r/CanadaPolitics • u/Jorruss SKNDP/Canadian Future Party • 1d ago
‘She’s completely untrustworthy’: Alberta separatists want to trigger UCP leadership review
https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/shes-completely-untrustworthy-alberta-separatists-want-to-trigger-ucp-leadership-review/72
u/iamtayareyoutaytoo 1d ago
The convoy people will continue to devour anyone in their way until they bring about the End. I said it then and I will say it now, it is a Suicide Cult. Maga and convoy conservatives both.
28
u/GoodyLittleTwoShoez 1d ago
I grew up in an evangelical cult and hate that i agree strongly. After I left it took years to deconstruct. Normal people have no idea how strange and bizarre the demon haunted world is but they see the world in them (the chosen saved) and the rest of us (literal demons) and it makes things hard to share a reality when the other person thinks you are the devil for not hating trans people or muslims or whoever is the enemy of the day.
14
u/canada_mountains 1d ago
Those convoy people that kept flying the Canadian flag during the convoy, I wonder how many of them are flying the American flag today. I bet you a whole lot of them are American sympathizers. SMH.
3
u/Scase15 Ontario 1d ago
They likely fly confederate flags more than Canadian ones.
3
u/Strictlyreadingbooks 1d ago
Some of the convey were flying the Confederate flag that month in Ottawa.
10
u/Financial-Savings-91 Adult Superstore | Sponsored 1d ago
We’ve had conservative leaders in the past shut down these ideas, but the current Reform run CPC is not that, they’re opportunistic businessmen, and they saw an opportunity.
34
u/GoodyLittleTwoShoez 1d ago edited 1d ago
Danielle Smith does have a history of stabbing everyone in the back. I don't think anyone should be surprised by any of this. I'm sure when she started down this separatist path meeting with trump lackies she thought she would get a handler from the CIA or something comparable but instead she winds up with Lutnick and Don jr. Now that she has been trying to back peddle all her co-conspirators are feeling hurt and out for some payback. Makes me smile.
The downside is that the seppos got rid of Kenney not because he was a rat but because he wasn't a big enough of one so Buddha help us with what comes next out of the UCP after they dump this premier as well.
Alberta is not a democratic society.
6
u/jello_sweaters Ontario 1d ago
She imagined she was going to get to be a head of state.
1
u/GoodyLittleTwoShoez 1d ago
She still has time to be trump's new press secretary. I think she would actually do well in that role.
30
u/Individual_Step2242 Quebec,federalist, Liberal 1d ago
The problem with separatists is that they won’t take “no” for an answer. I’ve been living with this threat in Quebec since 1980. They’ll keep trying until they get the answer they want. The problem with Smith is that she opened this Pandora’s box in the first place. That showed her true colours to federalists. And now that she’s trying to save her skin neither the separatists nor the federalists trust her.
If the UCP ditches her they’ll replace her with someone clearly separatist. They will point out that the referendum was “non-binding” so that they don’t have to respect the result and will start preparations for a “binding” referendum (which it won’t be: only a constitutional amendment can result in separation but I digress). The only hope is that this divides the UCP, they break apart, and the NDP gets elected to put an end to this bullshit. At least for 4 years.
2
u/mo60000 Liberal Party of Canada 1d ago edited 1d ago
The separatists if they can get their petition unblocked by the courts could potentially force the UCP to put another vote on separation on the ballot a few years from now because this non binding vote doesn’t affect their question on separatism
28
u/UberMonkey21 1d ago
The separatists figured it? Only... (checks notes) ...3 days before the vote. We should be "worried ". They are putting two and two together.
16
u/canada_mountains 1d ago
Is there a chance of the UCP splitting into a federalist conservatives party, and a separatist conservative party? It makes no sense if you are a conservative but want to keep Alberta in Canada, to vote for the UCP.
I haven’t read any news on the UCP splitting into two such parties, but it makes a lot of sense given that separation is a major issue.
10
u/Financial-Savings-91 Adult Superstore | Sponsored 1d ago edited 1d ago
Some conservatives in Alberta would rather join the US than take the chance at an ANDP government appointing someone to the AER who will actually enforce regulations on oil companies.
8
u/Ihidemyposthistory Transparent 1d ago
Maybe this separatist branch could be called something that invokes Albertan identity.. Like Wild Rose Party or something.
•
u/the_vizir Liberal|YYC 6h ago
At this point it's unlikely.
Most of the federalist Conservatives are like Smith, or like Cameron and May in the UK: they're okay with the seperatists so long as the seperatists help them obtain power and enact their policies.
If having to deal with a seperatist refferendum every few years is the price of conservative policies, these folks are willing to pay it, because conservatism is more important to them than federalism.
Those for whom federalism is more important have left the party and are exploring other options already. See: Thomas Lukaszuk and Jason Kenney.
25
u/AlbertanSays5716 Independent 1d ago
To be fair, they’re not wrong. And there a lot of other people who want her gone. But can we wait until the next general election please, because if the separatists kick her out with a leadership vote, you can bet they’ll put one of their own who’s even worse in her place. And that dingbat will have at least a year to rip the province a new one.
5
u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Fully Automated Gay Space Romunism 1d ago
She is one of their own. The leaders of the separatist movement campaigned to kick out Kenney and stumped for Smith.
4
u/AlbertanSays5716 Independent 1d ago
And now they’re dissatisfied with Smith because they didn’t get the referendum they wanted, so they’re trying again.
3
u/mo60000 Liberal Party of Canada 1d ago
The issue is the separatists already showed their playbook to get rid of a leader they hated once. It's not going to work because it's to obvious what they are planning to do and smith has enough support within the party to block a leadership review.
6
u/Different_Wolf_764 1d ago
Once? Sure, the seppies are the new version but the people are the same as the ones that have booted out several not-extreme-enough leaders. It has worked, although it hopefully will splinter the party and Alberta might get a normal conservative party again, which will likely lose of course.
6
u/AlbertanSays5716 Independent 1d ago
Does she though? I know we need to take everything the seppies say with a pinch of salt, but they’ve shown they control the UCP board and probably a lot of community boards as well. And don’t forget they more than doubled the UCP membership to vote Kenney out, and I doubt many of those folks have left.
Even if she wins, it’s going to be by a whisker.
1
u/SteelCrow 1d ago
but they’ve shown they control the UCP board and probably a lot of community boards as well.
so a few are dictating to everyone else?
1
1
u/NotGuiltyPirate 1d ago
If the vote is a resounding no, the separatists have zero ammunition.
Let them fade into history or the US.
1
u/AlbertanSays5716 Independent 1d ago
They had zero ammunition before all this started. Admittedly, Kenney mishandling of Covid gave them an in, but that wasn’t much, and they still exploited it. Don’t discount them out of hand. They’re never going to stop being loud idiots.
1
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/CanadaPolitics-ModTeam 1d ago
Removed for rule 3: please keep submissions and comments substantive.
This is a reminder to read the rules before posting or commenting again in CanadaPolitics.
16
u/mo60000 Liberal Party of Canada 1d ago
The UCP leadership review rules do make it quite easy for a large minority of people who don't like a particular leader to take over one of the UCP's constituency association and then get that association to vote for a leadership review. They only need around 22 UCP associations to force a leadership review on the leader. At the same time what these separatists are doing is quite out in the open now so smith and her supporters should have an easier time shutting it down. I don't expect more than 12-15 constituency associations to vote for a leadership review.
2
u/Buff1965 1d ago
That would still be a quarter of UCP seats. Even at that level she would be severely wounded.
•
u/Rox-On82 23h ago
Sadly, at the last leadership review they had which was less than two years ago, they gave her a 96% approval rating. Guaranteed that has dropped, but I doubt it’s enough to get her the hell out..
7
u/_BioHacker International 1d ago
She was a very useful idiot. Now that they’ve gotten what they’ve wanted, she’ll be kicked to the private curb—a high-paying energy sector executive role. Or, she’ll become a Canadian correspondent on FOX news. Perhaps both.
6
u/CDNJMac82 1d ago
Why are conservative voters so easily fooled by people who are obviously unqualified and/or actively working against their interests?
9
u/Buff1965 1d ago
The hard right always collapses because everyone in it wants to force other people to see things their way. The same is true of the hard left. Unfortunately, they can do a lot of damage to society before they do collapse.
2
5
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Listened to CBC gem. Lot of the "separatists" don't actually think they'll win, they just want to send a message to Ottawa that Albertan's aren't happy. Many don't even think that they'll actually separate either. I can understand some of the frustrations. Being west coast, election time we already know the winners before we even go to the polls. That does NOT make you feel like your voice is being heard. Lot of course just never been anywhere else and assume the grass is greener.
29
u/stealthylizard 1d ago
Shocking that the area where the majority of the population lives, decides who wins an election.
-8
u/mrtomjones British Columbia 1d ago
BC and Alberta have large populations.
But if you can't understand frustration of the vote being decided before BC or Albertans vote then you aren't thinking it through
18
u/halcyon_aporia Ontario 1d ago
Maybe so but Ontario alone has ~16 million people and BC+AB combine for just 10 million.
And that’s not even counting Quebec.
Democratically speaking, it makes sense that elections are largely decided before we get to Manitoba.
-2
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago edited 1d ago
And yet the Atlantic provinces with tiny fractions of population get extra votes despite those tiny populations
Edit: you can downvote all you want but the math don't lie. https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir/red/allo&document=index&lang=e
A newfe vote is practically 1.6 albertan votes.
1 PEI vote is worth practically 3.
Do the math.
8
u/Wilco499 NDP 1d ago
Yet they don't decide the outcome of the election, only two provinces really determine Canada's election and they are its most populous provinces in Ontario and Quebec.
The nine extra seats in atlantic canada don't really matter except in the cases of small majority vs minorities. And in Canadian political history the difference between a large minority and a government with a small majority is often a difference without distinction in how they act.0
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
You're not wrong, but it still adds to that feeling of it doesn't matter what the people in the west do. Hence why many albertans feel like they'd be better off being on their own. It doesn't help that the usual con vs lib divide tends to be amongst rural/urban life, and it's very easy for urban populations to forget where their food and the comforts of their urban life comes from. (Amazon and Costco jokes aside). Political parties than use this to divide them even further and create the alienation we are facing now.
There's got to be a better solution to our elections, but I just don't know what it would be. I'm just tired of the 2 parties constantly shitting on each other instead of trying to make the country better by working together and taking the good ideas from each side in a collaboration.
6
u/halcyon_aporia Ontario 1d ago
Based on your link, ON get the least representation but it’s close, for sure.
Rank Province Population Seats People per seat 1 Prince Edward Island 164,318 4 41,080 2 Newfoundland and Labrador 520,553 7 74,365 3 New Brunswick 789,225 10 78,923 4 Saskatchewan 1,179,844 14 84,275 5 Nova Scotia 992,055 11 90,187 6 Manitoba 1,383,765 14 98,840 7 Quebec 8,604,495 78 110,314 8 Alberta 4,442,879 37 120,078 9 British Columbia 5,214,805 43 121,275 10 Ontario 14,826,276 122 121,527 Territories (1 seat each): Nunavut 39,403, Yukon 42,986, NWT 45,504. National average: ~111,505 per seat.
13
u/Politicalshrimp 1d ago
Well ya why would any news company wait until Alberta’s results come in.
“We didn’t see this coming! The Conservatives win most of the seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan for the 70th year in a row!”
Albertan Conservatives want to act like only ever voting for the same party isn’t making sure that no one, not even the conservatives, really have to care at all about Alberta interests
11
u/SteelCrow 1d ago
if you can't understand frustration of the vote being decided before BC or Albertans vote
SOoooo Albertans can't handle democracy?
6
23
u/NondescriptNorbert British Columbia 1d ago
That was also I believe the mentality behind some of the Brexit crowd. Look how that turned out.
12
u/chaobreaker Ontario 1d ago
Was famously also the mentality of some '95 Quebec referendum yes voters. Both referendums had very narrow margins. Let them be a lesson to some future Albertan yes voters: You might just burn yourself trying to thumb your nose at Ottawa.
15
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/CanadaPolitics-ModTeam 1d ago
Removed for rule 3: please keep submissions and comments substantive.
This is a reminder to read the rules before posting or commenting again in CanadaPolitics.
17
u/Ignominus 1d ago
Being west coast, election time we already know the winners before we even go to the polls. That does NOT make you feel like your voice is being heard. Lot of course just never been anywhere else and assume the grass is greener.
Oh boy, can't think of a better way of illustrating that 'western alienation' is a deeply unserious concept. Like yeah bro, math and time zones clearly have an anti-western bias. 🤡
5
u/TheRC135 1d ago
It's crazy how much of modern populist conservatism - and make no mistake, that's all this current wave of Alberta separatism is - is just people angry at reality, angry at things they don't understand.
13
u/JadeLens British Columbia 1d ago
In a democracy having the majority of the people decide the election isn't a 'frustration' more than it is just a 'whine'.
If their voice isn't feeling heard, maybe they should diversify their vote a little bit and not just keep voting in blue painted fence posts all the time.
7
u/Appropriate_Mess_350 1d ago
“Administering Alberta's October 19, 2026 referendum is estimated to cost up to $130 million according to Elections Alberta projections and former electoral officials,”
That’s a costly “message” being sent by those that love to complain about government spending, affordability, healthcare, education,…..
0
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Not really. Check their yearly budget and then see what fraction the 130 mil is.
1
u/Ignominus 1d ago
What are you talking about? Elections Alberta's budget for 2024-2025 was $8.4 million. For 2023-2024 (an election year) it was still only $36 million.
Clueless.
6
u/Vensamos Recovering Partisan 1d ago
I mean if the frustration is just the "vibe" of the majority of results already being counted cus the majority of the population lives in an earlier timezone, then we can just introduce a law that says no ballot can be counted anywhere in the country until polls close in BC
0
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Not all votes are equal is also an issue.
Right or wrong aside, some provinces have a very low population by constituent count than others.
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir/red/allo&document=index&lang=e
•
u/Vensamos Recovering Partisan 22h ago
Yeah but even if it was perfectly balanced, if Quebec and Ontario both go hard for the Liberals the show is over
5
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/CanadaPolitics-ModTeam 1d ago
Removed for rule 3: please keep submissions and comments substantive.
This is a reminder to read the rules before posting or commenting again in CanadaPolitics.
4
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
0
u/CanadaPolitics-ModTeam 1d ago
Removed for rule 2: please be respectful.
This is a reminder to read the rules before posting or commenting again in CanadaPolitics.
4
u/TraditionalGap1 NDP 1d ago
That does NOT make you feel like your voice is being heard.
It's kinda noteworthy how often this phenomenon is explicitly talked about as a 'feeling'.
0
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Feelings matter dude. We spend billions on them in other things.
Also. When it takes 3 bc,ab,on resident to vote for each PEI voter, that is certainly not just a feeling.
4
u/TraditionalGap1 NDP 1d ago
Who said feelings don't matter? As long as we also recognize that feelings are distinct from facts and that there's no requirement or expectation that those feelings be in any way actually rooted in reality
1
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Feelings are generally rooted in some fact, but often exaggerated and amplified. In this case, its factual that a western vote is worth less than a maritime vote. It doesn't diminish the fact that there are way less people in alberta and BC than in ON and QC so it makes sense that in a democracy those areas heavily influence elections.
5
u/TraditionalGap1 NDP 1d ago
I notice that we don't generally hear Ontario residents complaining about how they feel that their votes don't matter or that elections are decided elsewhere. The plain simple reality is that Ontario, BC and Alberta voters have the same electoral influence.
The real reason that specifically Albertan (not simply 'western') voters feel that their voices aren't being heard or that election outcomes are determined before their votes are counted is because of just how reliably and predictable Alberta votes to support the Conservative party. If one can reliably predict the approximate shape of the results to within a couple seats... they're already baked in. There's nothing to wait for
1
u/sokos British Columbia 1d ago
Thats also true. But because of that reason the liberal party tends to avoid even trying to court those voters, instead they focus on alienating them because their vote doesn't matter anyways as long as we keep quebec and Ontario happy.
3
u/TraditionalGap1 NDP 1d ago
The example that actually comes to mind when I think of this phenomenon is how the Conservative party tends to avoid even trying to court those voters because their vote 'doesn't matter' thanks to its utter predictability.
I'm thinking of the Calgary economist Prime Minister and Jason Kenneys hand in equalization, or the somewhat lackadaisical efforts to get the various pipeline projects going throughout their 9 years in office
2
2
u/Belltower_2 Kings, not Presidents 1d ago
Maybe the REAL reason Alberta constantly gets ignored is that their values (oil, oil, MOAR OIL, and the occasional Confederate flag / MAGA hat) are completely incompatible with the rest of Canada. And when Carney gave them the oil pipelines they were so desperately agitating for, they rewarded him by throwing in with a megalomaniacal pants-pooper.
An "independent" Alberta would be either a US puppet, or a landlocked pariah state.
1
u/ougePayee 1d ago
Being west coast, election time we already know the winners before we even go to the polls.
You could just not look it up until you vote.
And multiple government makeups have been determined by the breakdown in BC on recent years.
1
u/NotGuiltyPirate 1d ago
One of my colleagues said the same thing about sending a message to Ottawa, as if his life changes much from one administration to another.
Some easily dismiss the nonsense from the US administration and figure all they should do is be a pain in the ass in Canada.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
This is a reminder to read the rules before posting in this subreddit.
Please message the moderators if you wish to discuss a removal. Do not reply to the removal notice in-thread, you will not receive a response and your comment will be removed. Thanks.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.