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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith stood by her support for a ‘sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.’Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Monday reiterated her position that the province should remain in Canada, even as her United Conservative Party grapples with an internal fight over separatism and a constituency association openly called for a leadership review.
On Monday, Ms. Smith disputed a social media post by UCP president Rob Smith, in which he claimed that she watered down the government’s messaging around the upcoming independence question in a bid to appear neutral.
On Oct. 19, Alberta voters will pick between two options: remain in Canada, or begin working toward holding a second, binding secession vote.
Ms. Smith made her comments days after the UCP’s Highwood constituency association – her former riding – voted to challenge her leadership, with one prominent separatist citing the Premier’s pro-Canada position as the motivating factor.
“The fact of the matter is, you always do have alternative voices in every political party. You’ve got to listen to them, you’ve got to respect them – but in the end, we make decisions based on the things that we can agree on,” Ms. Smith said at an unrelated news conference.
The Alberta premier told a virtual assembly discussing the province’s future in Canada that a lot of Albertans are angry, but it would be a mistake to separate now that progress is being made with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sept. 19.
The Canadian Press
The Premier referenced Alberta’s long-standing grievances with Ottawa, but stood by her support for a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” nodding to the UCP’s founding principles that pledged a commitment to the federation. At a public forum on separation over the weekend, Ms. Smith choked back tears while recounting a historic list of frustrations with Ottawa.
“I’m not a neutral party, and I believe that we should remain, and I believe that we should do everything we can to address the things that are causing grievances,” she said on Monday.
Support for separation in Alberta, estimated to be between 25 and 30 per cent, has remained steady for years. But a large segment of UCP members, pegged by some pollsters to make up about half the party’s membership, support independence.
The Highwood constituency association’s vote is the first time since becoming UCP Leader in 2022 that Ms. Smith has faced formal dissatisfaction over her leadership from within party ranks. At her last leadership review in November, 2024, Ms. Smith received 91 per cent support from party members.
A leadership review would only be triggered if at least 21 of the party’s 87 constituency associations vote for holding a special meeting on Ms. Smith’s future.
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The Highwood association’s president, Helen Holder, also sits on the UCP provincial board as vice-president of fundraising. Ms. Holder declined to comment.
RJ Sigurdson, the party’s MLA for Highwood, pledged his support to Ms. Smith in an e-mailed statement, writing that the constituency association “does not reflect the views of my constituents broadly.”
Ms. Smith’s office did not respond to e-mailed questions, including whether the Premier feels it’s appropriate for Ms. Holder to remain on the party board.
UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco, in a statement, pointed to Ms. Smith’s 2024 leadership review and the party’s fundraising strength as evidence that most UCP members support her. Mr. Prisco did not address Ms. Holder’s involvement in the vote.
“You only see results like that when you have a strong leader with overwhelming support,” Mr. Prisco wrote.
Tanya Clemens, a leader with the pro-independence group Let Alberta Decide and a Highwood UCP member, linked her endorsement of a leadership review to what she described as Ms. Smith’s “adversarial role” toward independence.
But her vote doesn’t mean she wants Ms. Smith “gone,” she said in a video posted to social media.
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Divisions around separatism have wrought tensions within the UCP and, at times, put party leadership at odds with the Premier. On Monday night, UCP board members Samantha Steinke and Brad LaForge were scheduled to appear at a Calgary event with prominent separatist leaders Mitch Sylvestre, Jeffrey Rath and Cory Morgan. Neither Ms. Steinke nor Mr. LaForge responded to a request for comment.
Ms. Smith’s government has budgeted $4-million to advertise ahead of the referendum, prompting questions around fairness from both separatist and federalist groups hamstrung by strict spending limits.
Mr. Smith, the party president, attempted to address those concerns to party members over the weekend in a social media post where he claimed that the Premier “assured” him that the government’s advertising around the independence question would be “as NEUTRAL as possible.”
“I’ve heard some of these ads, and I believe what the Premier told me,” wrote Mr. Smith, who has no relation to the Premier.
Asked at the Monday news conference whether she told him the government would be neutral on the separation question, the Premier said: “That’s not true.”
The two have previously clashed over the UCP’s stance on separatism. In May, Mr. Smith told The Globe and Mail that the party would be neutral on the issue ahead of the referendum, and he believed the majority of UCP members will vote against remaining in Canada.
The next day, Ms. Smith said the party supports Alberta staying in Canada, saying she holds the final word on the UCP’s stance.