Alberta premier wins standoff with party over position on provincial separation vote

A standoff between Premier Danielle Smith and her own United Conservative Party on the issue of separation is over — and the premier has won.

Premier Smith and party president Rob Smith had been at odds over where they stand on Alberta staying in Canada ahead of a fall referendum on the matter.

The premier said Wednesday she wants Alberta to stay in Confederation, while the party president, who is not related to premier, said earlier this week the party would not pick a side leading up to the vote.

Premier Smith told QR Calgary and 880 CHED that when it comes to the United Conservatives, her word is the last word, and the party’s official position is that it wants Alberta to stay in Confederation.

“Let me be clear, because I do speak for our government, our caucus and our party,” she said. “Our party had as its founding principles that we support autonomy for Alberta within a united Canada.

“Every one of my MLAs got elected on that,” she said.

The party issued a new statement Wednesday after the premier spoke, saying it supports Alberta staying in Canada, adding it has always supported Alberta staying in Canada.

“The position of our party, the UCP caucus and the UCP government is that we believe in a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada. That is the position our party has taken from the very beginning. It’s in our founding principles,” it said.

Premier Smith told Albertans last week they will go to the polls on Oct. 19 to vote on whether to stay in Canada or begin the process to hold a second, binding referendum on leaving.

That announcement has roiled debate across the country.

Smith has said it’s the best way to put the issue to rest once and for all while also giving a justifiable voice to those who feel Canada no longer works for them.

Opponents say it’s a reckless decision that takes the country down a path with unseen and unintended consequences by a party and premier that didn’t campaign on separating in the last election.

Polls suggest a large margin of Albertans want to stay in Confederation. Alberta’s Opposition NDP has accused Smith of rank opportunism, saying she is not fighting for Canada but simply to keep her job by appeasing separatist hardliners within the UCP.

During Wednesday’s radio interview, Smith questioned whether those who want to leave know what it could entail.

She said she didn’t think many in the movement understand the costs of setting up a new country, including creating armed forces and controlling borders.

“And I don’t know how many folks who go and regularly visit family in Saskatchewan and British Columbia would want to show passports and have to stop at border stations,” she said.

She pointed to the United Kingdom’s experience after it voted to leave the European Union following a referendum in 2016.

“These are the very practical things that they’ve discovered in the United Kingdom that none of the promises of windfalls panned out, but a whole bunch of irritations ended up coming up that prevented them from being able to expand trade, travel freely, work freely, (and) own houses in Spain.”

She also said that every political party has issues, and pointed to the 14 members of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal caucus who recently wrote a letter expressing concerns about backtracking on environmental safeguards.

Smith has also been casting blame on past and present political leaders she says are stoking separatist flames in Alberta by demonizing the oil and gas industry.

One of those she has singled out is federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis.

Lewis, asked by reporters in Ottawa about the separation issue Wednesday, dismissed Smith’s accusation. He, too, said Smith is trying to appease separatists within her party.

“(With) a (referendum) question about a question, we’re entering into the territory of absurdity as she tries to attend to a major part of her base on a question that won’t pass and that the majority of Canadians don’t want and courts have already thrown out,” Lewis said.

Smith’s office didn’t directly respond to Lewis’s comments. Instead, it pointed to comments Smith made on Wednesday in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.

Smith told BNN that provincial NDP leaders should push back against their federal counterpart.

She said Lewis’s advocacy for keeping fossil fuels in the ground is a “toxic influence” that targets Alberta and its oil wealth.

“That’s what I think Albertans have responded to. They’ve just said, ‘enough is enough,’” Smith said.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told reporters in Winnipeg he understands what it’s like to feel ignored by Eastern Canada, but the country can work and should stick together.

“If you’re a patriot, why ask the question?”

Alberta’s upcoming referendum overshadowed the annual gathering of Canada’s western premiers earlier this week, where Kinew challenged Smith over the duty to consult First Nations while he and B.C. Premier David Eby also called the fall referendum a profoundly bad idea.

The issue was also top of mind at an unrelated announcement by members of Smith’s government in Fort McMurray on Wednesday.

Energy Minister Brian Jean, Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko and Tany Yao, the UCP legislature member for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, were asked repeatedly about separatism and where they stood on it.

Jean at one point reminded reporters he was there to talk about the announcement — that Fort McMurray would play host for the 2028 Alberta Games — but he ultimately said he was onside with remaining in Canada: “Together is better.”