Jeffrey Rath at a watch party on the day of the referendum in Edmonton on Oct. 19. Premier Danielle Smith said on Friday she supports the decision to expel Mr. Rath from the party.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Friday confirmed that her United Conservative Party has expelled separatist leader Jeffrey Rath after he agitated for months to unseat her and turn the party into a vehicle for the independence movement.
Ms. Smith, at an unrelated news conference in Calgary, told reporters that Dustin van Vugt, the UCP’s executive director, decided on Thursday to cancel Mr. Rath’s membership and voided his registration to the party’s late-November annual general meeting.
Mr. van Vugt informed the UCP’s 18-person board of his decision on Thursday, Ms. Smith said.
“He believed that there were multiple instances of a breach of the code of conduct that we require of our members, and that it was his decision to pull the membership and cancel his AGM registration,” she said.
“And I’m supportive of that.”
The decision is yet another move by the UCP to quell separatist rumblings within the party since the Oct. 19 referendum, in which 75 per cent of Albertans rejected the prospect of a future vote on independence. Two days after the vote, Ms. Smith asked members to accept the result and said that those wishing to turn the UCP into a separatist party would not be welcome.
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Public opinion polls have repeatedly shown a significant chunk of the party’s membership support independence. In the months leading up to the vote, she touted the UCP as a “big tent” party that valued a multitude of opinions and refused to expel one of her MLAs who said he was voting in favour of a binding separation referendum.
This week Ms. Smith said the UCP is now requiring those wishing to serve on its provincial board to pledge that they will respect the result of the referendum on separation. Mr. Rath’s removal appeared to mark another move toward contending with threats from within the party.
“Somebody whose objective and mission it is to turn us into something we are not is not following the objective of our party,” Ms. Smith said on Friday.
“Our objective of the party is to get re-elected, and to make sure that we’re focused on doing that.”
Mr. Rath, in a Friday afternoon interview, was undeterred by the news. He said he plans to ask the party to explain its decision but did not say whether he’d appeal it.
“I wear it as a badge of honour, to be frank,” Mr. Rath said. He said he’s not aware of other party members having their memberships revoked.
“They’re engaged in Stalinist, Soviet-style tactics against me – basically sending me off to the gulag and saying that, you know, we disagree with you and your ideas [and] therefore you’re no longer welcome in the party.”
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Mr. Rath, a lawyer from Priddis, Alta., was one of the most polarizing figures in the Alberta independence movement in the referendum campaign. He and Mitch Sylvestre, another prominent separatist and UCP constituency president, have repeatedly threatened to turn the UCP into an independence party by taking control of the party apparatus.
At last year’s UCP AGM, Mr. Rath whipped the crowd into a frenzy when he asked how many party members supported independence. The crowd responded with boos when Ms. Smith said she hoped her progress on federal energy policy was convincing people that Canada can work for Alberta.
With his 2027 ticket cancelled, Mr. Rath suggested he’ll still find a way in, perhaps as an accredited journalist with a media organization.
“There’s all kind of different ways to get in,” he said.