Separatists duking it out for UCP candidate nominations in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park
Battle lines over Alberta separatism run deep inside Danielle Smith's UCP
Two Grande Prairie MLAs and one former Edmonton-area MLA are facing nomination challenges as United Conservative Party members choose their candidates ahead of Alberta’s next provincial election.
First-term Grande Prairie UCP MLA Nolan Dyck is facing a challenge from firearms shop and indoor gun range owner Robin Coward.
Coward’s Bullets and Broadheads Shooting Center was listed as a signing location for the Stay Free Alberta petition that called for a referendum on the province to separate from Canada. Coward also recently promoted a separatist event in Grande Prairie on his social media.
A province-wide referendum on whether to hold a binding referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada is being held on October 19.
While a large majority of Albertans support the province remaining in Canada, UCP supporters are divided on the question. The issue has shone the spotlight on separatist organizers who are entrenched in positions of influence in the governing party.
Just outside Dyck’s riding, UCP MLA Ron Wiebe is being challenged by Karen Peters in Grande Prairie-Wapiti.
Peters is the UCP constituency president in the riding and has posted on her personal Facebook page about chemtrails and vaccination conspiracy theories.
Wiebe was first elected in 2023 when he replaced MLA Travis Toews, the former finance minister who placed second against Premier Danielle Smith in the UCP’s 2022 leadership race. Wiebe’s candidacy in 2023 was endorsed by a motion of the party’s local board, which was then held by a majority of Toews supporters.
The nomination vote for both ridings will be held concurrently on September 1 at the Teresa Sargent Hall in the Montrose Cultural Centre in Grande Prairie from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Smith will be in Grande Prairie on August 26 for the party’s annual leader’s fundraising dinner, held this year at the Pomeroy Hotel.
Separatist organizer Kathy Flett running for UCP nomination in Sherwood Park
Just east of Edmonton, former MLA Jordan Walker, who served one term from 2019 to 2023, is facing a challenge from separatist organizer and former UCP constituency president Kathy Flett. Walker was unseated by NDP candidate Kyle Kasawski in 2023.
Flett is a spokeperson for the Alberta Women for Independence Network third party advertiser and has been a featured speaker at numerous pro-separation events across Alberta ahead of the October 19 referendum.
She is also the former interim leader of the Wexit separatist group and former provincial chief financial officer of former MLA Paul Hinman’s Wildrose Indpendence Party (former Wildrose Independence Party leader Jeevan Mangat, who ousted Hinman from the party leadership in 2022, is running for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Acadia).
Flett ran as an independent candidate in the Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville riding in 2023, earning 3.2 per cent of the vote, and soon after became President of the UCP constituency association in Sherwood Park. She held that position until local UCP members wrestled back control of the board from the separatists in 2025. She was also an unsuccessful candidate for Strathcona County Council in the 2025 municipal elections.
In a YouTube video response to Smith’s televised address announcing the separation referendum back in May 2026, Flett encouraged separatist supporters to join UCP constituency boards and hold steady in their support for Alberta leaving Canada:
If you are one of those board members when things get uncomfortable, and they will, stay put. Boldly hold your ground. What our Premier said tonight is not against us guys. Don’t take it as that. She’s using the system as best she can to help us. That’s what I heard. I don’t agree with her stance anymore than she agrees with mine, but she’s trying to help us navigate the system. Let’s help her do that and as we continue forward toward our independence this fall, not the one we wanted, but at least we’re getting a question for now. There’s gonna be even more obstacles just like this one on our path and there’s gonna be challenges along the journey — expect it. This is the first of many.
The UCP nomination meeting in Sherwood Park will be held on August 22 at the Robin Hood Association from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Two UCP MLAs acclaimed
UCP MLA Rajan Sawhney was recently acclaimed in Calgary-North West, despite an expected challenge by banker Seun Ogunsola, and MLA Justin Wright was nominated without a challenge in Cypress-Medicine Hat. The UCP has also opened nomination applications in the Cardston-Siksika, Central Peace Notley, Lethbridge-East, and Peace River ridings.
While the parties have started nominating candidates, the provincial electoral map will be still be redrawn ahead of the next provincial election. An appointed panel of advisors is expected to submit their recommendations for a new electoral map to an MLA committee later this year.
More nomination candidate updates
The following updates have been added to the list of nomination candidates running for the next Alberta election:
Right-wing online commentator Wyatt Claypool is running for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Currie.
Claypool ran for the federal Conseravtive Party nomnation in Calgary Signal Hill ahead of the 2025 election. He currently works as communications director for OneBC Party MLA Dallas Brodie at the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in Victoria.
The riding is currently represented by NDP MLA Janet Eremenko.
