Western Standard - July 22, 2025


Alberta Conservatives demand party vote on independence

Topics
independence referendum
Mentioned
Wildrose
Local organizers bring 'Lemonade Day' to Calgary Alberta’s Heritage Fund Hits $30B with $2.8B Boost — Smith Eyes $250B by 2050

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

201.68

Word count

1,192

Sentence count

82


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk about the Alberta Party's position on independence from the United Conservative Party, and whether or not the party should allow a referendum to be held on the matter. We also talk about why a referendum would be a good thing for Alberta, and what it means for the rest of the country.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 two-thirds of UCP voters
00:00:02.160 support independence.
00:00:04.600 It's not a majority of Albertans,
00:00:06.040 but it's two-thirds of UCP voters.
00:00:08.320 And traditionally, members of a party tend
00:00:09.960 to be more strided,
00:00:11.880 more ideological,
00:00:13.420 more right-wing than
00:00:15.780 the public at large.
00:00:18.240 If this goes to a vote of
00:00:19.840 UCP members,
00:00:21.720 I have a hard time seeing how this
00:00:23.840 is anything but a pretty resounding
00:00:25.720 yes vote. Well, it's a delicate balance.
00:00:28.140 For them to say you can't
00:00:29.800 have it on at policy, especially
00:00:31.880 with so many having been submitted already
00:00:33.920 as was scoped,
00:00:35.880 would just be, if you want to see somebody grinning
00:00:37.840 ear to ear, it'll be Cam Davies because
00:00:39.740 you'll finally have the grouse and say, look, you see,
00:00:41.740 that's the only way for independence. They won't even allow you
00:00:43.800 to discuss it.
00:00:45.220 That's why UCP has to allow it.
00:00:47.280 Personally, I think they should allow the discussion.
00:00:50.000 And just speaking of my own point of view,
00:00:51.920 I think the members should reject entrenching
00:00:53.920 it into party. But that's where that discussion
00:00:55.820 can come. And then people will read in different
00:00:57.900 things with it.
00:00:58.780 You support independence. Why do you think the members
00:01:01.760 should not make that party policy?
00:01:03.380 Because you make that party policy,
00:01:05.140 and you've got to remember,
00:01:06.100 two-thirds of the UCP voters
00:01:08.900 support independence. But this is a
00:01:10.760 very polarizing issue. It's not one where there's much
00:01:12.820 fuzziness with people. It's a deal breaker for a lot
00:01:14.980 of them. And when you've got
00:01:16.680 0% of the supporters of the NDP who support
00:01:18.940 independence, you cut away a potential
00:01:20.700 20% of your base.
00:01:22.700 And you look at the electoral math, and that next
00:01:24.920 general election can look really,
00:01:26.740 really bad when you have actually carrying independence
00:01:28.780 in your policy set.
00:01:30.880 Again, I think that's where the tactic of being
00:01:33.680 able to say, we're putting it in the hands of
00:01:35.760 Albertans. If they initiate a referendum, they can
00:01:38.140 have that vote. They can make that decision.
00:01:41.160 That's where it belongs, and not within the party,
00:01:44.000 because then you can rip your own party very
00:01:46.460 dangerously, or at least your base of support in a
00:01:48.560 general election.
00:01:49.320 So, I mean, that's just my view on it.
00:01:52.140 Not every UCP MLA is necessarily pro-independence.
00:01:57.340 No, I mean, even if I'm a joke that you have a
00:01:59.260 more...
00:01:59.520 ...do if that party makes it policy.
00:02:01.380 Yeah, and we know MLAs are bound by party
00:02:03.140 policy. There's a longer discussion of things,
00:02:05.420 but I would hope there'd be a spirited discussion
00:02:09.500 and maybe along those lines. And again, I mean,
00:02:11.440 this is as pro-independence as we've ever seen from a
00:02:14.180 governing party in this province, and there's still
00:02:16.500 room to push it further. I was VP policy for the
00:02:20.460 Wildrose for a number of terms. It's a thankless,
00:02:23.120 miserable job. But you do, there's no doubt there's
00:02:27.380 mechanisms to try and get policies to go the way
00:02:29.440 you want them and the way you don't, without, you
00:02:32.520 know, directly interfering or being bad. So with the
00:02:34.620 order you set them in, I don't think they could put
00:02:36.280 that question at the top of the agenda. You're going
00:02:37.980 to put it down a ways where you'll reach it.
00:02:39.500 No, it's actually, but it's determined by how they
00:02:42.580 get ranked at the A level. The party itself does not
00:02:45.620 could determine what order they're in.
00:02:46.880 Because given the ability, I mean, I would have
00:02:48.700 say maybe question 10, but maybe put a three
00:02:51.760 concession questions before it. That'll make the
00:02:53.740 independence people feel a little happier. We're
00:02:55.580 going to take on a provincial police. We're going
00:02:57.660 to entrench a pension plan, but I think it's
00:03:00.620 determined more by rankings.
00:03:03.300 Well, and it might be, I'm just speaking from the,
00:03:04.960 how it was before, but how you try to adjust policy
00:03:08.380 discussions so that maybe by then there's been a
00:03:10.460 lot of debate on it and members in the room are
00:03:12.860 starting to think on things a little further that
00:03:14.740 maybe we could put this to referendum rather than
00:03:16.660 entrenching in party policy. But I mean, that's the,
00:03:20.560 they can't ignore the question, but I do think it
00:03:23.480 would be very dangerous if they actually put it into
00:03:26.760 party policy and it really could bode poorly in a
00:03:30.000 general election.
00:03:30.720 I do agree. It's politically dangerous. I mean, if that
00:03:33.760 becomes the defining issue of election, it gives the NDP a
00:03:36.060 better shot of winning because their voters are unified. 95% of
00:03:40.540 NDP voters are federalists. Only 5% support NDP, uh,
00:03:44.620 independence as, as new Democrats. Whereas with UCP voters, it's a
00:03:48.760 bigger pool of voters, you know, the more popular, but it's two
00:03:53.200 thirds. It's board of independence, one third opposed. Yeah. And that
00:03:56.200 is not a marginal question. It's not like what the tax rate
00:03:58.720 should be or what's in the curriculum as an existential
00:04:01.360 question. Yeah. And as an independent supporter, I mean, I want
00:04:03.700 to see a referendum and I want to see as strong as showing as
00:04:05.980 humanly possible in it. I still think unless things change
00:04:09.220 pretty dramatically, which is possible in this next eight
00:04:11.560 months, it's still going to be hard to get over 50% in the
00:04:14.400 referendum. So it better be pretty darn good. But if you come
00:04:16.900 in at 40% and then the NDP get in, it's going to be a decade
00:04:21.820 before we get another vote on it. Because you know, the next
00:04:24.760 chance you get, whether you're not going to get that chance at
00:04:27.760 all with the NDP. I'm just saying, will the members think that
00:04:30.820 strategically? I don't know. But that's the way I kind of look
00:04:33.980 at it. I don't know. The thing is, you're going to have huge
00:04:39.340 political machines on the Federalist side in this
00:04:42.780 referendum. You're going to have the Alberta NDP. You're
00:04:46.140 going to have whatever small machines are for the Federal
00:04:49.680 and the Federal NDP and the Liberals, which in a few pockets
00:04:54.080 there's something, but nothing big. But the Conservative Party of
00:04:56.700 Canada is going to do everything it can. They have the most to
00:05:00.700 lose politically with independency. Well, and that's why I'm so
00:05:04.820 committed to it being a grassroots individuals or, you
00:05:07.320 know, groups and movements rather, but trying to get into the
00:05:09.660 party. Canada is going to be here fighting against it, surely.
00:05:12.320 And they will under any circumstance. Yeah. And you're
00:05:14.700 going to have the Alberta NDP opposing it. I don't see any
00:05:18.500 chance of winning unless you've got at least one major
00:05:20.700 political machine on your side. And that means the only one in
00:05:23.360 town is the UCP. Or the machine has to be something that
00:05:26.500 isn't a party. Sure. The parties have infrastructure. They
00:05:31.120 have hierarchy. Absolutely. They've got an organization. And
00:05:34.140 the independence movement, I mean, I'm pretty impressed with
00:05:36.560 what some of the folks have done so far, but they pale in
00:05:38.900 comparison to a well-oiled political machine like the UCP or
00:05:42.480 the NDP. You'd be bringing a BB gun to an artillery fight if
00:05:48.020 you're going against a Conservative Party of Canada, the NDP, the
00:05:51.620 Federal Liberals, the Federal NDP.