Alberta UCP staff attended meeting about voter database before app was shut down

EDMONTON — Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party caucus says staff attended a separatist group’s virtual meeting about its website two weeks before the site became the focus of investigations into a massive breach of personal data.

Caucus spokesperson Shanna Schulhauser said Tuesday that staff regularly attend meetings of political interest and were told the database was above board.

“The organizers of this meeting were adamant that the data being used was obtained legally,” Schulhauser said.

“At the time, the staff observing the meeting had no reason to believe the website in question was unlawful.”

Schulhauser didn’t specify the names or number of caucus staff in the meeting.

The website featured a publicly accessible database containing the names and addresses of nearly three million Alberta voters.

It was run by the Centurion Project, a group set up to identify and recruit supporters of Alberta separation ahead of an expected fall referendum.

Last week, a judge ordered the group to shut down the database. Lawyers for Elections Alberta said contents had been traced to an official voter list supplied to the pro-independence Republican Party.

How the list changed hands is unclear and under investigation by Elections Alberta and the RCMP. Voter lists are only distributed to political parties and elected officials and can’t be shared with third parties.

Schulhauser said the UCP caucus is concerned about the massive data breach and awaits the results of the investigations.

The caucus statement came shortly after the Opposition NDP said it has a video recording of UCP attendance at the April 16 meeting. It said authorities should have been alerted.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said some of the 80 attendees appeared to be connected to the UCP, including a caucus director.

He said that in the meeting, David Parker, the leader of the Centurion Project, demonstrated how the database worked by searching the name of former UCP premier Jason Kenney. His home address was displayed for all.

In a social media post Tuesday, Kenney said he planned to hire a lawyer for advice on the “outrageous and potentially dangerous violation of my personal privacy.”

“Over the past few years I have received no shortage of threats from people broadly associated with the separatist/antivax/far right movement in Alberta,” Kenney said.

“It is disturbing that my personal information is now broadly available, particularly in those circles.”

Elections Alberta announced its investigation last Thursday, and Premier Danielle Smith said she became aware of the data breach after media reports.

In question period, Nenshi demanded that Smith explain how she wasn’t aware sooner.

“I didn’t know,” Smith said in response.

She added it’s “not OK” that personal information of public figures and people at risk of domestic violence was released, and there could be criminal charges.

“Which is why we take this seriously and we will not do anything to interfere with the investigation,” Smith said.

Nenshi said the NDP informed the RCMP the day after becoming aware of the Centurion Project meeting.

He said he doesn’t buy that Smith didn’t know earlier.

“Only two things can be possible here: one is that she did know and she’s lying about not knowing, or that (caucus) staff keep her in the dark,” Nenshi said.

“Albertans deserve better, either way.”

Nenshi alleged that UCP president Rob Smith attended the meeting but the party said it’s not true.

“Naheed Nenshi is using a common name to drag our president through the mud,” Dave Prisco, the party’s communications director, said in a statement.

“Rob Smith was never at that meeting, nor has he been at any Centurion meeting. It is a flat-out lie.”

Parker, a longtime political organizer in Alberta, didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday

A spokesperson for the Centurion Project said last week that it had obtained the database from an unnamed third party and that it would comply with the Elections Alberta investigation.

Parker is best known for organizing a grassroots movement called Take Back Alberta, which helped organize UCP members in casting ballots to unseat Kenney in a confidence vote. It later helped galvanize support to help Danielle Smith win the party race to take Kenney’s place.

Parker and Smith had a falling out two years ago, and the premier reminded those in the legislature Tuesday about the clash.

“I know the members opposite find this hard to believe, but the person in question has not been supportive of this party for some time,” Smith said. “In fact, it was a whole other political party that has been implicated in this, and it’s a whole other political party that is being investigated.

“We want the people responsible to be held accountable. And they will only be held accountable if the process is allowed to play itself out without politicians getting involved.”

Edmonton police Chief Warren Dreichel, speaking at an unrelated government news conference, said the breach poses serious safety concerns for many Albertans.

“All I would ask is that — not to minimize people’s concern — is that if they have a real threat, call us. But just if they’re upset, that’s a different thing. And we just want to manage this, because there are real victims out there that are going to need police support.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2026.

Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press