Alberta’s UCP Heads to the Far Right

There was no showdown at the United Conservative Party corral on the weekend. No shootout between moderates and social conservatives at the UCP’s annual general meeting in Calgary.

The moderates never showed up. Or the few that did were steamrolled by a juggernaut.

With almost 3,800 delegates registered, the United Conservative Party’s convention was the largest political annual general meeting in Alberta’s history. It was also arguably the tamest.

During debates over party policy resolutions on Saturday, there were no head-on collisions because the traffic was flowing in one direction: to the far right.

And members are thus hoping to force Smith in the same direction just as she’s trying to demonstrate to Albertans she is not the same right-wing zealot who won the UCP leadership race a year ago.

During the convention, the few people who dared raise objections against simplistic right-wing policies were simply rolled over like so many speed bumps.

Party members approved motions directing the government to, among other things, eradicate diversity and inclusion offices at post-secondary institutions, refuse to place trans women in women’s prisons, defend the rights of those who chose not to be vaccinated and protect contrarian physicians who speak out during pandemics.

But it was the issue of “parental rights” that seemed to galvanize them the most. One resolution over gender pronouns in schools would require teachers, schools and school boards to get written consent from parents before allowing students to use their pronouns of choice.

“Parents are being pushed aside by the dangerous indoctrination of the left which caters to the loud minority in this province and country,” said Michelle Bataluk, a delegate from Edmonton. “Children and teens should be educated in school, not brainwashed by woke activists who do not have their best interest in mind,” she added to loud applause.

Premier Danielle Smith, who won the UCP’s leadership a little more than a year ago by playing to people like Bataluk, knew she had to play to them again in her convention speech.

“I want every parent listening today to hear me loud and clear: parents are the primary caregivers and educators of their children,” declared Smith as thousands of delegates jumped to their feet to give her a 20-second standing ovation. “Regardless of how often the extreme left undermines the role of parents, I want you to know that parental rights and choice in your child’s education is and will continue to be a fundamental core principle of this party and this government. And we will never apologize for it.”

Overall, Smith’s speech was actually relatively moderate, focusing on affordability and growth while taking the usual swipes at the federal government. The audience duly applauded along the way. But it was her brief mention of parental rights that had them leaping to their feet like their chairs had been electrified.

This is a major problem for Smith.

Although she has managed to make herself the darling of social conservatives, she is not one herself and as premier is trying her best to avoid taking a stand on the gender pronoun issue.

Speaking to journalists before the policy debates began, Smith ducked the issue by doing a tap dance around whether she would follow Saskatchewan and New Brunswick in forcing schools to get parental consent before allowing students to change their pronouns.

“The way our policy process works, the members tell us what they would like us to do, but we obviously have to put it all through the lens of what is best for Albertans as a whole,” said Smith, trying to walk a tightrope that is stretched above the same political firepit that swallowed Jason Kenney’s political career when the social conservatives turned against him. “I don’t think it matters if you’re a straight couple or a gay couple, or whether you’re a trans individual. You want to know what’s going on with your kids, that’s what I hear.”

Social conservatives aren’t turning against Smith. Not yet. But the threat is there. And it’s coming from one of her staunchest supporters, David Parker, leader of the socially conservative movement called Take Back Alberta.

Parker was once a key supporter of Jason Kenney until the premier ran afoul of Alberta’s fringe conservatives during the pandemic after he introduced restrictions. Parker takes credit for organizing TBA members to join the UCP and remove Kenney from the premier’s chair last year while later installing Smith.

Now Parker is taking credit for organizing TBA members to flood the UCP convention with the intention of influencing government policy.

Parker spent the past few months touring the province to hold town hall meetings to fire up members and, to spice things up, fired off tweets that among other things called Toronto a “festering cancerous wound” and declared Alberta will separate from Canada over the federal government’s climate policies: “If you don’t believe that is possible, just watch us.”

Take Back Alberta didn’t just influence the UCP convention, it will also help set the direction for the party itself. After elections for UCP board members at the convention, a majority are seen as TBA-friendly, including the new president, Rob Smith, who expressed admiration for TBA in a post-convention interview for The Tyee.

“I congratulate them for the great work they’re doing and for getting that number of people interested,” said Smith (no relation to the premier), who rejects the argument that TBA members are social conservatives. “I think of them as conservatives who care about their communities.”

Whatever you want to call them, TBA members could prove to be as big a thorn in the side of the government as the one that fatally wounded Kenney.

“It’s really unfortunate that this weekend we saw the party take a step away from the mainstream,” said Christine Myatt, director of communications for New West Public Affairs, who was at the convention. She also happens to be former press secretary to Kenney and thus knows a thing or two about how TBA can create trouble.

Parker and Take Back Alberta might be onside with Smith for now, especially after she won last May’s provincial election, but Myatt sees TBA as political dynamite just waiting for the right time to explode.

“We don’t know how Take Back Alberta and Mr. Parker are going to impact the party long term, but I do feel like it is a bit of a ticking bomb.”