What does one do when faced with people whose entire outlook is based on personal and projected deception? It’s one thing if they’re just the local loon, standing on the street corner with a “the end is near” sandwich board but it is far more frightening when he’s on stage and hundreds of people are watching and listening intently, applauding and nodding in agreement with his obviously fictitious tales. This is Alberta’s independence movement and even if it’s not growing in size, it is a growing concern because of its lack of attachment to reality.
If you dare to spend any time on Facebook, you know what I mean; friends, acquaintances, or even family members sharing false “facts” and flags, seemingly all-in on the fantasy world that’s been created and shaped for them by someone selling a better story.
There have been times I envied them that ability. Personally, though, I’d have chosen a more pleasant wonderland than one where the government is out to get me.
COVID broke people’s brains, sure, but that also happened in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu outbreaks. The difference was that they didn’t have the ability to broadcast their brokenness to millions of people every day.
And life was just generally harder back in the early 1900’s than it is today; the majority didn’t have the luxury of working 7-8 hour days with two days of rest. They didn’t have the ability to lose themself in another reality because the one they actually lived took all of their capacity to survive. Paid vacations? Retirement? Personal vehicles that allowed them to go “on tour” with their nuttery? Ha.
They also didn’t have the ear of a government who is willing to make bad decisions to appease them.
One heck of a party
Once upon a time, I thought of political parties as the bridge between government and the people they governed. It’s possible that’s even how they functioned at one point. What we have today is not that, thanks to the fact that the unelected membership has more power than those we elected.
Voters are offered the chance to have their say during general elections, once every few years, but the membership of a political party can exert their will every day in between— at least on the Premier. Oddly enough, the government caucus has more protection from the political party than the leader, which we saw play out with Jason Kenney.
In 2021, Jason Kenney was not popular. He managed to make everyone mad by trying to “both sides” public health measures. He managed to go both too far and not far enough to protect Albertans and the healthcare system. I remember actually feeling badly for him because he genuinely seemed to believe an appeal to “personal responsibility” would work but had to come to terms with the fact that it’s an ideological fantasy, not a governing strategy.
A majority of people will, generally, do the right thing most of the time. That’s borne out in a shared reality. A minority of people, however, will not and that’s why we have laws, rules, restrictions, and enforcement.
When the UCP voted to implement a required leadership review at least every three years, Jason Kenney as UCP leader, tried to hold it off. As even die-hard Alberta conservative supporters learned in 2025, when the political party that holds government elects a new leader, that person automatically becomes the head of government without a requirement to hold a general election. Somehow it didn’t bother them as much when conservative parties did it (for almost ten years straight) provincially. But I digress.
While Jason Kenney was trying to hold off the review, the membership-backed constituency associations used their collective power to call a special meeting and force a leadership review. After receiving only a bare majority, he resigned, triggering a leadership race. And “poof”— Alberta got a new Premier as soon as the membership chose a new party leader.
And this is why I say that caucus has more protection from the whims of the membership. The membership would have to successfully collect enough signatures for a recall, then win a publicly accessible referendum on whether the entire constituency wanted to recall the member. Those officials cannot be ousted entirely at the membership’s wont.
The Premier though? A simple “yes” or “no” vote among people who are willing to pay $10, and the party has discretion over who they will allow to do so. Most notably, Thomas Lukaszuk attempted to purchase a membership to vote in Danielle Smith’s 2023 leadership review and the party brass denied him a membership.
Local MLAs are treated very differently than the leader of the party especially in the fact that the public at large will decide their fate, without party interference in the process.
Let’s talk about that guest list
As David Parker’s Centurion Project was ordered to shutter their app that held the voter identification, names, addresses, phone numbers and emails of almost 3,000,000 Albertans, he was pushing those separatist-minded individuals to buy memberships in the United Conservative Party because that’s where the pressure can be applied directly to the elected officials running the government.
His separatist playmate Jeffrey Rath of the Alberta Prosperity Project has been advocating for the same.
While the party has complete control over the leader between elections, they have complete control over who can stand for election under their banner during a general. In 2022, Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer faced a takeover of her constituency association board. Most CAs have a between dozens and a hundred party members. If they’re lucky, they could probably get 10 per cent to show up to meetings. At the CA annual general meeting that day, just over 400 people showed up.
They elected a new board and announced Ms. Aheer would face a nomination contest to be the party’s representative in the next election. Ms. Aheer saw the move for what it was and publicly stated she would not run for re-election. “Poof”; the next election, I had a new UCP MLA.
The party brass also has a say, if they’re brave enough. In 2018, the higher-ups ran interference in a number of candidate nomination races. Leela Aheer’s nomination was targeted that year as well but the party disqualified her challenger. In Brooks-Medicine Hat, the party waited until the day before the vote to disqualify S. Todd Beasley from the race. Michaela (Glasgo) Frey, the former constituency assistant for MLA Drew Barnes (Cypress-Medicine Hat) won the nomination.
In Drumheller-Stettler, former Wildrose MLA Rick Strankman resigned after losing his nomination race to now-Finance Minister Nate Horner, in which another candidate, Todd Pawsey, was disqualified.
Back then, Jason Kenney was seen as the one wielding his “iron fist” and it was organizers like David Parker who rallied Albertans to purchase memberships to oust him. Mr. Parker, who was close enough to the former radio host to invite her to his wedding, had a falling out with Danielle Smith over inappropriate social media posts in which he attacked Pierre Poilievre’s wife, Ana.
Mr. Parker then set his sights on the Premier’s leadership review but was unsuccessful at swaying many (if any) votes as the Premier received some 91 per cent support from the 4,000 people who showed up.
Make no mistake, he is still seeking retribution for putting him outside her circle of influence.
I have yet to figure out if Ms. Smith will face a leadership review this year. Based on the proposal that was accepted back in 2020, and since she opted for a review in 2023 after her first year as premier, she should.
The hangover
As Jen Gerson said recently, the UCP-led government could refuse to hold a vote on separation based on the egregious breach of voter information. However, with the referendum date scheduled for October, to be followed by a potential leadership review at her party’s winter AGM, and the fact that the separatists are pushing their supporters to join the party, Danielle Smith may feel as if she doesn’t have a choice but to continue their bidding.
She is not without agency in this situation, however.
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