Separatist leader Jeffrey Rath had his membership in the United Conservative Party revoked, Alberta’s premier confirmed Friday afternoon. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed that UCP Executive Director Dustin Van Vugt made the decision after numerous breaches of party protocol. “The executive of our party has the ability to cancel memberships and he informed our party’s board of directors yesterday that he believes there were multiple instances of breach of the code of conduct that we require of our members,” Smith told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Calgary, adding it was “his (Van Vugt’s) decision to pull the membership and cancel his AGM registration. I’m supportive of that.” “Let’s be clear about the individual we’re talking about: he’s never supported me,” the premier said. “You can go back and look, he never supported me during the leadership, he never supported me during my time in office, and he certainly doesn’t support me now.” “That’s irrelevant,” she added. “What is relevant is that he has said publicly things like, he wants to come to the AGM to turn the UCP into an independence party. “And we are not an independence party,” she said. “And somebody whose objective and mission is to turn us into something we are not is not following the objective of our party – our objective of our party is to get re-elected and make sure we’re focused on doing that and so that is my understanding of why Dustin van Vugt -- after (gathering) a lot of evidence, and compilation -- ultimately made the decision to pull his membership.” Rath responded to the decision on social media, saying, “Another questionable political choice by Danielle Smith...” Rath later posted a response to the party’s decision to revoke his membership, saying he intends to appeal the decision. “Our leader continually misstates the founding principles of the party, claiming falsely that the UCP is a federalist party committed to keeping Alberta within a united Canada regardless of the cost,” Rath wrote. “Rob Smith our party president has told her and other members have told her that this is untrue,” he said, continuing. “Notwithstanding that Leader Smith has been repeatedly advised that her statements are false, she has now advised party members that unless they adhere to the false vision of Jason Kenney7 of the UCP as a federalist party the super majority of UCP members who favour independence are told to find a new party. “I believe that this constitutes political malpractice that has rendered Leader Smith unelectable in 2027. “For her good and the good of the party, a leadership review is required. As a member, I am entitled to advocate for a leadership review.” The UCP are holding their annual general meeting Nov. 27-29 in Calgary, where they say they will debate 39 policy resolutions--but not Smith’s leadership. In order to trigger a leadership review, one-quarter of the province’s 87 constituency associations must ask for one, or 22. At present, four have requested a review and more than 60 have said they support the premier’s continued leadership. Late Friday afternoon, Rath posted a screen shot of his UCP termination notice on social media.
