CALGARY — Fifteen UCP Constituency Association (CA) presidents have signed a letter refusing to agree to a revised code of conduct ordering them to go along with the result of the Alberta independence referendum.The presidents argue the UCP is imposing a political position on members.The November 11 letter challenges a stance put forward in an October document for the UCP Board of Directors Election, which deals with the Alberta independence question on the October 19 referendum ballot.The document for UCP board of directors nominations that surfaced in October stated, “In both my candidacy for, and if elected to, the provincial UCP Board of Directors, I recognize, respect, and will abide by the majority decision made by Albertans on Question #10 of the 26/10/19 Referendum.”Now, CA presidents are being asked to make the same commitments through a code of conduct.The letter explicitly states that the 15 CA presidents will not sign the revised code of conduct..UCP board candidate says party's direction is to respect democracy, not become federalist .“The addition refers to one’s political position on a specific topic and thus falls outside the purvey of a code of conduct and that also conflicts with the current code of conduct position contained in the Party’s governance manual that reads as follows: ‘2.8. not be reprimanded or disciplined by the Party, the UCA Board or CA Board for exercising their freedom of expression unless such expression constitutes an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada," the letter reads. The letter also challenges the process the UCP has used to introduce the pledge.“We do not agree and dispute that Provincial Council has the authority to add this to the current code of conduct without the authorization to do so via a governance resolution being passed at the party’s Annual General Meeting or via a Special General meeting," the letter reads. The letter is signed by Darrell Komick (Calgary Lougheed), Mitch Sylvestre (Bonnyville Cold Lake), Trudy Corbett (Banff Kananaskis), Mitch Caron (Central Peace-Notley), Chris Meade (Edmonton Gold-Bar), Gord Tulk (Red Deer South), Mario Scarpelli (Edmonton Decore), Cindy Saunders (Calgary Buffalo), Rita Reich (Lacombe Ponoka), Peter Nestrovich (Calgary Southeast), Robert Punco (Highwood), Brian Smith (Calgary Acadia), Robert Such (Calgary Klein), Peter Andrusiak (Calgary Currie), and Stephen Butt (Calgary Varsity).The disagreement comes ahead of the UCP's annual general meeting (AGM) in Calgary and follows leadership-review motions for Premier Danielle Smith from multiple constituency associations.
