Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says high-profile separatist leader Jeff Rath has been kicked out of her United Conservative Party.
Smith told reporters in Calgary that the party’s executive director made the decision to revoke Rath’s membership over code of conduct issues, and it’s a decision she supports.
“Somebody whose objective and mission is to turn us into something we are not, is not following the objective of our party,” Smith said Friday.
Rath has been a key figure in the province’s independence movement, serving as the lawyer for the group behind a petition calling for a binding vote.
He has also been a harsh critic of the premier, and has been calling for Smith’s resignation over her support of Alberta staying in Canada. Rath has also been working to try to force a vote on her leadership at the party’s upcoming annual general meeting, set for next month in Calgary.
Smith said his registration for that meeting has also been revoked.
It’s the first public example of Smith and the UCP dispelling committed separatists from their ranks after last week’s referendum, where three-quarters of Alberta voters opted to stay in Canada rather than hold a second referendum on leaving Confederation.
Smith had said after the vote that the UCP was a pro-Canada party that needed to come together again or risk handing next year’s election to the NDP. To that end, she encouraged UCP members who still planned to stump for separation to find a new political home.
Rath, in an interview Friday, said the premier and UCP executives were doing him a favour by revoking his membership as he believes it will only draw attention to his cause and anger those in the party who support him.
He also said it wouldn’t stop him from continuing to organize UCP members against the premier.
“This is political malpractice on Danielle Smith’s part, and it’s political malpractice on the part of her lackeys,” he said.
Rath also said he thought it was being done to avoid a repeat of last year’s annual general meeting, where he received a standing ovation for challenging the premier over the separation issue while Smith heard boos when she tried to claim victory for getting Ottawa on board with a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.
“The sole goal of this was to shut me up and to make it so that I couldn’t embarrass Danielle Smith,” he said.
Rath said he would be appealing the decision with the party.
Smith on Friday didn’t answer a question about whether other separatist leaders would also have their memberships revoked, and instead reiterated that she and Rath haven’t seen eye to eye.
“He never supported me in my time at office, and he certainly doesn’t support me now,” she said, but she added that his support of her was “irrelevant.”
“What is relevant is that he has said publicly things like he wants to come to the (annual general meeting) to turn the UCP into an independence party,” she said.
“Our objective of the party is to get re-elected and to make sure that we’re focused on doing that, and so that is my understanding of the reason why (the UCP’s executive director), after a lot of evidence and compilation, ultimately made the decision to pull his membership.”
Dave Prisco, spokesperson for the UCP, also didn’t say whether other party members had been kicked out. He confirmed that Rath was removed because of his “public conduct toward the party and its leader.”
The decision to revoke Rath’s membership comes after Smith and Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi sparred over the premier’s connections to Rath in multiple question periods this week.
The back-and-forth started after Rath posted on social media text messages that he had received from Smith last year regarding his group’s referendum petition.
Nenshi had accused the premier of colluding with separatists, to which Smith said she would discuss petition rules with anyone who was interested.
When the issue came up again on Thursday, Smith tried to paint Rath as a supporter of the NDP by pointing out he had previously donated to the party when former premier Rachel Notley was at the helm.
Rath on Friday said the exchanges were “bizarre” and that Smith was merely trying to distance herself from him.
“I’m a highly embarrassing voice in the party for Danielle Smith.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2026.
By Jack Farrell | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.