By Chris Zwick, 4 Town & Country News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Local United Conservative MLAs say they will follow the party line when they cast their votes in the Oct. 19 referendum.

At the June 8 regular council meeting, Grande Prairie MLA Nolan Dyck and Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Ron Wiebe gave City of Grande Prairie council a rundown of some of the significant legislation that was passed during the spring session.

With both MLAs in the room, Coun. Dylan Bressey took the opportunity to question the elected representatives about the upcoming Oct. 19 referendum, particularly on the question of Alberta’s place in Canada and asked what constituents can expect to see from them leading up to the day of the vote.

“We’ve got a referendum coming up, and I’m really concerned about the distraction it is from exploring actual real solutions to the very real problems we have in this province and this country. I’m really worried that it’s driving away capital investment in this province,” said Bressey. “Also, just frankly, as a proud Canadian, I find it offensive. My family’s not perfect, but I love it, and my country’s sure not perfect, but I love it.”

Bressey went on to say he was glad to see Premier Danielle Smith make her voting intentions clear and confirm the UCP stance on the separation issue but added he’s worried about low voter turnout.

“Whatever people’s opinion are, I think we really need to have a lot of people showing up and turning up, turning out, so I’m curious what you’re planning to do, and what your party’s looking at in terms of organization to make sure that this vote actually goes the way it should go on October 19?”

Wiebe was first to respond, saying he was elected under the leadership of Smith, and her Bill 1 made it clear that a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada was a priority.

“Nothing has changed for me, right? I’ve tried really, really hard not to be distracted. I mean, this is a citizen-led initiative, or a couple of them, and we need to govern through all the noise,” he said, adding that he recognizes how serious the issue of separation is.

“I try and make the case wherever I go that our premier and our cabinet and caucus, we’re doing everything we can to deal with the feds. It’s not our fault that Pierre (Poilievre) didn’t win the election last spring, right?”

Despite not having an ideological match in Ottawa, Wiebe added they are doing the best they can with “the card that’s been dealt” and he’s optimistic they’ll “be successful in winning people over, so that we can continue to govern and get what Alberta deserves through all this.”

“I think the premier’s doing a heck of a job making the case for why some Albertans might have given up on Canada. We sure haven’t, but I can understand why some have. So, if we go through the facts and the emotions, they don’t always line up,” said Wiebe.

Dyck said the UCP caucus has been “pretty united” on the issue and said the fact that more than 700,000 people signed the citizen initiatives warrants having a serious conversation on the topic.

“I think I’ve been pretty, pretty public about what I want as well,” Dyck said. “I’m going to vote yes to stay, for Alberta to stay in Canada, but also I think the thing that we truly want is more jobs, more sovereign opportunities as an Alberta province, and be also able to chart our own destiny a little bit.”

He went on to say that even though there are large grievances with the federal government there have already been more glimpses of co-operation with the Carney government, than there ever was under the previous Liberal government.

“Look, I think everybody knows that I’m a true-blue Conservative, but at the same time, we’ve seen a shift in a Carney government’s attitude to work with Alberta, and not just fight us,” he said, citing several recent meetings between Smith and Carney.

Earlier in the meeting, Mayor Jackie Clayton mentioned some of the city’s federal advocacy plans saying council will be increasing its efforts to advocate to the federal government regarding resources, agribusiness, energy and Northwest Polytechnic, to name a few.

“As you’ve heard in the media, there’s a lot more conversation about that collaboration between Alberta and the value of Alberta within Canada in regard to our resources, and we know that when this region is successful, Alberta is successful, and when Alberta is successful, Canada is successful,” she said.

It’s not at all unexpected that Dyck and Wiebe say they will toe the party line when it comes to the separation question, said local activist Casey Klein who watched the June 8 meeting on the city’s YouTube channel.

Klein spearheaded the recent campaign to recall Dyck as an MLA and collected signatures on behalf of the Forever Canada citizens initiative. Even though the recall campaign fell well short of the required number of signatures, comments from the MLAs at the council meeting reminded her why she decided to start the recall.

“UCP MLAs knew exactly what kind of politics they were feeding, and now that the separatist fire is out of control, they want to pose as firefighters. They treat the public like we are fools, but it’s easy to see that they are the arsonists,” she told the News. “We can’t believe anything UCP MLAs say about staying in or leaving Canada. Not one UCP MLA has shown enough moral integrity to be trusted to serve the best interests of Alberta. They are more concerned with keeping power in Alberta, than keeping Alberta in Canada, and they will drag Alberta to the edge of Confederation to do it.”

Klein said even though the premier claims to be a champion of direct democracy, it only seems to be when it suits her purposes.

“Hundreds of thousands signed the Forever Canadian petition to keep Alberta in Canada, and she twisted our intentions to justify her power-grab referendum,” Klein said.

Links of Interest:

• Alberta Separatism Support Falls to 18% in June 5 Ipsos Poll … – Refdesk.ca
• Alberta Referendum Poll Tracker – The Writ
• Articles about, or mentioning, the upcoming Oct. 19 referendum on Alberta’s proposed separation

Top image credit: Local activist Casey Klein recreates watching a delegation visit to City of Grande Prairie council from MLAs Nolan Dyck and Ron Wiebe on the city’s YouTube channel June 8. Photo courtesy Chris Zwick

Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:

To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency:

• Daily, (articles posted during the last 24 hours) – [email protected]
• Weekly Digest cortescurrents – [email protected]