EDMONTON — Prominent Alberta independence advocate Jeffrey Rath is in the spotlight after a social media influencer shared public records on Monday showing that Rath donated thousands of dollars to the federal Liberal Party and the Alberta NDP, though he says it was to pay for access to officials in a professional capacity. "Anybody that understands how the game is played when you're settling multi-billion-dollar files understands that people in business routinely make donations to political parties regardless of their political beliefs," said Rath during an interview with the Western Standard on Tuesday. "You know it's completely f****** meaningless. The only people that don't under that don't understand how the game is played in Canada." .Rath, a passionate supporter of Alberta independence and opposed to the Alberta NDP and the federal Liberal Party, faced questions on Tuesday after social media influencer Berta Proud Dad, Lawrence Magee, shared screenshots from Elections Canada and Alberta's websites showing Rath previously donated to both parties. "Any political donations that I've made over the years have been done in the course of business of my law firm that advocates on behalf of First Nations people in Canada," Rath said. "Over the years, I have donated to every political party in power, including the CPC, and over the years, I have donated far more money to the CPC than I have to any other political party. Period."According to Elections Canada data, Rath donated $8,549 to the federal Liberals between 2004 and 2016. Conversely, he donated $7,945 to the Conservative Party of Canada between 2007 and 2025, with the large majority coming post-2019..Beyond the overall total, individuals quickly noted the $2,591 he donated to the Liberals in 2015 and 2016, while the party was led by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom many accuse of attempting to destroy Alberta's economy. Rath claims those donations were made because he was settling "a quarter billion dollars worth of land claims," and individuals who donated a certain amount to the Liberals were invited to an annual event with the prime minister and given access to cabinet ministers when they came to Calgary. Similar donations appear with the Alberta government, as Rath donated $1,758 to the UCP in 2023 and 2024, and $2,000 to Jim Prentice's 2014 byelection campaign. Conversely, he donated a combined $1,723 to the Alberta NDP in 2015 and 2016 when former Premier Rachel Notley was in charge.He claims those funds to the Alberta NDP were payments for attending events and talking to Notley and people in her government about cases his firm was working on. .Though both identify as Alberta independence supporters, Magee and Rath have an adversarial relationship online, and neither hesitates to criticize the other. Rath believes Magee posted about the donations because he is a "little weasel" acting for Premier Danielle Smith's office and trying to discredit him. "That's unequivocally false," said Magee in an interview with the Western Standard. "There has been no correspondence with me and the Premier since I interviewed her. The last interview is the last time I spoke with her. Nobody's giving me money. Nobody's giving me information." Magee claims he stumbled on the information because he went on the Elections Alberta website out of curiosity to see how much money Rath has donated to the UCP, at which point he saw the Alberta NDP contributions. This led him to ask a similar question federally. "At the end of the day, is this an opportunist who gives money to whoever the governing party is, or is this just somebody as a business deal?" Magee said. "I can't speak for Jeff Rath, but at the end of the day, the optics of it doesn't look good.""I'll go back to when I said I've never donated to a party that I do not support." Rath rejects individuals who are trying to paint him as a "closet liberal.""I mean, go back through my posts and look at my public record over the last six, or seven, or eight years," Rath said. "You'll never find anything that I've said that supported. You know, I don't think I've made any public statements ever in support of the NDP or the Liberals."
