EDMONTON — UCP President Rob Smith says Premier Danielle Smith will not face a leadership review before Alberta's 2027 election, claiming enough constituency associations have passed motions of support to prevent a Special General Meeting (SGM).Questions about Danielle Smith's security as UCP leader have circulated since Alberta's independence referendum, as nationalist groups have expressed frustration with her decision to advocate for a "sovereign Alberta within a united Canada."Those calls have intensified since Danielle Smith released a video on Oct. 21, saying 75% of Albertans voted in favour of Alberta remaining in Canada, and the UCP needs to respect that mandate, even if the party remains heavily divided on the matter, as polls suggest..Rob Smith attempted to quell those questions on Tuesday in a letter sent to UCP members."You've likely heard about a handful of constituency associations asking for a Special General Meeting to request a leadership review," wrote Rob Smith. "That is their right under our rules, and it has received A LOT of press.""Here are the facts. Under our rules, that meeting requires motions from 22 constituency associations. More than 65 constituency associations have instead passed motions supporting Premier Danielle Smith, with more to come before Remembrance Day.""That settles it. There will be NO UCP leadership review before our next General Election. Danielle Smith is our leader... today... tomorrow... and the foreseeable future. I am thankful for this. I believe most of you are too.".The premier said the UCP must unite to prevent the Alberta NDP from winning the 2027 election, suggesting those who would rather divide the party than work toward that goal should find another home.Rob Smith echoed Danielle Smith's call for party unity, saying UCP members must unite around the premier or risk splitting the conservative vote and paving the way for an Alberta NDP government."We know the alternative," Rob Smith wrote. "We lived it from 2015 to 2019, under the job-crushing, anti-energy NDP. It was awful. We cannot repeat it.""So let's focus on our many areas of agreement. There are far more of those than areas of disagreement. Let's work TOGETHER to win the 32nd Alberta General Election on Monday, October 18th, 2027, with a bigger majority than we have today. Nothing is more important than that.".The UCP president's comments did not fully quiet concerns among constituency association boards unhappy with Danielle Smith, as the Banff-Kananaskis UCP Constituency Association board reportedly voted 10-7 on Tuesday in favour of an SGM.The Western Standard has not spoken with anyone involved in the debate over the motion.Banff-Kananaskis is the fifth constituency association board to pass a motion calling for an SGM and a leadership review of Smith.The Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul's UCP Constituency Association board passed a similar motion in a 10-9 vote on Monday. However, association president Mitch Sylvestre told the Western Standard that the Alberta independence debate played no role in the group's decision."To tell you the truth, we can go back a couple of meetings and absolutely see how livid our people are over the MOU, Pathways coming right through our own area, the data centers that are coming here; I think those are the bigger issues," said Sylvestre."And the fact that, you know, we still don't have Alberta pension. The fact that we still don't have informed consent. I mean, we were the center of the Bill of Rights, basically, and we got thrown under the bus on that. So it was just one failure after another, and people are just fed up with the government. That's all there is to it.".Danielle Smith has said she is giving individuals a period of "reflection" following the referendum rather than taking immediate action against individuals and boards she believes are contributing to division within the UCP."People are very emotional, and there are a lot of people who still have some issues that are outstanding," Danielle Smith said on Tuesday when the Western Standard asked whether the Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP board would face repercussions. "They want me to address, so I want to, in good faith, engage with them.""We've got 500,000 people who vote a certain way and demonstrate that they still are feeling like Canada is not working for them or their family. We have to take that seriously, and so we're going to talk with them and see if there's some other issues that we can address.".The UCP recently began requiring individuals seeking positions on the party's board to sign a form pledging to "recognize, respect and abide" by the referendum's federalist mandate throughout their candidacy and term, if elected."If anyone wants to advocate for independence, we are not an independence party," Danielle Smith said. "It's contrary to what Albertans told us. Seventy-five percent of Albertans said they want to remain a part of Canada. That is the position of our party, our caucus, and our government.""And so, there's lots of range for people to be able to advocate on policy, but just not that. If you're going to be a member of our party, you have to accept what Albertans told us."
