EXCLUSIVE: 'End the UCP': AB Resistance's two-year mission to dethrone Danielle Smith

EDMONTON — From Lethbridge's cozy coffee shops to Calgary's crowded trains, and from Edmonton's historic Alberta Legislature to Fort McMurray's chilly oil fields, Albertans have been asking for months, "Who is behind the plan for Alberta's recall scheme?" Some believe they are driven by unions or the Alberta NDP. Others have argued that the petitions are independent movements seeking to hold MLAs accountable.The truth is, while the applications may have been filed by constituents of the specific riding, AB Resistance, a Political Third Party Advertiser, has been plotting the scheme for years. ."We are organizing to go to war, information war," reads a Facebook post from ABR in September 2024."We are up against a government that routinely pays for 'bot' accounts to make the most ridiculous statements on their behalf, hidden behind a veil of secrecy first in their War Room, now in the Premier’s office. Let it be noted, we didn’t start the war." The post goes on to say, "We have a plan to organize and activate an army of concerned citizens, groups, organizations and independent journalists to create many channels of material that is truthful, useful, well presented and understandable."ABR wanted to fight, and the UCP gave them a weapon. "The one and only option open to Albertans that effected real change was Bill 52, the Recall Act," reads a December 2024 blog post written by ABR’s founder, Marg Tokar. Their plan wasn't motivated by a desire for the Alberta NDP to lead the province. Rather, they were hellbent on dethroning Premier Danielle Smith and ending the UCP's reign over Alberta."In closing keep the goal in mind, the end of the UCP!” Tokar wrote in the first blog post on ABR's website in November 2023..ABR is a grassroots organization founded by Tokar, who claims to be a lifelong conservative.That changed when Danielle Smith took control of the UCP party."When it came to the campaign, Danielle Smith's campaign with the UCP, I was watching closely, and I really started having some questions. And there were a lot of videos coming out that were not what she was telling Albertans," Tokar said on the Jan. 20 edition of Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen."I'll tell you the line for me, the line in the sand was just prior to the election when I had a canvasser come to my door and assure me that once the campaign was over and Danielle Smith was elected, the party would be getting rid of her."Tokar told Jespersen that after closing the door following that conversation, "I knew I wouldn't be voting UCP, and I wouldn't be voting conservative."Smith became Alberta's premier on Oct. 11, 2022.On Oct. 16, Tokar pledged her hate for the UCP and began recruiting. .Over the next year, Tokar accepted membership requests through her X DMs, and with the help of her fellow UCP haters, ABR formed. David Gray, an energy economist and former energy advisor to Smith, serving on her executive when she left the Wild Rose Party, was ABR's Chairman in 2024. Tami Smith, a former Edmonton school teacher, serves as the director of ABR. Laurie Dufresne-Wade is listed as ABR’s contact with Elections Alberta. Jenny Yeremiy, a geophysicist and former Alberta Party candidate in the 2023 general election, served on the ABR board. Tokar has claimed that Yeremiy stepped down from her position prior to filing an application to recall her MLA, Demetrios Nicolaides. Despite differing political ideologies, the group united in their disdain for the UCP and frustration with issues such as Alberta's healthcare system, school funding, and leaving the Canada Pension Plan. By November 2023, ABR had 270 members and a clear agenda. .The UCP controlled the Alberta legislature by six seats following the province's 2023 election, but after two MLAs were removed from the caucus, their majority shrank to four. In 2023, ABR strategically selected "six targeted ridings" to attack in their recall scheme."The UCP won 6 constituencies with a total of 2,080 votes. That’s over all 6 constituencies! This renders these 6 MLAs particularly vulnerable to a recall," Tokar's wrote in a December 2024 blogpost.ABR's locked their targets on Muhammad Yaseen (Calgary–North), Rajan Sawhney (Calgary–North West), Mickey Amery (Calgary–Cross), Nicolaides (Calgary-Bow), Nathan Neudorf (Lethbridge–East), and Peter Singh (Calgary–East).Yaseen and Sawhney won their ridings by less than 150 votes in 2023. Amery, Nicolaides, Neudorf, and Singh won their ridings by less than 700 votes. Every other UCP riding was won by more than 2,000 votes, except for Morinville–St. Alberta, where Dale Nally won by 1,744."At this point, we are looking at volunteers in each of these constituencies," Tokar wrote. "How many Albertans are stepping up to help? There is no substitute for PARTICIPATION. The Advisory Board has been working hard on a daily basis for months, but we can’t do this on our own.”"This is the moment in time that Albertans have to make the decision. 'Am I willing to give up a few hours of my time to oust the UCP, and change the trajectory of our province?'” ABR wasn't ready for war, though. They needed money to fund their attack and an army to fight the battle..Although claims can't be verified until Elections Alberta publishes each campaign's finances, Tokar told Jespersen, "We do not fund any recall," which would violate recall financing rules. However, ABR still needed money to fund their efforts.When ABR registered as a TPA in October 2024, they had to start documenting all donations and disclosing donors who contributed more than $250. ABR received $12,924 after they registered in the final quarter of 2024, $7,684 coming from donations of $250 or less. They then received $13,101 in the first nine months of 2025, $5,027 from donations below the $250 threshold.Chris Evans, an Edmonton ER doctor who has expressed frustration with Alberta’s healthcare system and often reposts negative comments on X, has been ABR's largest financial backer.In the final quarter of 2024, Evans donated $3,000 to ABR, while the next-highest donor contributed $740.Similarly, CGME INC, a business 100% owned by Evans, donated $4,500 in the first three quarters of 2025..Evans has ties to former MLA Raj Sherman, who, in a 2010 email to Premier Ed Stelmach and other cabinet members, referred to Evans while apologizing for being critical of the province's ER wait times. Sherman was later removed from the PC caucus. Sherman attempted to re-enter politics in 2022, when he ran against Smith in the UCP leadership race, and then ran for Edmonton-Whitemud MLA under the UCP banner in 2023. Evans was Sherman's primary donor throughout his 2022 and 2023 campaigns, donating $5,900 split between the two campaigns and Sherman's UCP constituency association. Similar to Tokar, Evans appeared to experience a political shift following Smith's election as premier, donating $1,000 to Nahhed Nenshi's NDP leadership campaign in 2024..Now that they had funds, ABR needed to build an army. “This is it, Alberta! If you really want to get rid of this fascist government before there are not enough pieces left to put back together, we must do it now, and we must do it together!” Tokar’s December 2024 blog post reads. “Help us to help you! We are here. We are ready. Now it’s up to you to step up. Reach out today, and we will do our part to help you turn this ship around!”The recruitment process began when ABR worked with an unnamed labour lawyer to learn the ins and outs of recall legislation.“Our mission is to leverage the collective efforts of all of our groups to encourage and activate Albertans to share their most inspiring future for this province,” reads the ABR website. Their education efforts included town halls in Calgary and Lethbridge, appearances in content, protests, and asking members to share their message. “We must expand our reach, and this is an area in which your contribution will make a real difference,” Tokar wrote in a February 2024 blog post. “We must make a monumental push for new members prior to our public launch.”The group, which began with 270 members in November 2023, jumped to 1,000 by December 2023, and Tokar told Jespersen that it has now reached 10,000.ABR's recruiting relied heavily on social media, enabling them to reach a wider audience."There's an emphasis on the importance of nonpartisan communication and the strategic use of social media to counter misinformation and engage various levels of voters," reads an August 2025 blog post.Their messages aimed to educate Albertans about the recall process and convince them to join the fight, and X, Facebook, and Instagram posts typically focused on ABR's target MLAs..Plans shifted in September 2025, though, when ABR appeared to add Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services and Red Deer-North MLA Adriana LaGrange to their list of targets. LaGrange won her riding by over 3,400 votes in 2023; however, after she was found at the heart of Alberta's AHS scandal, ABR went all out to paint her as a target..Tokar even issued a blatant call for someone to file an application targeting LaGrange. .Danny Carlisle answered the call on Nov. 27, citing LaGrange's role in the "corrupt care scandal," her 2020 decisions to cut school funding and lay off teachers, and her being "unresponsive to the concerns of her constituents" as grounds for recall. Despite this apparent example of recruiting by their founder, Tokar asserts that ABR is not behind the recalls. “I want to be very, very clear, we do not initiate. We do not organize,” Tokar told Jespersen. Her social media delivers a different message, though..ABR has offered to aid anyone who wants to start a recall petition. "(If you want to start a recall petition) Awesome! First things first: contact us. We will help you to develop a specific strategy and timeline for your constituency," reads an ABR toolkit created to explain the recall process. They offer constituency electorate details, riding maps, research on an MLA's actions, and help organize town halls to find canvassers and volunteers.“Basically, what we do is we walk them through the process, the recall process,” Tokar told Jespersen. “There's lots of questions, and we've been over and under and through the recall act, so they would come to us with that, and we still support them all the way through with this.”Though Tokar's comments and her social media posts appear to conflict, she informed Jespersen that ABR has been in contact with every petitioner against a UCP MLA. .ABR’s attack kicked off in October 2025, when Yeremiy submitted her recall application against Nicolaides, in which ABR appears to be involved. “We have launched RecallNicolaides.ca in Calgary Bow, on October 17th," reads an Oct. 26 ABR blog post. "It is official, the Recall Nicolaides campaign has been approved. We can start collecting signatures as of Thursday October 23rd.”Although there are limited things ABR can do once an application is submitted, they have publicly offered to provide guidance and support, help committees access information, assist with canvassing, support signature-collection strategies and promotional materials.To spread help push the Nicolaides campaign, ABR released a document listing 14 ways he has damaged Alberta schools as Education Minister. Additionally, ABR’s social media reposted ads for many of Yeremiy's events. .A tsunami of recall petitions followed Yeremiy's, and Tokar told Jespersen that ABR was surprised by them but understood why they happened.The recall boom, however, may have thrown a wrench into ABR’s years-long plan of recalling six UCP MLAs in order to tear down Smith’s government. “It’s all about recruitment, engagement and messaging,” Tokar wrote in a 2023 Reddit post. “We have to do the work prior to filing. And imagine the press coverage we’ll have by filing recalls in 6 ridings simultaneously. This is well thought out to give us the best chance at success.” In the end, ABR slightly staggered their targeted recalls.The applications against Sawhney and Yaseen were submitted one month after Nicolaides, while Singh’s was 11 days later, LaGrange’s two days after that, and Amery’s 11 days after that. However, speaking as herself, not as ABR’s founder, Tokar told Jespersen that the recalls might be more successful if there weren't 26 running simultaneously. .Through it all, ABR has issued calls for their members to step-up. “If you can canvass in a recall constituency, sign up. If you can sign a recall, then sign. If you live in a recall constituency and can afford to donate to them, please do,” reads a Jan. 2 blog post. “If you do not live in a constituency, your job is to support them. If you can help out with being a door-knocking buddy, or you can repost on social media when you see signing locations or information about what the UCP is doing.” Their website lists all active recall petitions against UCP MLAs. However, rather than listing the campaigns chronologically, alphabetically, or geographically, the list positions ABR's targets as the focal points. .Not listed on the ABR website is the campaign against Neudorf, one of their original six targets. This campaign is absent because ABR’s attack hit a speed bump when someone beat them to the punch by submitting an application to recall Neudorf. It is reported that Ryan Tanner, a resident of Lethbridge–East, filed an application against Neudorf solely to block anyone else from doing so. ABR gained a seat in their race to six when MLA Rebecca Schulz, Calgary–Shaw, announced her intention to step down from her government roles for reasons unrelated to the recall campaign against her. “WE have one MLA who is resigning as Minister of Environment and Parks and will step down as an MLA on May 26, 2026,” reads a Jan. 2 ABR blog post. “This will be the end of the spring session. Cracks are starting to appear. We just need to keep putting on the pressure.”.ABR’s plan faltered after Nicolaides' recall campaign ended with 6,516 signatures, representing 24.3% of Calgary–Bow votes in 2023, 59% short of the 16,006 needed to trigger a byelection. Despite the campaign, which many considered their best shot at knocking off an MLA, failing, Yeremiy and Tokar have both publicly said it was a success. "We want to put on the record that there are 6,500-plus of us that are angry with the way (Nicolaides) is abusing his rights," reads a quote from Yeremiy in a Canadian Press article. "(If that) doesn't tell our education minister that his constituents have an issue with the way that he's leading us, I don't know what will."Tokar told Jespersen it will payoff down the road. “I think, to my point of view, this has mobilized a lot of people who will head into the next election ready and knowing what to do and standing up and getting their neighbors to stand up,” Tokar said to Jespersen. Tokar used a more threatening tone, though, after Nicolaides called the petition’s failure a “clear sign of support.” .Was the recall campaign successful? Maybe a little bit. The campaign attracted media attention, made most Albertans aware of the recall process, and showed that 16.4% of the electorate in Calgary–Bow is frustrated enough to recall Nicolaides. In the grand scheme, however, the campaign fell well short of ABR’s goal of ousting Nicolaides, which doesn't bode well for their scheme to dethrone Smith. With Neudorf seemingly safe and the 2023 election results indicating that they will have an uphill battle to recall LaGrange, even with Schulz’s resignation, ABR's plan appears to be on life support. And as for the question of, “Who is behind all of the recalls in Alberta?”Whether it is the six targeted ridings they spent two-years planning to attack, the pleas for someone to recall LaGrange, or serving as an advisor, ABR has played a role in commanding every part of their war. They have a plan: oust six UCP MLAs.They have a weapon: the Recall Act.They have a goal: dethrone Smith and end the UCP.