Separatist Alberta Republican Party cries foul after byelection debate is cancelled

The separatist Republican Party of Alberta is crying foul over a cancelled debate in a central Alberta byelection, suggesting the governing United Conservative Party is dodging democracy.

The local Olds and District Chamber of Commerce said it had invited candidates from both those parties and the NDP, but only Republican Party of Alberta leader Cameron Davies committed in time, so the chamber was forced to call it off.

Davies said it’s up to the UCP to explain to voters why they don’t want to debate.

“When you have nothing to offer Albertans at the ballot box, maybe that’s their idea – avoid accountability and dodge democracy,” said Davies.

He added he is still hoping a forum can be arranged before voters go to the polls on June 23, and that he’s heard interest from two organizations to do so. He adds it’s time to consider official debates.

“Perhaps there is room for that,” Davies told CityNews. “That Elections Alberta ought to hold at least one debate per election in a riding. I think that would provide value to voters.”

Davies said the biggest issue he’s hearing on the doorsteps is Alberta’s place in Canada, and voters’ discomfort with Premier Danielle Smith’s party giving Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney a chance to bring the province a better deal.

“(The UCP) should be up front and honest about where they stand, and I think avoiding whether or not they’re in favour of independence – that’s not going to satisfy Albertans that want to see Alberta end this toxic, abusive relationship with Ottawa,” said Davies.

“It doesn’t take a petition for a provincial government to hold a referendum. The whole notion of a petition is nothing more than passing the buck and the UCP is trying to sit on the fence, instead of saying, ‘Let’s let Albertans have a say,'” he said.

Smith has repeatedly said she wants to see Alberta remain in Canada, but recently passed legislation to lower the threshold for citizens to spark a referendum on seceding from Canada.

The UCP said they’re holding a town hall in Three Hills with their candidate, Tara Sawyer, and Smith on the same night the chamber wanted to hold their debate.

“We offered other dates, but they weren’t able to move it, which we understand,” spokesman Dave Prisco said in an email.

“We held another town hall last week in Olds with hundreds of people in attendance, free to ask questions on any topic. We’ll keep meeting with people, listening, and earning their support throughout the campaign,” he said.

Doug Rieberger, president of the Olds and District Chamber of Commerce, said with Sawyer unavailable, and the chamber not getting a response from the NDP until after its deadline, they made the decision to cancel their event.

“Due to the short timeline of the campaign and availability of facilities, the chamber will be unable to reschedule,” said Rieberger.

Bev Toews, the NDP’s candidate in the riding, said in a statement it’s a shame that the UCP refuses to debate.

“As always, they take this riding for granted. They assume people will blindly vote for them,” said Toews.

“I am the only candidate in this race that loves Canada and wants to fight to save it. The UCP candidate is too scared to say even that.

“I’ll debate with her any time, anywhere.”

Political strategy?

Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams says skipping debates is sometimes a strategic move.

“This is what we see when a campaign doesn’t want to engage controversy,” Williams said. “When it feels it’s in a frontrunner position and doesn’t want to take any chances.”

CityNews spoke to several Albertans who said debates are good for democracy.

“I think they’re important because then you can hear everyone’s perspectives and for the people who don’t know that much about the parties and stuff, they can learn more,” said Edmonton’s Helena McNamara.

“I’m constantly talking to people, where their perspective on something I hadn’t given much thought to, completely changes my outlook on something,” added Ryan Garner, on being swayed by debate. “And I think, ‘oh wow, there’s a human element attached to an issue.’”

“There has to be a debate or it’s not democracy, right?” said Shawn Black from Grande Cache, Alta.

Smith appointed Sawyer, a farmer and former chair of the Grain Growers of Canada, to run for the UCP without a competitive nomination process, citing the need to pick a candidate quickly.

Davies, a longtime conservative activist and organizer, has become a key figure in Alberta’s renewed separatist movement following the latest federal election.

He said there are “several” UCP MLAs who are in favour of Alberta independence but they’re being silenced within their own party.

“There’s speculation that’s why they chose to avoid having their own internal nomination process,” said Davies.

“They made a very clear and conscious decision to have an Ottawa-first candidate hand-picked for the riding of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.”

The seat became vacant last month when Nathan Cooper, the former legislature Speaker and a longtime United Conservative member in the legislature, resigned to become Alberta’s representative in Washington, D.C.

It’s one of three vacant ridings, along with Edmonton-Strathcona and Edmonton-Ellerslie, that will have a byelection on the same day in less than three weeks.

But in the rural riding of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, western separatist sentiment has bubbled to the surface before.

In 1982, Gordon Kesler won what was Olds-Didsbury with 42 per cent of the vote in a byelection under the Western Canada Concept banner.

Davies said there are differences now, including that his party has much less runway ahead of that vote than the Western Canada Concept did more than decades ago.

“We’ve been around for all of two months now,” said Davies.

“This is why the (UCP) wanted the byelection so quickly, because they did see we’re getting momentum.”

Interest in byelections waning?

But it seems there’s not much interest in byelections altogether. The last two, in Lethbridge and Fort McMurray, each failed to crack 40 per cent voter turnout.

At 24 per cent, the Fort McMurray race saw less than half the amount of votes cast than in the previous general election.

Still, Williams sees value in byelections as a snapshot of public opinion. This time, she’ll be watching for any spikes in the Alberta independence vote, with the Republican Party openly calling for separation.

“It may well be that people decide they want to come out and send a message to this government, knowing that the risks of actually changing government don’t apply in this particular case,” Williams said.

–With files from Sean Amato, CityNews Edmonton