What a gong show! MLA committee chaos crashes UCP separation referendum motion
Trigger-happy UCP misfires with Mission Accomplished press release
Brandon Lunty looked like he wanted to crawl out of his own skin when he found out that the United Conservative Party Caucus sent out a press release announcing the adoption of a motion that hadn’t even been voted on yet.
As chair of the Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee, Leduc-Beaumont UCP MLA Lunty had one job today: to steer a motion through the committee to recommend the adoption of a referendum question on Alberta separation from Canada.
It should have been easy. The UCP has a 3-2 majority on the committee over the opposition NDP and Lunty controlled all the levers. The last minute scheduled hour and a half meeting that was only called on Monday should have given the UCP plenty of time to finish the task if only some poor staffer at the UCP Caucus hadn’t clicked send too early on the press release declaring it was a done deal.
At the exact time Lunty was sitting in the Federal Building board room chairing the debate on a motion that had just moments before been introduced by Strathcona-Sherwood Park UCP and Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish, Lunty was also praising the passage of Glubish’s motion in the UCP press release:
“The Select Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee, established to review Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition, has passed a motion that the Special Select Committee on Citizen Initiative Petition Review recommend the Government of Alberta include a question on the October 19, 2026 provincial referendum that includes an option for Albertans to vote for Alberta to remain in Canada.”
Yikes.
That press release immediately undercut Lunty’s credibility as committee chair, something that Edmonton-Whitemud NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi immediately honed in on with her signature prosecutorial-style of questioning. Pancholi and Calgary-Foothills NDP MLA Court Ellingson backed a point of privilege raised by observing NDP house leader Christina Gray that this troubling turn of events be referred to Speaker Ric McIver.
Lunty scrambled and spent the next 20 minutes in camera trying to figure out what to do next.
The motion to refer to Speaker McIver was put to a vote and defeated by the three UCP MLAs sitting on the committee — Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Tara Sawyer, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon (who is widely expected to be appointed Minister of Finance in tomorrow’s cabinet shuffle), and Glubish (who was sitting in place of Calgary-North West MLA Rajan Sawhney), but by that point the committee had run the clock and the meeting ended before the separation referendum motion could be adopted.
It was a gong show.
UCP MLAs treat Forever Canadian’s Thomas Lukaszuk like a hostile witness
Before Glubish’s motion and the UCP’s pre-mature press release, MLAs on the committee heard from former Progressive Conservative MLA Thomas Lukaszuk, who headed last year’s successful Forever Canadian citizen initiative petition.
The UCP MLAs on the committee aggressively questioned Lukaszuk as if he were a hostile witness. It was strange to watch.
Lukaszuk’s petition, which asked the question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” collected the signatures of more than 456,000 Albertans. But Lukaszuk and his legion of pro-Canada of volunteers clashed with the growing separatist-wing of the UCP.
While Premier Danielle Smith’s government bent over backward to amend laws, lower bars, and give their tacit support for the separatist Stay Free Alberta citizen initiative petition, they also did everything in their power to shelve the Forever Canadian petition. Lukaszuk’s petition was sent to this committee for “review,” which is a polite way of saying “die a slow and obscure death.”
The Forever Canadian petition was frequently framed as calling for a referendum but was submitted to Elections Alberta as a Legislative or Policy Proposal instead of a constitutional referendum proposal. That’s because Lukaszuk said he’d prefer MLAs vote on the question instead of holding a costly and divisive province-wide referendum on separation.
Avoiding a vote in the Legislature gave cover to UCP MLAs who support the separatists or are vulnerable to nomination challenges by separatist-endorsed UCP candidates ahead of the next provincial election.
After ragging the puck for half a year on the Forever Canadian petition, the UCP MLAs on the committee spent most of today’s meeting trying to play gotcha with Lukaszuk.
Nixon and Glubish aggressively questioned Lukaszuk in a clear attempt to put the blame for a separation referendum on him. Lukaszuk didn’t budge an inch and reiterated again and again that he’d rather have MLAs vote on separation instead. If the UCP are looking to avoid blowback for a referendum question that 70 per cent of Albertans don’t want, Lukaszuk isn’t going to let them say it was his fault.
The only reason Smith’s UCP is now interested in the Forever Canadian question is because of last week’s ruling by Justice Shaina Leonard that quashed Elections Alberta’s approval of a separation question put forward by UCP constituency president Mitch Sylvestre and admonished the Chief Elections Officer’s failure to consult First Nations. Smith said the Alberta government is appealing Justice Leonard’s decision, but the separatist petition is on hold until further notice.
The real option is to not have a referendum on separation at all, but the separatist-wing of the UCP continues to hold significant influence over Smith and her inner circle in the Premier’s Office. Most polls show a vast majority of Albertans support remaining in Canada, the same polls show the majority of UCP voters support Alberta separating from Canada.
Not holding a referendum would be good for Alberta but might mean an end to Smith’s leadership of the UCP, which is why she’s dead set against dropping the idea. It’s unclear whether accepting Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian question would lead to any better outcome for Smith.
Premier Smith is widely expected to announce the separation referendum question in a televised address to Albertans tomorrow night and discuss it further with supporters at a UCP member-only virtual town hall on Saturday morning.
Despite today’s committee chaos, the UCP isn’t cancelling Smith’s booked airtime. They’ve now scheduled another meeting of the committee for tomorrow with an extra hour added just in case Lunty has to deal with another unexpected delay.
UCP press release sent on May 20, 2026:
When you can’t even rig the process without tripping on your shoelaces…
Arrogant ( and incompetent) UCP communications team, issuing a canned news release before even checking to see if the motion had passed.
Will the NDP boycott this farcical committee's last meeting, today, citing Lunty's unsuitablity as chair? I'd guess they'll stay, firing shots until the motion is inevitably passed.