While questions were flying from UCP members to cabinet ministers on multiple topics like vaccines, auto insurance reform, and policing, one man’s turn got the attention of everyone.
Jeffrey Rath of the Alberta Prosperity Project is spearheading efforts for the province to separate from Canada. He’s leading a court effort to get a referendum question on a ballot next year. Rath got to one of the mics and didn’t ask a question to the government, but instead to the room.
“How many of all of us favour a free and independent Alberta?” he yelled.
People loudly cheered and stood up in support. Premier Danielle Smith, supposed to act as moderator, had to step up and turn the temperature down.
“I support an independent Alberta within a united Canada”. This response garnered many boos and a few heckles from the crowd.
Talking to CityNews after, Rath is taking issue with the memorandum of understanding that Smith signed with the prime minister this week.
Rath says his time at the mic was not to ask a question to the cabinet, but to gauge independence support at the AGM.
“We did that to send a message to Danielle Smith and to this cabinet that their party is an independence party. Their party wants a free and independent Alberta and they better start leading like we’re going to become that country. Because that’s what their members demand,” said Rath.
“I just ask everybody to be mindful”, Smith said still trying to subdue the crowd. “This party is a merger of two parties with different cultural traditions. Sometimes the way we solve disputes is by solving them through referenda.”
Final arguments in the Alberta separation case are set for December 5. In the meantime, a petition affirming Alberta’s stay in Canada is still going through the verification process by Elections Alberta.
