By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

separatism alive and well, davies says

Podcast: Alberta Republicans leader dishes on his referendum demand, and the future of his party after byelections

Jul 18, 2025 | 1:03 PM

Cameron Davies says the Republican Party of Alberta isn’t going anywhere.

Despite failing to win any of the three recent provincial byelections, he’s confident many Albertans will grow to support him and his party in the next provincial election, scheduled for 2027.

Davies earned nearly 3,000 votes in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection, for around 17 per cent of the vote, but in Edmonton, his party’s candidates did miserably, comparatively speaking, with about one and two per cent of the ballots cast there.

Davies’ party cropped up this spring, headquartered in Red Deer where he says the largest chunk of his volunteer base revolves around.

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This happened around the same time Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP were introducing legislation that makes it easier to get a question on a provincial referendum.

But Davies, or anyone who agrees with him that Alberta can and should be its own nation, can’t easily do that right now because Elections Alberta has already approved one attempt.

Earlier this month, the election authority confirmed it received a citizen initiative application that would see the question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” on a referendum ballot, but only as long as the people behind it obtain the amount of signatures required under the old legislation.

That is to say, they need nearly 294,000 signatures, or 10 per cent of eligible voters, and they need to do it in 90 days, not the new 120.

That movement is led by Thomas Lukaszuk, former Progressive Conservative MLA.

A conservative group called the Alberta Prosperity Project also wants to file one, but must wait for the first group’s deadline to pass.

“It’s unlikely the petition route is a route that will be successful. Our view is that it shouldn’t take a petition to do the right thing. The premier and Order in Council can schedule a referendum,” says Davies.

“Whether you’re for independence or not, whether you believe Alberta should stay within Canada, the majority of Albertans firmly agree the current system is not fair, and is broken. My question would be what is the harm in the Alberta government scheduling a referendum and doing all the things allowable in the Constitution that Quebec currently does?”

That means a provincial pension plan, police force, tax collection, and immigration system, Davies says.

“What’s the harm? If Ottawa decides [to say], ‘Alberta, you know what? You’re right. We haven’t treated you fairly, let’s renegotiate the deal,’ that’s a win-win for Alberta,” he opines.

“The opposite of that is if Ottawa says, ‘Alberta, your place in confederation is to pay the bills, sit down and shut up,’ then I think we know how the referendum vote will go. So let’s schedule this thing and have a conversation with Albertans.”

In his interview with rdnewsNOW and The Everything Red Deer Podcast, Davies shared some results from the telephone survey campaign his party conducted in the spring, asking Albertans how they feel about separation.

Davies claimed 48 per cent of those who responded in central Alberta were in favour of separation, but it isn’t clear if that takes into account how many people hung up the phone rather than answering.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, speaking to media Wednesday in Red Deer, capped Albertan support for separatism at 30 per cent.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi in Red Deer on July 16, 2025. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Nenshi said the fact his party beat the Republicans in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, and not just Edmonton, should say a bit about the future of Davies’ political movement.

“The real challenge here is that the UCP are also acting like separatists. Albertans have three choices, the separatists, the other separatists, or the only party that believes in Canada, which is Alberta’s New Democrats,” said Nenshi, who won one of the three aforementioned byelections himself.

Nenshi also believes it’s not solely or even mainly Ottawa to where Alberta should be looking, but rather inwardly at the premier.

“Danielle Smith started this. Certainly we have things we need to fix. We need a better environmental assessment act, we need to be able to build pipelines and other infrastructure,” he added. “Danielle Smith hasn’t gotten a single inch of pipeline built in six years.”

Nenshi says instead of screaming about things and getting people mad, the premier should do something about some of the problems Alberta claims to have.

There was no media availability with Premier Smith when the Alberta Next Panel was in Red Deer on Tuesday, and Smith was not able to make herself available to media after participating in the Westerner Days parade on Wednesday, which is when Nenshi did his interview.

Make sure to listen to our full interviews with Cameron Davies and Naheed Nenshi on the latest episode of The Everything Red Deer Podcast!

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READ MORE: Central Albertans voice ideas and concerns to Alberta Next Panel