MACLEOD: The UCP's loyalty pledge muzzles the members it needs most

According to a Western Standard report, the United Conservative Party (UCP) is demanding that all 87 of its riding presidents sign a document declaring they "recognize, respect, and will abide by" the result of last month's referendum, in which three-quarters of Albertans voted to keep Alberta in Canada. Sign and return by Friday, said the email from executive director Dustin van Vugt. The pledge is stitched into a non-disclosure agreement and code of conduct, as if a political conviction were the same thing as a confidentiality clause.Let me be clear about what I accept. I campaigned for independence, and I lost. The referendum settled whether Alberta pursues independence, and I accept that result without reservation. What I will never accept is the idea that losing a vote means surrendering the right to argue for a different future. Those are two very different things, and the people who drafted this pledge know it.The good news is that the grassroots is pushing back, from both sides of the question. Darrell Komick, president of the Calgary-Lougheed association, told CBC the party should be trying to unify rather than suppress, and warned that this "is the sort of thing that will stop people from volunteering." At least 15 presidents are reportedly signing a letter refusing the pledge. And here is the detail that should embarrass its authors: the resistance includes presidents who voted to stay in Canada. One of them, unwilling to give a name for fear of retribution, asked why this one issue is singled out when the party argues about plenty of others. "We have back and forth about friggin' abortion," that president said. Fair question.Retribution. Sit with that word. A volunteer who gives evenings and weekends to this party is afraid to attach a name to a criticism of the party's own paperwork. That is what the pledge has already accomplished, before a single signature is collected.It gets worse. The party's existing code of conduct says board members shall not be "reprimanded or disciplined by the party... for exercising their freedom of expression unless such expression constitutes an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada." Read that again. The UCP's own rules protect free expression right up to the edge of criminal law. Now the same party wants presidents to pre-commit their political stance on the defining question of Alberta's future. Nolan Crouse, who teaches board governance at MacEwan University, put it plainly: "You can't pre-commit your political stance." He was surprised the form passed what he called the leadership's acid test for the party. So am I..Premier Danielle Smith said the party is clearly pro-unity now, and that no candidates or MLAs may support independence. Setting direction for elected members is her prerogative. Party President Rob Smith defended her at an Edmonton forum this week, insisting she is not asking anyone to be a federalist, only to respect the result of 75% of Albertans. But it was a Sylvan Lake party member, Wade Collinge, who asked the question hanging over all of it: "Whose party is this? Is this Danielle's party or is it the members' party?"That is the whole argument in one line. Roughly half of UCP supporters backed independence, according to pre-vote polling. Half. You do not unify a party by handing that half a pen and telling them to sign away the subject. You unify it the way conservatives are supposed to do everything else: trust people to argue in good faith, and let the better argument win.Some will say a party needs message discipline, and of course it does. But there is a difference between asking volunteers not to freelance on policy and demanding they swear, in writing, to shelve a political belief. The first is management. The second is muzzling, aimed with suspicious precision at the one issue where half the membership disagrees with the leader.Komick said it best: "As the party of free speech, we should understand that that comes with risks as a party, but it also comes with rewards." The cost of this pledge is already visible. Five riding associations have endorsed a leadership review. Pro-independence members are running for the provincial board at this month's convention in Calgary. And the people who door-knock and donate are asking whose party this is.The referendum is over. I said so at the top, and I mean it. But a vote decides an outcome, not an opinion. If the UCP wants its grassroots to keep showing up, it should tear up this pledge, enforce the free expression protection it already has, and remember that riding presidents are volunteers, not employees. You can ask Albertans to accept a result. You cannot order them to stop discussing political options.Sign nothing. Keep talking. Stand by your convictions.

MACLEOD: The UCP's loyalty pledge muzzles the members it needs most

Related Stories

HANNAFORD: A gambler's budget

EYRE: ‘Public safety debacle’ — firearms case hits the Supreme Court

WATCH LIVE: Stellantis exposes Canada’s investment problem

THOMAS: Calgary's Grey Cup Festival is being watered down this year