Tag: Western Separation

4 ways Danielle Smith’s UCP could react to the Forever Canadian citizen initiative

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 2, 2025

Has Thomas Lukaszuk’s pro-Canada petition boxed in Danielle Smith on Alberta separatism?

If there is one big takeaway from last weekend’s United Conservative Party annual general meeting it’s that the separatist movement in Alberta is deeply intrenched in the governing party.

From jeers and cheers to at least half the board candidates endorsed by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project getting elected, the weekend gathering was a showcase of how influential Alberta’s most prominent separatists are in Premier Danielle Smith‘s UCP.

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith hopes pipeline deal with Mark Carney will quell separatist sentiments

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith will be able to walk into the United Conservative Party AGM this weekend triumphant about her pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney, and maybe even confident enough to consider calling an early provincial election in 2026, but she may get more jeers than cheers from some sections of her party who will be unhappy she was willing to have truck and trade with Carney (though I can guarantee that Steven Guilbeault’s resignation will get cheers).

“Danielle wanted lapdogs,” says influential separatist Jeffrey Rath

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2025

According to influential separatist Jeffrey Rath, one of the main spokespeople for the Alberta Prosperity Project, the UCP board of directors is to blame for blocking a separation debate at the AGM. Rath has openly criticized incumbent UCP President Rob Smith for casting the deciding vote against holding a debate about Alberta independence. A debate and vote on Alberta’s separation from Canada could have received overwhelming support from AGM delegates — making the UCP an official separatist party.

Separatists accuse Danielle Smith of purging UCP board

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 10, 2025

The United Conservative Party’s board elections are happening at its AGM at the end of November and the rhetoric is heating up from the party’s bustling separatist wing.

Alberta Prosperity Project co-founder Jeffrey Rath took to the internet to accuse “Danielle Smith’s Death Star team” of abusing their access to party membership lists to purge the party board of separatists.

Alberta separatists march on the Legislature and UCP AGM

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 25, 2025

The steps of the Legislature are a busy place this week as supporters of Alberta separatism are promising a large pro-independence rally on October 25. The rally will feature speakers from the Alberta Prosperity Project including Jeffrey Rath, Dennis Modry and Mitch Sylvestre, restaurant owner, podcaster and COVID-19 restrictions opponent Chris Scott, and former UCP nomination candidate Tanya Clemens.

Describing the rally as the first battle in the fight for an independent Alberta, Sylvestre told separatist supporters in a rambling video posted by the APP yesterday that “before we have to pay in blood we have to pay in time because Communism always comes in on a promise and leaves with a bullet.”

Sylvestre is the president of the UCP constituency association in the Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul riding and is the proponent of the court-delayed citizen initiative to hold a province-wide referendum asking the question “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”

Get ready for a big fight over Alberta’s separation referendum

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 31, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery in April 2025 announcing changes to Alberta’s citizen initiative referendums (Photo: Government of Alberta/Flickr).

It’s going to be messy but the Chief Electoral Officer needs to hold his ground – and his independence.

Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer was publicly rebuked by Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Justice Mickey Amery after a petition aimed at triggering a province-wide referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada was referred to the courts to determine if it is legal.

Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure announced earlier this week that a citizen initiative petition request submitted by separatist Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Mitch Sylvestre was being referred to the Court of King’s Bench to determine whether it conforms with the requirements of sections 2 (4) of the Citizen Initiative Act. That section specifically states that “an initiative petition proposal must not contravene sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”

Smith and Amery took to social media to call on McClure to withdraw the court reference and allow the Alberta separation petition to move forward.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

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Tags Alberta Chief Electoral Officer, Alberta NDP, Alberta Next Panel, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Andy Sims, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Canada Election Substack, Commonwealth of Alberta Delegation to Washington, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Dennis Modry, Elections Alberta, Elections Alberta Financial Disclosures, Forever Canadian, Gordon McClure, Jason Stephan, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Ken Chapman, King Charles III, Mark Carney, Mickey Amery, Mitch Sylvestre, Money and Politics, Naheed Nenshi, Rakhi Pancholi, Red Deer-South, Scott Cyr, Subst, Thomas Luksazuk, United Conservative Party, Vladimir Putin, Western Alienation, Western Separation

Alberta Politics

Separation looms large among rural conservatives in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 26, 2025

This week’s by-elections were as clear an indication as any that the divisive debate over Alberta’s separation from Canada is mostly an issue among rural conservatives in and outside of Smith’s UCP.

UCP candidate Tara Sawyer won the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding with 61 percent, a drop of 14 points from the 2023 election, and most of that vote appears to have gone to the right-wing separatist Republican Party.

The Republicans had hoped their party leader, Cam Davies, could pull off a win inspired by separatist Gordon Kesler’s win in Olds-Didsbury in 1982 but when the votes were counted he placed third with 17 percent behind NDP candidate Bev Toews, who placed second with 20 percent.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Bev Toews, Cameron Davies, Canada Election Substack, Daveberta Substack, Gordon Kesler, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election, Republican Party of Alberta, Tara Sawyer, United Conservative Party, Western Alientation, Western Canada Concept, Western Separation

Alberta Politics

Naheed Nenshi’s NDP win Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona by-elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 24, 2025

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi shares a stage with NDP MLAs at his by-election victory party on June 23, 2025 (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

UCP wins Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills but fails to make gains in Edmonton

The ballots have been counted in the provincial by-elections held yesterday and the results are: Status quo ante bellum.

Naheed Nenshi’s NDP held suburban Edmonton-Ellerslie and urban Edmonton-Strathcona, and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party held rural Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.

Where is Nenshi? Should we take the separatists seriously?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 18, 2025

The Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton (credit: Dave Cournoyer)

Big questions about Alberta politics on The Line Podcast

Any day I get to talk about Alberta politics is a good day, so I was thrilled to join freelance writer and The Line co-founder Jen Gerson on the latest episode of the The Line Podcast to talk about what’s happening in Alberta politics.

In the hour and ten minute long discussion, we dove into the growing undercurrent of separatist sentiment inside the United Conservative Party, the burgeoning Dodgy Contracts Scandal dogging Premier Danielle Smith’s government, the upcoming by-elections in Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, and a big question many political watchers have been asking: where is NDP leader Naheed Nenshi?

Listen to the episode on The Line or find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Upcoming by-elections in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 26, 2025

The Alberta NDP are scheduled to nominate a candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election on June 14, but rumours are circulating that Premier Danielle Smith could call that by-election along with two others in Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona very soon.

The UCP announced last week that Alberta Grains chairperson Tara Sawyer had been appointed as the party’s candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. Sawyer’s appointment happened without an open nomination race, which is likely an indication the UCP was concerned a pro-separatist candidate could possibly create a messy nomination contest in that rural central Alberta riding.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Redrawing Alberta’s electoral map

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 22, 2025

Voters only getting 2 more MLAs despite huge population boom

Alberta will have a new electoral map when the next provincial election is called. An Electoral Boundaries Commission has been named and will begin travelling the province next week to collect feedback from Albertans about how new riding boundaries should be drawn to reflect population changes since the last time the map was redrawn in 2017.

Ten big questions about Alberta separatism in 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 16, 2025

The Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath shows off the separatist group’s proposed referendum question in Calgary (source: Facebook).

Is Premier Danielle Smith a separatist? Is the UCP a separatist party?

The biggest difference between today’s Alberta separatist push and past efforts is that today’s most vocal separatists are operating within the governing UCP. Premier Danielle Smith gave her tacit public support for these groups in an online video address earlier this month and she knows that any direct effort to try to stop it would turn those groups, which included some of the UCP’s most enthusiastic activists, against her.

Many of those enthusiastic separatists inside the UCP helped topple former Premier Jason Kenney in 2022 and propel Smith to victory in the leadership race that followed. Writer Jen Gerson cleverly described Smith’s situation through one rule of politics: you get ate by the dragon you ride in on.

Alberta Speaker Nathan Cooper is going to Washington DC

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 8, 2025

Alberta Legislative Assembly Speaker Nathan Cooper wearing the newly designed western-style tricorn hat designed by Smithbilt Hats Inc. (source: Legislative Assembly of Alberta)

Also: Six thoughts on Danielle Smith’s separatist threats

After ten years as the MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills and nearly six years as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Nathan Cooper is leaving the Legislature to take up a new job as Alberta’s senior representative to the United States.

In a statement released yesterday, Premier Danielle Smith announced that Cooper would replace representative James Rajotte, who recently stepped down after filling the role since 2020.

Punchy Nenshi calls on Danielle Smith to stop playing Alberta separatist games

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 5, 2025

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Also: Pierre Poilievre running in Battle River—Crowfoot by-election, gets unwelcome greetings from UCP VP

Naheed Nenshi’s speech was upbeat and touched on a lot of traditional NDP points about public health care, public education and rights for workers, but he was most animated when ripping into Premier Danielle Smith’s threat that the Liberal Party’s re-election would spark an unprecedented national unity crisis and her flirtation with Alberta separatists.

‘I will be damned if we ever let Danielle Smith tear the country down,’ Nenshi said. “Alberta’s New Democrats will always, always, always stand with the millions and millions of Canadians who believe in a stronger, more unified country,” Nenshi said.

“No more playing stupid separatist games with the future of our province! No more disrespecting Indigenous communities! No more disrespecting Albertans!”

What does Mark Carney’s win and Pierre Poilievre’s loss mean for Alberta?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 1, 2025

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Danielle Smith’s sovereignty agenda gives the Liberals a generational opportunity to reset with Albertans

New and recent episodes of the Daveberta Podcast are available exclusively to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack.

The votes are counted and the surprising results of Monday’s federal election will have big ramifications for Canada. Friend of the pod and Partner & Chief Strategist at Y Station Communications and Research, Chris Henderson, joins us on the Daveberta Podcast to break down the election results and what they mean for the country, Alberta, and Premier Danielle Smith’s continued pursuit of a sovereignty agenda.

We also delve into Pierre Poilievre’s future as leader of the Conservative Party what opportunities Mark Carney’s Liberals have to reset their relationship with Albertans.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on April 29, 2025 in the offices of Adverb Communications in beautiful downtown Edmonton.

Tags Adam Rozenhart, Alberta Separatism, Calgary-Confederation, Canada Election 2025, Carleton, Chris Henderson, Corey Hogan, Danielle Smith, Dave Cournoyer, Daveberta Podcast, Daveberta Substack, Eleanor Olszewski, Free Alberta Strategy, Mark Carney, Nepean, Pierre Poilievre, United Conservative Party, Western Separation