Kenney says UCP must choose federalist roots, expel separatists after Alberta vote

Former premier Jason Kenney, who co-founded Alberta’s governing United Conservative party, says separatists have infiltrated it and are wielding an outsized influence.

Kenney, speaking to business leaders in Edmonton alongside his former political rival Rachel Notley, says that after the province’s separation vote the party will face a reckoning.

He says the UCP needs to decide whether it stands on its founding federalist principles, and if so, separatists need to be shown the door.

Kenney’s conservatives defeated Notley’s NDP government in 2019, and Premier Danielle Smith took over as UCP leader in 2022.