Alberta premier adamant referendum ads are not ‘neutral’ on separation question, as UCP president claims

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is adamant she is promoting that the province stay in Canada, rejecting her own party president’s claim that the government’s advertising is “as neutral as possible” on the question. 

“I’m not a neutral party in this,” Smith said at an unrelated press conference on Monday. 

“I believe that we should remain, and I believe that we should do everything we can to address the things that are causing grievances [within the province]. You can’t ignore them.”

In a lengthy Facebook post, UCP president Rob Smith acknowledged that many party members have “expressed disappointment” about the government’s $4-million advertising campaign on the referendum.

In his interpretation of the ad campaign, the UCP president argued the premier isn’t promoting a pro-Canada message as loudly as she is campaigning on the other questions.

He said the premier is spending $4 million to promote the message: “VOTE YES TO THE 9!!! … and, commensurately less, in a measured, limited way: Vote for ‘a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.’”

The UCP president continued: “And [the premier] assured me … emphasized, I’d even say, that the included language and ‘promotion’ regarding this question would be as NEUTRAL as possible and not nearly as persuasive as for Questions #1-#9.”

“I’ve heard some of these ads, and I believe what Premier told me,” he said.

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When asked about the UCP president’s comments, the premier rejected the idea that the province’s campaign is dampening its pro-federation stance on Question 10.

“The nine questions that the government has put forward are what we were providing more information to the public on, ’cause I don’t see anybody actually doing any campaigning on either side of any of those,” Smith said.

It’s not the first time the premier and UCP president have shared contradicting perspectives on the topic. In May, the two were at odds over where they stand on Alberta staying in Canada.

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Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, said the premier and UCP president have differing strategies, with Rob Smith trying to “placate” those who are concerned that the premier is taking a pro-Canada position.

But what those contradictory messages from within the UCP could mean for party unity is “an open question,” she said.

“It’s very difficult to try to hold together a party that has people with such disparate and conflicting views within it.”

Last week, the Highwood UCP association, a riding association in southern Alberta, formally urged a party vote to review Smith’s leadership.

Group board member and prominent independence supporter Tanya Clemens said she was motivated largely by the premier’s vocal support for the “stay” option in the referendum. However, she said she still respects Smith and would likely support her UCP leadership if a review was held today.

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On Monday, the premier was asked about the perception that federalists feel she is more aligned with separatists, while separatists feel she is a federalist. 

Chuckling at the reporter’s question, Danielle Smith said, “I guess I have to take responsibility for my communications on that.”

“I understand the frustrations Alberta had after being abused for 10 years by an out-of-touch federal government, and it created a lot of anger,” she said.

“And I know that this is one of the ways that some people are wanting to express that anger and, you know, I sympathize with their position. But, I believe that Canada is working, every day, better than it has in a long time.”

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Williams believes the premier’s strategy is to try to avoid offending those who are leaning separatist and to have the other nine referendum questions substitute for the question on separation.

But, she points out, you can’t always please everybody.

“Trying to be neutral, trying not to offend anyone, trying to please all of the people who disagree has wound up, more than once, in everybody disagreeing with her, being angry with her, and in some cases calling for her leadership,” Williams said.

Danielle Smith previously promised to travel across the province campaigning for voters to choose to stay in Canada.

“I’ve got a pretty busy travel schedule this summer. I’ll be doing town halls and meetings and talking to people about why it is I think they should vote to remain,” she told reporters at a May 22 press conference.