Alberta Separatism, COVID Politics and the UCP's Stance

David, I think I've explained to you before that there's a bit of a backstory here, which

is that during COVID, as you know, in Alberta, there was a stronger, let's call it right-wing

kind of libertarian reaction to what were even the lightest restrictions in Canada under

my government.

And that was mixed up with a lot of anti-vax conspiracy theories and so forth and the kind

of trucker convoy and adjacent movements.

And a lot of people got activated into politics around that time.

Those people focused on taking me down as premier, but COVID is no longer there.

And a lot of them have since moved that political energy into the fight for separation.

So these are people who, broadly speaking, had always been kind of at the margins of

Alberta politics, supporting marginal right-wing parties, alt-right kind of rural parties that

would come and go over the past 40 years, maybe elect one MLA every now and then.

But they've now focused their political efforts on effectively trying to take over the governing

party.

And I think that's profoundly undemocratic.

But the premier is the leader of the United Conservative Party.

She says she's a federalist and that will be the position of her government and her

caucus, though we're not exactly seeing a stampede of people running to the microphones

to acknowledge that position necessarily.

It is in the founding articles, or at least in the agreement in principle to found the

party.

How can the United Conservative Party credibly take a position of neutrality in a referendum

like this?

Well, I don't think it can.

A house divided against itself cannot stand, so says scripture, as quoted by Abraham Lincoln

in the 1860s.

You know, this is the governing party

of Alberta. This is serious business, a party that fields

candidates on a platform which has done so twice since its creation, a

very clear platform of support for a strong Alberta

in a united Canada, that it was on that basis that these MLAs

were elected, that they have formed government not once but twice.

And to then come in behind that and use

internal party mechanisms to throw all of that

overboard and to say, no, we're going to decide now that we're a separatist party or at

best neutral on national unity is

I can't really think of a precedent, at least not in modern Canadian political history, for

something like this. And I think at some point, the leadership has got to

square up with Albertans. Where does the government stand?