The Conservative Party convention will draw about 2,650 delegates, but it’s not the largest right-wing political rally to be held in Calgary this week, nor is it the largest on the grounds of Calgary Stampede Park.
That title belongs to the Stay Free Alberta secessionist rally and petition signing event, which drew more than 3,000 supporters Monday to the Big Four Building, a few hundred meters from the federal party convention site at the BMO Centre.
This convention demonstrates a keen awareness and sensitivity to the political issues currently at the center of Alberta politics, especially among conservatives.
And at least one attendee at the federal rally is even eager to hold a vote on whether Alberta should leave Canada.
Medicine Hat delegate Daniel Hine told CBC News he signed a citizens’ initiative asking Alberta to schedule a secession referendum.
He doesn’t know how he will vote, but wants a debate, no matter how “ugly and weird” it is.
“I want questions, that’s what I want,” Hain said outside the main convention room. “I’m tired of everyone telling me to shut up.”
Calgary delegate Norman Chachard also said he wanted to sign the petition to have an “adult conversation about Canada’s future.”
Shachar said many of his friends in the Alberta Conservative Party are similarly upset and hope the referendum will spark debate.
“They want to talk about moving, but they haven’t packed their bags.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poièvre is expected to address the threat of Alberta secession in a speech tonight ahead of a leadership review.
This comes as calls for more Conservative politicians, particularly Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, are growing to counter growing separatist sentiment in the province.
“This is Premier Smith’s chance to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ Either you belong to Canada or you don’t belong to Canada,” Progressive Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a premiers’ meeting in Ottawa earlier this week.
Premier Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Daniel Smith were asked about their response to Alberta separatist groups seeking assistance from U.S. authorities ahead of a potential referendum. Smith said he expected the U.S. “will limit the discussion of Alberta’s democratic process to Albertans and Canadians.”
Alberta’s New Democratic Party is calling on all United Conservative Party MLAs to state their stance on separatism, but Alberta’s governing caucus is refusing to comply with the request.
Geoff Rath, general counsel for Stay Free Alberta, told The Canadian Press that multiple UCP MLAs have signed the petition, although he declined to name them. A UCP caucus spokesperson said in a statement that MLAs are “clearly free to express their views on matters of their choosing,” but added that they were not aware of any MLAs who had signed the petition.
If the petition collects at least 177,732 signatures from Albertans (less than 6 per cent of the province’s electorate) by May, the government will be required to hold the referendum that activists want.
Support for separatism is highest among conservative activists in Alberta, especially outside of Edmonton and Calgary.
This is such a big issue in Alberta’s rural conservative circles that two MPs outside of Calgary and Edmonton declined to say whether they would sign a petition to force an independence referendum.
“That’s a hypothesis, right?” said David Bexte, MP for Bow Island in southern Alberta. “The devil is always in the details of words.”
But he claimed to be a “federalist” and argued that in his district, “that’s not part of the main discussion. We have bigger fish to fry.”
Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs represents the northeastern Alberta stronghold of Mitch Silvestre, who is leading the Stay Free Alberta separatist petition.
“My own view is that every member of Parliament who lives in Alberta is also an Albertan who has the right to vote on petitions, participate and vote according to his or her constituency,” she told CBC News.
The four-term Alberta lawmaker said he sympathizes with voters dissatisfied with federalism and considering secession.
“People are losing hope in the idea that Alberta will get a fair deal,” she says.
“The federal government has been able to do nothing but stop and vilify and frankly demonize people across the state for so long…People are like, well, what are our options here?”
Mr. Stubbs emphasizes the importance of party unity as well as national unity. Delegates are keenly aware of this as the Conservative Party votes on Poièvre’s leadership this weekend, but the party’s unity takes on a different dimension when it comes to separatism.
Independence is an issue that divides the federal Conservative Party’s support base. A Janet Brown Research Opinion poll conducted for CBC Calgary last spring found that 49 per cent of respondents who identify as Conservative voters said they would vote “yes” for Alberta to leave Canada, while 45 per cent said they would vote “no”.
Recent surveys by other polling organizations suggest support for independence among all Albertans is between 20 per cent and low 30 per cent, but support tends to be much higher among those who vote federally Conservative and provincially for the UCP.
“This is what Pierre Poièvre is working on leading up to the tournament,” Brown said this week. “A lot of people are going to want him to declare that he’s against separation. But he has to remember that half of his base in Alberta is in favor of separation.”
Red Deer delegate Gord Tulk said there was a danger in Poièvre and other Conservatives blaming Alberta secessionists.
“I think a lot of Albertans are being told to sit down and shut up. [that] What you are complaining about is ridiculous and very wrong,” said Turku, who is also a UCP politician.
He estimated that 50 to 60 per cent of federal Conservative members in central Alberta support independence, even if many won’t say so publicly.
“They’re conservative and they have all the options, right?” Turku told CBC News. “But when the time comes, they will go.” [for] Independence. “
He did not consider himself a separatist, but said he would have to think seriously at the referendum voting booth.
“We know we cannot maintain the status quo in this country,” Turku said. “We cannot allow massive interference by the federal government to continue.”