Peter Weichler, a former UCP provincial board member, has announced that he is resigning his party membership, expressing disappointment in its direction.
“With a heavy heart, I am resigning my membership in the United Conservative Party,” Weichler said in a letter leaked to the Western Standard.
“This is not a decision I make lightly. I have been proud to serve as a constituency executive and to contribute in whatever way I could to a movement I believed would fight for Alberta’s future.”
Weichler, who joined the UCP believing it would champion conservative values, grassroots input, and a self-reliant Alberta, alleged the party no longer reflects those ideals.
“What I see now is a government marked by scandal, top-down control, and broken promises,” he said, pointing to growing deficits, expanding bureaucracy, and a failure to uphold freedoms.
He also criticized the UCP’s approach to Alberta’s sovereignty, calling it “symbolic gestures and watered-down action.”
Weichler accused the party of deflecting or resisting meaningful steps to defend Alberta’s interests against federal overreach.
“I didn’t volunteer my time and energy to help build a party that behaves like the same old PCs,” Weichler said, referring to the Progressive Conservatives, the UCP’s predecessor.
“And I didn’t join this movement to help protect a system more interested in preserving its power than fighting for the people it serves.”
Acknowledging the efforts of some within the party to push for change, Weichler said he could no longer remain affiliated.
“In good conscience, I can no longer stay silent or affiliated with a party that has strayed so far from the principles that brought me in,” he concluded.
The Western Standard has reached out to the premier's office for comment.