Ric McIver, Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, has stated categorically he is not a supporter of Alberta separating from Canada.
In an emailed response to questions sent to United Conservative Party (UCP) MLAs whose names appeared on a list of supposed separation sympathizers cooked up by the Republican Party of Alberta and published last spring on its website, McIver also said he has not signed the Alberta Prosperity Project separation referendum petition.
As for whether he has taken any measures to have the claim that he supports Alberta separation removed from the RPA website, McIver said no to that as well. Of the fringe separatist party, he said, “I have no relationship with whoever this is.”
McIver’s response is unusual since most of the 18 members of the UCP Caucus whose names appeared as separation supporters on the RPA’s “MLA Independence Scorecard” have not responded to questions from media about whether they in fact support separation or have signed the APP petition. Instead, they mostly let Caucus Communications Director Shanna Schulhauser speak on their behalf.
Her response to media on February 9 said, not very informatively given what MLAs were being asked, that “Alberta’s United Conservative Caucus believes that citizen-initiated referendum petitions should be a grassroots process left to private citizens to sign, not elected officials. Our caucus has also been clear that we support a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”
That might be the truth and nothing but the truth, but it certainly isn’t the whole truth in the case of every UCP MLA named as a separation supporter.
In news stories about the RPA list published on February 6, only three UCP MLAs commented. Cardston-Siksika MLA and Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration Minister Joseph Schow told CTV he hadn’t signed the petition and he thought Canada could work; Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA and chief UCP Whip Justin Wright stuck to the party line and told City News he supports a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” and Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson, the Parliamentary Secretary for economic corridors, complained to City News about the RPA publishing such a list but said nothing about his position on separation.
Readers may wonder if McIver missed the memo, metaphorical or otherwise, about UCP MLAs not giving away their position on separation. This could be literally true. While he was elected as a UCP MLA, as Speaker he does not attend UCP Caucus meetings or, presumably, get caucus emails.
Nevertheless, it is significant that at least one UCP MLA is willing to say aloud that he has not gone down the separation rabbit hole.
According to the City News reporter, the RPA also told her that it had changed the status of Agriculture Minister and Highwood MLA RJ Sigurdson on the “Scorecard” when he told them he did not support separation. However, as of yesterday, Mr. Sigurdson still appears as on the page supporting separatism, along with every other UCP MLA mentioned in this post.
This still leaves unresolved question of where Nathan Cooper, former MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, stands on separation. The RPA says he supports it. It also says he’s still the MLA for his former riding, which is obviously incorrect.
Cooper was appointed last May as Alberta’s trade representative in Washington, D.C. As such, he is an accredited Canadian diplomat, so whether or not he supports Alberta separation as the RPA “Independence Scorecard” claims is also obviously a matter of public interest.
However, Cooper has not responded to my requests for comment. I’m not aware of him responding to anyone else about this question. So while it seems unlikely he is a supporter of Alberta separation, the matter remains unresolved.
Perhaps Canada’s new ambassador to Washington, Mark Wiseman, who took up his duties in the U.S. capital on Sunday can ask Cooper about this the next time their paths cross in the Canadian Embassy. (Wiseman was the chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corp., the provincial Crown corporation better known as AIMCo, from 2020 to 2023, so perhaps they can also chat about old times in Alberta.)
Certainly separatism was an issue in last spring’s by-election to replace Cooper in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, with candidates from two separatist fringe parties, including none other than RPA Leader Cameron Davies, contesting the vote. On voting day, Davies came a respectable third, a few votes behind the NDP candidate, Beverley Toews. But the UCP’s Tara Sawyer won handily in the rural riding south of Red Deer.
