{"id":444243,"date":"2026-01-31T02:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T02:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:13:11","slug":"alberta-separatism-casts-shadow-over-conservative-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444243\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta separatism casts shadow over Conservative convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Conservative Party convention boasts roughly 2,650 delegates, which doesn\u2019t make this the largest right-leaning political gathering this week in Calgary \u2014 or even the biggest on the Calgary Stampede park grounds.<\/p>\n

That title would belong to Stay Free Alberta\u2019s separatist rally and petition signing event that drew more than three thousand supporters on Monday to the Big Four building, a few hundred metres away from the federal party\u2019s convention site at the BMO Centre.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an acute awareness and sensitivity at the convention to the political issue that\u2019s now at the centre of Alberta politics, particularly within conservative circles.<\/p>\n

And to at least one attendee of this federal gathering, there\u2019s even an eagerness to hold a vote on whether Alberta should leave Canada.<\/p>\n

Medicine Hat delegate Daniel Hein told CBC News he\u2019s signed the citizen\u2019s initiative to require Alberta to schedule a secession referendum.<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t sure how he\u2019d vote but he wants the debate, no matter how \u201cugly and weird\u201d it may get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the question, that\u2019s what I want,\u201d Hein said outside the main convention room. \u201cI\u2019m tired of people saying, you hush.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AMedicine Hat, Alta., resident Daniel Hein believes the best way to handle separatist sentiment is to hold a referendum. (Joel Dryden\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Norman Schachar, a Calgary delegate, said he wants to sign the petition as well, to have \u201can adult discussion about Canada\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of his Alberta Conservative friends are similarly kicking tires and want the debate a referendum would stoke, Schachar said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to talk about moving, but they aren\u2019t packing their bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to address the threat of Alberta separatism in his speech tonight, ahead of his leadership review.<\/p>\n

That comes as there are growing calls for more Conservative politicians to combat a feared rise in Alberta separatist sentiment, particularly Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity for Premier Smith to stand up and say, \u2018Enough is enough.\u2019 Either you\u2019re with Canada or you\u2019re not with Canada,\u201d said Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a Progressive Conservative, earlier this week at a premiers\u2019 meeting in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Smith, Carney say they’d expect U.S. would respect Canadian sovereignty on Alberta separatism:\"\"<\/p>\n

Smith, Carney say they expect U.S. would respect Canadian sovereignty on Alberta separatism<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith were asked their response to an Alberta separatist group seeking support from U.S. officials ahead of a potential referendum. Smith said she expects the U.S. ‘would confine their discussion about Alberta’s democratic process to Albertans and to Canadians.’<\/p>\n

The Alberta New Democrats have demanded all United Conservative MLAs declare where they stand on separatism, although Alberta\u2019s governing caucus wouldn\u2019t play ball with that request.<\/p>\n

Jeff Rath, legal counsel for Stay Free Alberta, told the Canadian Press that multiple UCP MLAs have signed the petition, although he wouldn\u2019t name names. A UCP caucus spokeswoman wrote in a statement that MLAs are \u201cobviously free to express their views on any matter they choose,\u201d but added she wasn\u2019t aware of any MLAs who\u2019ve signed the petition.<\/p>\n

If that petition gets at least 177,732 Albertans\u2019 signatures by May \u2014 less than six per cent of all eligible provincial voters \u2014 the government would be required to hold the referendum that activists want.<\/p>\n

Support for separatism runs highest among Alberta\u2019s conservative activists, especially outside the cities of Edmonton and Calgary.<\/p>\n

\"CowboyCowboy hats branded with the logo for the 2026 Conservative Party convention are stacked in a room at the BMO Centre in Calgary on Jan. 30. (Jason Markusoff\/CBC)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a potent issue in rural Alberta conservative circles that two MPs from outside Calgary and Edmonton wouldn\u2019t say whether they would sign the petition to force an independence referendum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a hypothetical, right?\u201d said David Bexte, MP for Bow Island in southern Alberta. \u201cThe devil\u2019s always in the detail with words.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he did maintain that he\u2019s \u201ca federalist,\u201d and in his district \u201cit\u2019s not part of the main discussion. We\u2019ve got bigger fish to fry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shannon Stubbs, MP for Lakeland, represents the northeast Alberta home base of Mitch Sylvestre, who leads the Stay Free Alberta separatist petition drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own view is that every single individual member of Parliament who is a resident of Alberta is also an individual Albertan who has a right to vote in petitions, to participate and vote according to their own constituencies,\u201d she told CBC News.<\/p>\n

The four-term Alberta MP said she\u2019s sympathetic to her constituents who are so frustrated with federalism that they\u2019ll consider separation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are losing hope about the concept that Alberta will ever get a fair deal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA federal government can only block, denigrate and frankly villainize an entire province of people for so long before \u2026 people are like, well, what are our options here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoDavid Bexte, MP for Bow Island, and Shannon Stubbs, MP for Lakeland, pictured at the Conservative Party convention in Calgary on Jan. 30. (Joel Dryden\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Stubbs brings up the importance of national unity, but also party unity. That\u2019s high on the minds of delegates this weekend as Conservatives vote on Poilievre\u2019s leadership \u2014 but regarding separatism, party unity takes on a different dimension.<\/p>\n

Independence is an issue that splits the federal Conservative base. According to a Janet Brown Research Opinion survey taken last spring for CBC Calgary, 49 per cent of respondents who identified as Conservative Party voters say they\u2019d vote \u201cYes\u201d for Alberta to leave Canada, while 45 per cent would vote no.<\/p>\n

More recent surveys by other pollsters have suggested support for independence among all Albertans at between 20 per cent and the low 30s, although it trends much higher among people who vote for the Conservatives federally or the UCP provincially.<\/p>\n

“This is what Pierre Poilievre is dealing with going into the convention,” Brown said this week. “A lot of people will be calling for him to declare that he’s against separation. But he has to remember that half of his base in Alberta is for it.”<\/p>\n

Gord Tulk, a delegate from Red Deer, said there\u2019s danger in Poilievre or other Conservatives denouncing Alberta separatists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of Albertans getting told to sit down and shut up \u2014 [that] what you\u2019re complaining about is silly \u2014 is massively wrong,\u201d said Tulk, who\u2019s also active in UCP politics.<\/p>\n

He estimated that 50 to 60 per cent of active federal Conservatives in his central Alberta region back independence, even if many wouldn\u2019t say so publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re conservative and they\u2019re playing all their options, right?\u201d Tulk told CBC News. \u201cBut if it came down to it, they would go [for] independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t consider himself a separatist, but said he\u2019d have to think seriously about it in a referendum voting booth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the status quo in this country cannot carry on,\u201d Tulk said. \u201cWe cannot have massive federal interference continue even more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Conservative Party convention boasts roughly 2,650 delegates, which doesn\u2019t make this the largest right-leaning political gathering this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-444243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}