Bruised but not yet broken, Alberta’s separatist movement is turning its attention to Premier Danielle Smith and the governing United Conservative Party.
As results continued to trickle in early Tuesday morning, the separatists’ defeat proved even more decisive than months of public polling predicted — with 75.7 per cent of Albertans voting to remain in Canada, and just 24.3 per cent voting to trigger an independence referendum.
It was a staggering blow to the separatist movement, and a massive win for the volunteers and politicians who campaigned for months against independence. The impact of the vote was less clear for Smith — who despite officially supporting the remain side, was seen as being sympathetic to the separatist cause and triggered the vote in the first place.
It doesn’t appear that Smith will get her wish that Albertans will simply accept the results of the referendum and move on.
Instead, Smith and the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) will have to contend with a motivated and more organized separatist movement turning their efforts to oust the premier and take control of the party.
Jeffrey Rath, one of the central figures in the separatist movement who had a hand in former premier Jason Kenney’s ouster, told Global News he will be pushing for a special general meeting of the party to remove Smith.
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Rath said Alberta independence will never be realized as long as Smith, who he called an “avowed federalist,” remains leader.
“Moving forward from here, our hundreds of thousands of members and volunteers are going to be committed to taking back ownership of the (UCP),” Rath said.
“It’s time to have a serious discussion as to whether or not a supermajority of the United Conservative Party of Alberta want to continue to be led by a Federalist (in Smith) who’s in bed with Naheed Nensi, Mark Carney, Rachel Notley and the rest of the socialists and globalists that have literally been ruining this province and ruining this country.”
Polling released on the eve of the referendum suggested that the separatists’ biggest pool of support was found within the UCP ranks. Abacus Data’s findings suggest 52 per cent of UCP supporters would vote for a referendum, with just 44 per cent voting to remain
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“By comparison, 93 per cent of NDP supporters would vote remain,” David Coletto, Abacus’ CEO, wrote in an analysis of the numbers.
“Indeed, 77 per cent of everyone who would vote (for a referendum) currently supports the UCP. The referendum continues to divide the governing party’s own coalition.”
The polling revealed UCP supporters are less likely than other partisans to feel a connection to Canada. Just 39 per cent of the party’s supporters expressed a strong attachment to the country, while 68 per cent of UCP voters feel a strong attachment to Alberta. More NDP voters (84 per cent) said they felt a strong attachment to Canada, while 42 per cent said the same about attachment to their province.
Another risk for Smith and the UCP is the political blowback for forcing Albertans to vote on independence in the first place.
While a strong current within their own party, Tuesday’s results clearly show that most Albertans do not have separatist sympathies. In forcing the issue, Smith risked wearing the separatist cause in voters eyes — while failing to satisfy the die-hard independence movement within her own party.
Polling aggregator 338Canada’s numbers suggest a tightening of the provincial horse race polls, with Naheed Nenshi’s NDP pulling within the margin of error with Smith’s governing party. That tightening of the provincial political race roughly coincided with Smith’s decision to put separation on the ballot.
With files from Global News’ Karen Bartko
Another F@&? Donald Trump!
25% is not an insignificant number. It will only go up with staying status quo. There are those in the 75% camp who are ultimately ok with the separation message but had zero trust in the messenger.
Crawl back under your rock
Axe the sepratists
Jeffery Rath and the other leader of the Separatist movement better move quick to replace Daniel Smith before they are found guilty of money laundering, fraud and theft. If they don’t, they won’t get the protection they need to avoid going to jail (or huge fines but I don’t think they are rich and important enough to be fined instead of jailed).
@ 7:43 Anon – Federalists are 75% of Alberta’s population. Carney’s approval is over 65%. What you should be worried about is where Poilievre’s approval rating bottoms out at.
The defiance of the d!psh!ts that took an ass-kicking last night is confounding.
Listen to Global toot the Liberal horn. Separatists still had a quarter of the vote. That’s a worrying number. The liberals should heed this. This movement to separate will only grow if the Liberals don’t figure it out and start to change their lunatic ways.
@ 6:30 Anonymous – Last night a member of the panel on Canada’s public broadcaster said it was $130M.
Well this cost us the price of four brand new firetrucks.
When is someone going to say what this cost?
@541, you can do same as comment below you fcktard dicktaster
@402 pm, go sck your dog, dad, uncles, grandpa, great grandpa, anyone else dead dig them up and blow them
@ rod – Nothing was accomplished last night. $130M was wasted on Smith’s stunt. The most popular of the 9 questions is the citizen voter ID. She has already implemented that (against the advice of information security experts) with the new combined driver’s license health care card which indicates citizenship status. She did not wait for the referendum result.
What did you do last night? If you voted that was thanks to Smith. She went around the crooked Carney to accomadate you. Just as you and eveyone else in a democratic system she had a right to vote any way she felt comfortable. Instead of graciously accepting defeat you would sooner blindside her. Grow the hell up and get on board to get rid of the real problem(Carney).
@ Incontinentia Buckets – Go now. There’s the door, bye. You won’t be missed tough guy. Spare us all your pathetic drivel.
“You just wait! I’ll be back!”
I truly believe Elections Alberta and their mainstream media lapdogs rigged the election to STEAL freedom from Albertans yet again…just like they did with the Wildrose loss a few years ago after they were projected to have a supermajority the eve of the election. I pray President Trump sees this corrupt communist power grab and Maduros Marx Carney and his marxist banker buddies.
the leader of the separatists is a crook, misappropriating funds….etc. Wake up AB!
Not surprised. After the PQ failed in their referendum, they were sent to the wilderness for a while in Que provincial politics. Seen mostly as a one trick pony out of touch with the concerns of the day.
One on four Albertans are done with Canada. This isn’t a win for Canada. Its a warning.
Shape the f*ck up, Canada, or risk losing it all
Traitors should be rounded up.
What comes after that is the fun part.
She’s done and it has nothing to do with the separatists. I’m a conservative and am disgusted with her courting the right wing. Do I want Nenshi? Hell no but we can live through 4 years of him.
How many lawsuits for financial fraud is Rath facing?
That reporter is a real saint
Separatist leaders should leave the country they claim to despise so much.
Albertan’s rejected their mostly falacious claims and heeded the advice of Upton Sinclair: “It is foolish to be convinced without evidence, but it is equally foolish to refuse to be convinced by real evidence.”
Well, this clearly shows that the UPC’s need to be removed completely. The other parties may not be great but they are much better than the UPC’s ever were.
Sore losers lmao
Looking at the comments the biggest issue in Alberta is education not separatism
separatist leaders should look to form their own party rather than poisoning the UCP and further diluting their message.
The NDP are going to pounce on this result and attack Smith and the UCP mercilessly. If the NDP win the next election, it will only serve to further inflame separatist sentiments even more.
lol Imagine thinking half a million Canadians voting that they feel so alientated by Ottawa that they would rather start a new country…as a win for anyone. This is a sad day for Canada and these are only representing ONE province. This is a clear message that Ottawa needs to do some serious self reflection and determine how to reunite Canada.
Rath is a sniveling fraud artist who’s only in it for himself. Separatists please take this vote a resounding NO WAY. Leave the country if you can’t deal with democracy working just like you preach.
Commenter below, keep being human toilet for carnhole, it’s only job you’ll ever have
Rath should be executed for treason along with Smith, Trump, and Musk
@1253pm, you from Kazakhstan? Go back there and marry a pig, goat or sheep
@nathan, go back to watching porn movies your mom made loser!
Those who voted to stay were from Ontario or BC, only people that are born dumb and die dumber!
She has become the new Alison Redford; with her penchant for referendums being the new “penthouse spending.”
Someone has to lay out the exact pricetag here.
How many new firefighting helicopters could we still have?
There wouldn’t be any comments on here if all shills weren’t hiding behind their fake commenter names. here’s to all the gladiators hiding behind their keyboards in their homes.
If you people don’t like it move to the states we don’t want traders here anyways
Dude is completely delusional.
Ralph you lost! Move on! Or if you don’t like living in Canada move to the USA.
It’s just shows that 75 % of the voters were dumdums from the rest of Canada or elsewhere! FIGHT WILL CONTINUE, FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!
“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” – Mark Twain. Oh, poor Alberta :( God bless you.
can you imagine jeff rath as the president of the republic of magalberta?
The cranks now have to find a new target to be against. May she reap what she has sown.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
@ 12:10 Anonymous – When you showed your driver’s license the elections staffer used the info to find you on a verified list of voters. The list is the master not your driver’s license.
The referendum was about having to continue to listen to Jeffrey Rath and the people resoundingly voted “No”. He needs to get back to dealing with all the lawsuits against him..
Danielle Smith has done nothing but stand up for the Province and the Country since the day she was elected and every day since. It is despicable to be picking apart her character. She has seen what a certain group has done to Kenney and others – can’t let it happen to her. So stand up Alberta and Smarten up . I would love to have a Premier half as good as Smith. I live in BC. Maybe we are close to a good one coming.
Na na na na! Na na na na!! (You know how the rest goes)
Stick a fork in it. She’s done.
Considering all I had to do to vote was show my driver’s license, I would like to know what, if anything, is going on behind the scenes to make sure that everyone voting is allowed to
Cue the conspiracy theorists claiming the vote was fixed. :)
Smith will be replaced
Way to go Albertans! Canada needs a strong nation, especially now, and you have done your bit. We do not need a Trump-esque individual who tries to bring down our solidity. I`m not speaking of your premier in this case.
Too bad the reporter just let Rath ramble on & on and didn’t fact-check/correct Rath when he lied. I miss the days of good journalism.
Rath needs to be jailed if he allegations of illegal acts are true. He may even lose his lawyers licence when court gets thru with him. one angry man looking for recognition… ignore him media.
Decisive? For now, perhaps. But look around today. 1 in every 4 people you meet want to leave Canada. It is really time to ask “Why?” and make some serious changes.
Jeff Rath, what have you been drinking out of that ten-gallon hat of yours? Just curious.
The result is much more decisive. It exceeds 2/3 of the will of the voters. This is strong. Regarding the 1995 referendum on Quebec succession the winning result was very weak. No more expensive public opinion polls Jeff Rath. No more!
There must have been fraud with this referendum considering all the percentages that has been given in this hit piece.
For those out there that complain about the fact we had a vote, welcome to true democracy (and yes, it is expensive) It is obvious that you are originally from more Left of Centre provinces. The places where a democratic vote is a foreign concept and you just accept government and main stream media telling you what to think, say, and believe.
what a unhinged moron.
Rath and the rest of the traitors lost and now the UCP needs to distance themselves from the likes of them. Wash themselves clean as Smith got what she wanted from the beginning, recognition from Ottawa and concessions. Much like Quebec has been doing for decades, this opened the dialog to get things moving.
Now the traitors can make their own party and stay on the fringes.
I’m an old-time Lougheed P.C. I think it’s time for the UCP to SEPARATE . . . BACK into the pre-merger P.C. and Wildrose factions.
If the UCP wants to win the next election, they have to boot out all the separatists including Rath. Let them form their own separatist party. The UCP would be a federalist party and still be a big voting bloc to defeat the NDP. We don’t need separatists governing our province.
Alberta Seperatists didn’t get their way…wah ! … sore losers. Now searching for other targets to attack…tough bananas losers !
No Ben 24% is a fringe minoeity
Jeffery Rath, should be given a soother to quell his temper tramper
Rath thinks he’s going to win against Danielle. I can’t stand her politics but she is one smart woman. If Rath wins, the UCP splits, and subsequently splits the electoral vote. If Rath doesn’t win, he may weaken Danielle’s leadership a bit. Danielle though is two steps ahead of Rath (wrath?!) and is one crafty politician.
In regarding Ben’s comments below about vote splitting, that would be the fault of Danielle Smith – using Pontius Pilate approach, and the separatists. If this infighting keeps going, the NDP will form the next government. Then the sepatatistas will really whine. WE WANNA SEPARATE! That worries me a lot.
To Ben @ 9:35
Let me clarify, fat Nenshi means he has a fat arrogant brain and a fat arrogant mouth. I had to put up with his brand of arrogance before I became a refugee from Calgary.
@Eh 940am. With respect, my politics don’t line up with that of Jeffrey Rath, Poilievre, or Smith. But I’m not going to make fun of their appearance. That’s the point.
What is the separatists’ next move? A revolution? They don’t respect democracy , they don’t respect the will of most Albertans . Alberta separatists, move on! It’s over! This is not a best of seven series. You are still a fringe minority
Its over. Move on or out. Do it quickly.
run the separatists out of town,trump is looking for more minions
It’s amazing how many people love taxes
Will be interesting to see what happens regarding the other nine questions, if anything
Throughout history change never happens easily or comes quickly
Sorry Ben….globals own expert screwed up and admitted no one in alberta likes nenshiibut don’t worry I’m sure every poll between now and then will tell a different story
Sure Dale we can take away pride and Trans studies……that should cover it.
Jeffery Roth is clearly mentally unstable and a blowhard activist who should be locked up and forcefully medicated. The whole group of blowhards that voted to leave should have to pay for this unnecessary election.
@Dee Ironside 929 am. Respectfully, not sure why you said Neshi is fat. Who cares what he looks like? Good grief!
Plenty of Maple MAGA in here on this one. All bruised and offended that they lost their agenda. Maybe they need a tissue. All they can do now is attack the rest of Canada with false information, insults and stomping their feet on the ground in a temper tantrum. Standard behaviour. To the Maple MAGA, here is a final sentence you can comprehend, “Thank you for your attention to this matter”
Democracy has spoken, and the verdict is no. Let’s move on. It may very well be the separatists could go after Danielle-but what if that results in the UCP splitting into two parties and splitting the vote? Be careful what you wish for.
Of course it was never about respecting the will of Albertans for the seppie “leadership”. They don’t want a democracy. It’s their way ir the burn the whole thing down. Who cares how many lies they’ve had to tell along the way.
There so much bull sh *t in this story. Where to begin?
“ It was a staggering blow to the separatist movement, and a massive win for the volunteers and politicians who campaigned for months against independence.”
No it wasn’t. The outcome was predicted long ago.
“ Instead, Smith and the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) will have to contend with a motivated and more organized separatist movement turning their efforts to oust the premier and take control of the party.”
LOL nope. Nobody is attempting to oust her. The author of this story has zero political acumen.
Please correct your grammatical error in the first line/paragraph. “turning its attention toe…” corrected “turning its’ attention to..”
For those that want start up their own party and split off from the UCP, just remember what happened last time. The Right vote split, the NDP came up the middle and took government. We got 4 years of arrogant socialist rule (shudder).
Think about it, do you people really want fat Nenshi as premier? ick…..
Careful Ron, they could form terrorist cells and go after you..
Yay, the obvious happened!
The 4 CANADIAN soldiers killed at CFB Wainwright are worth more than any of these treasonous whores for the USD
I would trade each and every 1 of these separatists’ lives for the dead and injured
GTFO – go on…git
If “hundreds of thousands” of people want to “leave Canada” somebody give them a bus ticket heading SOUTH of the BORDER, and let ’em GO !!!
Separation is a non starter…better read the treaties signed in Confederation. Land would revert back to first nations and a lot of eviction notices will be put in motion…
24% is a good start. We can grow that.
What a waste of hard-working taxpayers’ money. 130 million sent in this referendum, it should be used to build school.
Well, that’s that. The people have spoken. That was the whole reason for the vote and I am proud that Premier Smith let us participate.
Now, we watch the PM and his liberal friends. Will he come through with his promises and other words?
Or, do the delays begin to pop up until it is clear all Alberta petroleum projects will be delayed ( for whatever reasons).
Will Carney once again show that his government has patronized Albertans (again).
I for one, will be watching very carefully.
I want a united country without the bickering parents have to endure on long driving vacations! Let’s grow up & act like a mature country! Please God!
This individual is a criminal by nature. Millions stolen from different people on both sides of the border. This fool is going to jail so don’t exspect him to stick around. Daniel Smith is a traitor to Alberta and Canada and should be treated as such. Neither one should be trusted with anyone’s future but their own. Jail is a good spot for treasonous traitors like him and Daniel Smith.
Well we don’t need a referendum cause we’ve won. Those who don’t want to be a part of Canada should just LEAVE and get out of our beautiful country. So we can live in peace and quiet. Oh yes and thanks to the comments made by one of the separatist leaders, I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR UCP EVER AGAIN, because they cannot be trusted to be a leader in this great province in this great country . The only thing that separating will do is help the rich oil people, believing other wise is foolish
The ELBOZO SHEEP have entered the comment section 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
Just look at the percentage for allowing immigrants to access benefits . They come here with no job , no prospects of a job , not willing to assimilate, not willing to speak the language, but sure come on in and use our health care , child care , monthly federal and provincial benefits and 40 + percent votes yes to this. Just embarrassing to be Canadians surrounded by morons .
No matter how many people voted to leave , the crooked feds and natives would have “fixed” it to whichever way they wanted. If you still think voting is legitimate I have a bridge and waterfront property to sell you in Nevada .
ALL THIS TALK ABOUT TRAITORS , U CLOWNS WOULD NOT HAVE GRANTED THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO HAVE A REFERENDUM ! WHOS THE FRICKIN TRAITOR !??? SHFH !
I voted as a non citizen. Great to see that 40% of people in Alberta are ok with this
How about the results of the other questions? I already knew the separation vote wasn’t going to win.
Interesting, the 25% probably represents the people directly involved in the oil industry. Thing is the other 75% is indirectly involved in the oil industry. Why do I say that, without oil Alberta’s population would go from 5 million people to 1 million like Saskatchewan because without oil, Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s economies would be about the same.
The other way to look at it without the oil industry, 4 million people in Alberta wouldn’t have jobs. So as the Federal Government keeps suppressing the oil industry there are a lot more than just oil workers jobs on the line.
Who proofreads these articles before publishing? It’s almost as laughable as Separatists in Alberta.
Well, it’s a minority with a loud voice that keeps repeating the same nonsense. It’s time for accountability and justice for everyone involved, including members of the provincial government and others. The federal government should launch an investigation and ensure that anyone found guilty of wrongdoing faces the appropriate legal consequences. Traitors should be in JAIL.
There is a typo in your very first sentence. Do you not hire editors anymore? It’s “to” not “toe.” Now pay up the editor’s fee.
Separatists should turn their “attention toe” sitting down and shutting the F*&@ up. While I’d love to Smith go, ousting her isn’t going to make their movement any more appealing.
Give it a rest, commie news. We are still counting votes here…
Congratulations Alberta! 75% of you are intelligent!
Jeffrey might be trying to make those plans from prison
Interesting. The conservatives of Alberta have always been pro-Alberta but within a confederated Canada. Same as the Wild Rose party. They wanted a more equal say for Alberta, within Canada. They were for reducing the equalization payments. The group that is trying to make UCP a separatist party should separate from the conservatives, and form their own party. They would get 24% of the votes. Then we would have a true conservative party we can stand behind. All this privatisation of our health care, policing and pension nonsense would fade.
Dream on