electors after a separatist petition trying to force a binding vote ran into a legal roadblock.
The Premier was explicit in her Wednesday video about the party’s position on separation: “The United Conservative Party is not an independence party.”
“And for those few who cannot reconcile this fact and remain intent on dividing and turning our party into a vehicle for the independence movement, I would respectfully invite them to join a different party.”
She indicated on Wednesday that her party is turning its focus to the next provincial election. Her popularity has suffered in public opinion polls over recent months, underlined by a shocking by-election loss for her party last month in Calgary’s conservative heartland.
Opinion: Danielle Smith’s referendum was a lemon. Alberta voters made lemonade ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-danielle-smith-alberta-separation-referendum-was-a-lemon/[/url])
Leading up to the referendum, the Alberta NDP under Leader Naheed Nenshi attempted to paint Ms. Smith as a separatist. Ms. Smith said she voted for Alberta to remain in Canada, and she campaigned for the remain side last week with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Ms. Smith has been facing frustration from many of those in her party who felled former premier Jason Kenney and subsequently hoisted her to the Premier’s Office in 2022, largely on the back of frustration over COVID-19 restrictions. Many of those people now harbour separatist sentiment.
In the days since the referendum, the same group has set its sights on electing allies to the party board at the UCP’s annual meeting in November and as party nominees for the next provincial election. Some have vocally agitated to oust Ms. Smith from office while others have quietly supported her leadership.
The separation issue has, at times this year, pitted her against party brass.
In May, UCP President Rob Smith said he believed a majority of party members would vote to leave Canada, and that the party wouldn’t take a position on the referendum.
Last week, Mr. Smith, who holds no relation to the Premier, wrote on social media that there would be no purity test for party members. He did not respond to an interview request on Wednesday.
“No one will be ‘banned’ or disqualified from membership,” Mr. Smith wrote. “Under no circumstances will that happen. No way. Never.”
The video was Ms. Smith’s first public attempt at stifling separatist rumblings in her party. But she refused to clarify whether she would take steps to limit secessionists from running in party board or nomination races.
”I think a lot of people, when they do their own self-reflection, they make their own decisions about what their pathway would be," she told reporters.
“I’m asking people to do some self-reflection, and if they are able to accept the results and the mandate that Albertans gave us through a free and democratic process, then we can have a reset.”
Keith Wilson, a lawyer and co-chair of Let Alberta Decide, said in an interview that he thought the Premier was implicitly shutting the door on a key segment of the party.
“It felt like what the Premier was saying today is that if you’re a separatist, you’re not welcome in the UCP,” Mr. Wilson said. “I don’t think she said that expressly, but I know that’s how it’s being felt by many members.”
He added: “Rather than trying to correct the split and unify the party, she might have inadvertently driven a bigger wedge into it.”
Mitch Sylvestre, chief executive of the Alberta Prosperity Project, said this week that he’s continuing to try getting like-minded members elected to the party board, while his separatist colleague Jeffrey Rath has continued his calls for the party membership to oust Ms. Smith.
Mr. Sylvestre said on Wednesday in an interview that he’s not leaving the party and argued the blame would be on Ms. Smith if the UCP loses the next election.
“We put them there to do a job. They have not done the job,” he said.
Mr. Sylvestre said Ms. Smith has failed on three issues that he believes would give Alberta greater autonomy: withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, creating a provincial police force and taking strong action on immigration.
Mr. Wilson, however, encouraged Ms. Smith to ignore Mr. Sylvestre’s agitating, adding that he supports her desire to pursue greater autonomy within Confederation.
The Alberta NDP declined to comment on the UCP’s internal party politics.
Elections Alberta was still counting ballots on Wednesday evening on the other nine questions Ms. Smith put to voters in Monday’s referendum.
With 96 per cent of polls reporting, most of those proposals on immigration and constitutional issues had received support ranging between 50 per cent and 55 per cent. Two constitutional proposals on judicial appointments and federal funding had dropped below 50 per cent and one proposing proof-of-citizenship at provincial election polls had earned 60-per-cent support.
Ms. Smith said the results provide her a mandate to work with Ottawa to give Alberta more say over immigration.
But she hedged on whether she would move forward with the other proposals, such as limiting some non-permanent residents’ access to social services and charging them premiums for using Alberta’s education and health care systems.
“I would say that the results that I saw suggest we proceed with caution,” she said.
Comment