Saturday, October 22, 2022

Follow along live with the Alberta UCP annual general meeting

Trevor Robb - 

Danielle Smith poses with the Alberta UCP caucus at the McDougall Centre on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.© Dylan Short

This weekend marks the first time the United Conservative Party will debate policy under the leadership of newly minted Premier Danielle Smith.

The Edmonton Journal will be providing readers a one-stop-shop for all things UCP annual general meeting with an online live stream carrying the conference from the River Cree Resort in Enoch, near Edmonton, a live-blog at EdmontonJournal.com with digital editor Trevor Robb, and analysis from Postmedia columnists from both the Edmonton Journal and our sister paper, the Calgary Herald.

Provincial affairs journalist Lisa Johnson will be on the ground at the convention to provide in-depth coverage of the day’s events as they unfold. Be sure to follow Lisa on Twitter .

Premier Danielle Smith is expected to give a keynote address at 1 p.m. Saturday.

20 policy resolutions on the table

In total, Alberta’s United Conservative Party will debate 20 policy resolutions, including a couple that have proven controversial .

One resolution drafted by the party’s Edmonton West-Henday riding association aims to ban the instruction of several related concepts, “whether it is advanced under the title of so called critical race theory, intersectionality, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion or some other name.”

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It calls for a “halt” to what it calls differential treatment due to ethnic heritage, and “any student being taught that by reason of their ethnic heritage they are privileged, they are inherently racist or they bear historic guilt due to said ethnic heritage or that all of society is a racist system.”

Another proposed policy from Airdrie East calls for the party to “uphold the rights of parents and caregivers so as not to require them to affirm or socially condition a child in a gender identity that is incongruent with the child’s birth sex,” arguing that barring evidence of criminal neglect or abuse, parents are best suited to guide their child’s development.

A resolution from Calgary-Klein argues the party should establish legal requirements for the government to consult with stakeholders and the public before enacting “significant” legislation, arguing the UCP government has shown a lack of communication. While a resolution championed by the Calgary-North West constituency association would call on the provincial government to have councillors, administration and staff from municipalities register as lobbyists if they are dealing with the province.

You can read all of the proposed draft policies  here

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