Alberta voted to stay in Canada. Premier Danielle Smith says that’s the end of the debate inside her party.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s West of Centre on Friday, Smith said UCP members who want to keep pushing for separation don’t have to stay in the United Conservative Party. She also made it clear she doesn’t need their support to win the next election.
“Well, it is settled in my party,” Smith told host Kathleen Petty.
It’s her bluntest message yet to the separatist wing of the UCP, a group that has spent the past year arguing it helped put her in the premier’s office.
“You don’t have to be a candidate for us”
Smith drew the line at people who want to represent the party.
“If you don’t want to agree to follow the will of the people, you don’t have to be a candidate for us,” she said.
The same goes for the party’s leadership: “anyone who wants to be on our provincial board has to align with what Albertans told us.”
Smith didn’t say that separatists will be kicked out. People can keep making the case for independence through advocacy groups, podcasts or other parties, she said. But that’s different from carrying the UCP banner.
When pressed on whether she’d refuse to sign nomination papers for candidates who disagree, she didn’t commit to a specific step. She said she’s giving members time to think about the result.
“No ill will,” but find another party
Smith first delivered the message two days after the vote.
On Oct. 21, she told separatists in the UCP that if they can’t support a pro-Canada position, they should hand in their memberships and consider another party, The Canadian Press reported. She said she holds no “ill will” toward members who voted to start the separation process, but the party won’t change its position on staying in Canada.
“Not as long as I’m premier”
None of this came out of nowhere. Smith made a promise before the vote.
In a CBC interview in Calgary on Oct. 9, Adrienne Arsenault asked her whether there would be a second separation referendum if Albertans voted to stay.
“Not as long as I’m premier,” Smith said.
She’d made a similar commitment in May, when the question was added to the ballot. “I will listen to the will of the people,” she told CTV at the time.
On referendum night, she repeated it. The “remain” result would be honoured, and there would be no second vote on separation.
That promise has a limit. It covers only her time in office. It wouldn’t stop a future premier from holding another vote.
Did separatists make her premier?
Some separatist organizers say they did.
One of them is Mitch Sylvestre. He’s the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, the province’s best-known independence group, and president of the UCP constituency association in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul. He has argued that separatists helped push out former premier Jason Kenney and get Smith elected UCP leader in 2022.
Smith rejects that.
“The people who were supporting me were the ones who were really concerned about the COVID response,” she said.
She called the current independence movement “brand new,” and said she has always campaigned on “autonomy within Canada,” not leaving it.
The movement’s U.S. connections
Smith’s comments land after weeks of questions about who the separatist movement has been talking to.
A Globe and Mail investigation published Oct. 3 reported that Alberta separatists met U.S. State Department officials three times in 2025: on April 22, Sept. 29 and Dec. 16.
Dennis Modry, a co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the Globe that separatists floated offering the U.S. access to Alberta’s water, oil royalties, new pipelines through the U.S. and land for a rail link to Alaska. He said the ideas were in a document given to U.S. officials, but he wouldn’t share it.
“Does the U.S. need more water? Can Alberta provide some more water to them?” Modry asked.
Not everyone in the movement agrees that happened. Jeff Rath, who arranged the meetings, disputed that the resource ideas were discussed and called the document “stupid.” A White House official said “no support or commitments were conveyed.” No deal was reached.
The Globe also reported that Sylvestre and others met a Michigan-linked get-out-the-vote group near Calgary’s airport in January. Sylvestre refused to hand over his supporter list. “Not a chance in hell you’re getting my list,” he said. The meeting ended without a deal.
How Alberta voted
The separation question gave Albertans two choices: stay a province of Canada, or have the government start the legal process toward a binding referendum on separation.
With 99.8 per cent of polls counted, unofficial results from Elections Alberta show:
| Option | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Remain in Canada | 1,545,076 | 75.0% |
| Begin separation referendum process | 513,982 | 25.0% |
That’s a margin of more than one million votes. Pre-vote polls from CBC and Ipsos had “remain” at 72 per cent, so the final result came in a little stronger. Official results are due from Elections Alberta on Oct. 29.
Read more: Alberta Votes to Stay in Canada as 76% Reject Separation Referendum in Early Results
Why the fight isn’t over inside the UCP
Three to one is a clear result. It still leaves a lot of separatist voters in places the UCP depends on.
Look at Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Sylvestre’s home riding. “Remain” won there with 58.6 per cent, but about 41 per cent voted to start the separation process. That’s well above the provincial average.
That’s Smith’s problem in a nutshell. Separatists are a minority in Alberta, but in parts of rural Alberta they’re a big enough minority to swing a nomination race.
Then there’s Jason Stephan, the UCP MLA for Red Deer-South, who publicly backed the separation option. He’s said he won’t run again. Smith said she didn’t push him out.
“He made his own decision,” she said, adding that he told her last year he wasn’t sure about running again.
Separatist leaders aren’t backing down either. Before the vote, Alberta Prosperity Project leaders told CBC they were “never giving up,” whatever the result.
The other nine questions
Separation wasn’t the only thing on the ballot. Albertans also voted on immigration, provincial services and changes to the Constitution.
The immigration and voting questions passed. All four binding constitutional questions failed:
| Question | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Provincial control over immigration | 54.8% | 45.2% |
| Provincial programs only for citizens, permanent residents and approved statuses | 52.4% | 47.6% |
| 12 months in Alberta before social supports for non-permanent residents | 53.1% | 46.9% |
| Health and education fees for non-permanent residents | 52.0% | 48.0% |
| Proof of citizenship to vote | 58.1% | 41.9% |
| Provinces choose King’s Bench and Appeal Court judges (binding) | 45.3% | 54.7% |
| Abolish the Senate (binding) | 47.3% | 52.7% |
| Opt out of federal programs with full funding (binding) | 42.4% | 57.6% |
| Provincial laws take priority over federal laws (binding) | 44.5% | 55.5% |
Unofficial results, 99.8 per cent of polls counted.
Smith said the immigration questions are “certainly more important than the other ones.” Proof of citizenship to vote got the biggest “yes” on the ballot, at 58 per cent, and could be one of the first things her government acts on.
“People are very enthusiastic about the idea of having to show citizenship in order to be able to vote,” she said.
On the constitutional questions that failed, she said “there just is not the appetite to pursue it.”
What happens next
Elections Alberta will release official results on Oct. 29.
Inside the UCP, the real test comes in nomination races ahead of the provincial election in October 2027. Smith has said separatist candidates aren’t welcome. She hasn’t said how she’ll enforce that.
The vote didn’t end the separatist movement. It does make running that movement through the governing party a lot harder.
Sources
Elections Alberta, 2026 referendum results: https://results.elections.ab.ca/
Elections Alberta, 2026 referendum questions: https://www.elections.ab.ca/elections/referendum/
CBC Radio, West of Centre, interview with Premier Danielle Smith, Oct. 24, 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/danielle-smith-referendum-alberta-separatists-premier-9.7394452
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