Conservatives from across the country gathered at the party's convention in Calgary this past weekend. There, party delegates showed strong support for Pierre Poilievre to lead the party into the next federal election as he received 87.4% of the vote.

Rebel News was at the convention, where Alberta- and Saskatchewan-based Rebels Syd Fizzard and Lise Merle discussed whether the party could continue to count on support from Western Canadians as independence movements grow.

The Conservatives are “absolutely not” delivering on the issues that matter to Westerners, said Lise, a bestselling LGBTQ author, pointing to the delegates' failure to adopt a policy proposal addressing parental rights.

“I don't understand how we are still describing this issue as contentious or somehow divisive,” the author of Buck the Rainbow Unicorn said. “It is absolutely not divisive for Conservatives to conserve things like childhood, like families, like the wellbeing of our communities.”

Despite “having some great members of Parliament,” the federal Conservatives seem to be “dropping the bag,” Syd said, reminding viewers it had been 15 years since the party last won an election.

“'Learn to win,' that's what they're saying,” he said, pulling out a party pamphlet that had been given out at the convention. “It's been 15 years; are we still at that point?”

The issue isn't with what the party is saying, the Alberta-based Rebel journalist continued. “It's the things that haven't been said, especially coming from Alberta,” he said, noting the party failed to address many of the concerns raised by those seeking independence.

“My question to Conservatives is, do they feel like they did enough to win the Alberta vote? Because even if independence fails, there's going to be a massive schism in the conservative movement between the Laurentian conservatives — the Ontario conservatives — and the Western conservatives, and they're not adequately handling the situation.”

Help fund our independent reporting on Alberta’s independence movement!

Rebel News is stepping up where the legacy media have failed. We've assigned Tamara Lich to follow the Alberta independence movement as it unfolds — not from a government-funded newsroom in Toronto, but on the ground with the people actually shaping it. We don’t take a cent of Trudeau’s media bailouts, which means we rely entirely on viewers like you to make this journalism possible. If you want Albertans to have a fair voice in a debate the establishment would rather crush, please chip in today and help us keep this reporting going strong.

Optional email code

Amount

$25

$50

$75

$100

$250

$500

$1,000

$2,500

Other

$

DONATE