Alberta premier adamant referendum ads are not ‘neutral’ on separation question, as UCP president claims

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is adamant she is promoting that the province stay in Canada , rejecting her own party president’s claim that the government’s advertising is “as neutral as possible” on the question.

“I'm not a neutral party in this,” Smith said at an unrelated press conference on Monday.

“I believe that we should remain, and I believe that we should do everything we can to address the things that are causing grievances [within the province]. You can't ignore them.”

In a lengthy Facebook post, UCP president Rob Smith acknowledged that many party members have “expressed disappointment” about the government’s $4-million advertising campaign on the referendum.

In his interpretation of the ad campaign, the UCP president argued the premier isn’t promoting a pro-Canada message as loudly as she is campaigning on the other questions.

He said the premier is spending $4 million to promote the message: “VOTE YES TO THE 9!!! … and, commensurately less, in a measured, limited way: Vote for ‘a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.’”

The UCP president continued: “And [the premier] assured me … emphasized, I’d even say, that the included language and ‘promotion’ regarding this question would be as NEUTRAL as possible and not nearly as persuasive as for Questions #1-#9.”

“I’ve heard some of these ads, and I believe what Premier told me,” he said.

Alberta government referendum campaign urges Albertans to vote for specific answers

When asked about the UCP president’s comments, the premier rejected the idea that the province’s campaign is dampening its pro-federation stance on Question 10.

“The nine questions that the government has put forward are what we were providing more information to the public on, 'cause I don't see anybody actually doing any campaigning on either side of any of those,” Smith said.

It’s not the first time the premier and UCP president have shared contradicting perspectives on the topic. In May, the two were at odds over where they stand on Alberta staying in Canada.

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