Ahead of the UCP annual general meeting, high-ranking St. Albert UCP constituency association members say their membership bases would rather talk about pension plans and energy policy than transgender kids and diversity offices.
No resolutions from the St. Albert or Morinville-St. Albert ridings made the cut of the 30 policies to be debated in Calgary on Friday and Saturday, with the bulk coming from southern Alberta, especially the Calgary ridings of Edgemont and Lougheed.
Up for debate are whether post-secondaries should abolish diversity, equity and inclusion offices; whether parents should be informed of their children’s pronoun usage; whether doctors and other professionals should be allowed to without penalty express views contrary to their professional associations, and more.
“I don’t know in terms of the St. Albert people I’ve talked to that any of [the resolutions] are a slam dunk,” said Joe Friesenhan, St. Albert UCP constituency association member and past association president.
“The people who write these things tend to be those with the strongest opinions, so I think for a lot of moderates, I don’t know that there’s anything this year that’s either surprising or that there’s a lot of stuff that’s overwhelmingly compelling with all the membership.”
Friesenhan said he’s aware of the more contentious policies and he's more interested in how Premier Danielle Smith will respond should some of the resolutions pass.
“She strikes me as being fairly socially progressive, so I wonder how she’ll thread that needle,” he said.
Friesenhan said he has heard a lot of talk about the proposed Alberta Pension Plan, something he believes there is a “good case” for, but which is the source of some emotional conversations.
“They’re scared of it or zealously in favour of it, without actually considering the numbers,” he said.
None of the policy resolutions address the Alberta Pension Plan.
The St. Albert association submitted several resolutions that didn’t pass, according to Friesenhan.
“There’s a couple of constituencies that really know how to work it, so we had some [associations] submitting 20 resolutions … It’s like, guys, I don’t know what you’re doing here.”
Friesenhan didn’t know how many St. Albert members would be attending AGM to cast their votes.
Ilario Spagnolo ended his term as president of the UCP constituency association for Morinville-St. Albert last week.
He said that the Morinville-St. Albert association has seen renewed interest and more participation since before the last election, but the social conservative policies up for debate at the AGM don’t seem to be a high priority.
“I can’t say that those are things that come up in our discussions; I can’t say that those are things that come up in our board meetings,” he said.
“What we see as a priority is to make sure that we have our say in a net zero economy and that we don’t have a federal government that just imposes their will on Alberta … I think you’ll get a resounding majority of UCP members that believe we do need to move to a net zero environment. I think the only question is the implementation and how long it’s going to take.”
One of the policy proposals on the AGM’s docket tackles “[defending] Alberta’s economy and autonomy by opposing all attempts by the federal government to impose net zero by 2035.”
Health care, specifically increased accessibility and free access to health care, are also top of mind, Spagnolo said.
“Sometimes there’s a perception that all UCP members are on the far right and they want all sorts of things that mainstream folks don’t want, but in a lot of cases UCP members are just like every other member of the electorate … They want education for their kids, they want clean air, they want health care, and they also want a strong economic foundation to make all those things possible.”
Spagnolo couldn’t say how many constituency association members from his riding will attend the AGM.
