No sooner was Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer embroiled in a back and forth with Danielle Smith and her justice minister about his decision to ask the courts if a referendum proposed by a separatist group allied with the premier’s government is constitutional than Gordon McClure’s office announced it has approved a referendum question with a positive take on remaining in Canada.
In a news release yesterday, Mr. McClure said his office has approved the petition for the “Alberta Forever Canada” citizen initiative launched by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, who has long been a vocal critic of the Smith Government’s separatist machinations.
Mr. Lukaszuk’s petition calls for the referendum question to be, “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
For what should be obvious reasons, Mr. McClure saw no potential contradictions with Canada’s Constitution in that particular question. Presumably, that’s because if it were answered in the affirmative no radical change in the relationships between Alberta and Canada, Albertans and Canadians, or Albertans and their province would immediately occur. And if it were answered in the negative, Alberta would still have to figure out what its position was.
In his application, Mr. Lukaszuk wrote that “since a referendum appears to be imminent anyway, it should be objective and not directed by special interest groups.”
“Separation will threaten the Canadian as well as the Alberta economy, the personal wealth of Albertans, the Canadian citizenship rights of Alberta residents, the treaty rights of our First Nations, and have many other serious and negative consequences,” Mr. Lukaszuk said. “We believe the majority of Alberta’s residents are loyal Canadians opposed to any form of separation.”
The technical details are in the Elections Alberta news release, but a key point in it is that because Mr. Lukaszuk’s petition was received before the UCP’s 2025 Elections Statutes Amendments Act came into force, “the process will follow requirements set out in the Citizen Initiative Act as of June 30, 2025.”
To wit, to get on the ballot next year it will require 293,976 signatures – that is, 10 per cent of the number of Albertans eligible to vote in the 2023 general election. The petition must be submitted to Elections Alberta by Oct. 28, 2025. That compares to the 177,000 that will be required for any referendum petition approved since the amending legislation was passed, including the so-called Alberta Prosperity Project’s if it passes constitutional muster.
Alberta separatists associated with the APP and their not very subtle backers in the Premier’s Office will cry foul just the same, of course, but the timing serves a strategic purpose for Mr. Lukaszuk.
While lawyers representing his Alberta Forever Canada campaign are likely to argue that the same rules should be applied to their petition as any other, regardless of the timing, Mr. Lukaszuk was willing to take the chance on having to collect more signatures to ensure his wording was approved first.
Ms. Smith “should know that there can only be one petition, and the one that was filed first goes first,” Mr. Lukaszuk told me last month after the premier claimed otherwise on her free CORUS Radio program. “She should also know that the question the APP is posing is not constitutional and cannot go ahead as the referendum question.”
“It’s unanimous among our lawyers that the new rules should apply to us,” Mr. Lukaszuk told Postmedia political columnist Don Braid yesterday in a column that weirdly sounded as if it had been written by his colleague Rick Bell, famous for his old-timey staccato writing style. Mr. Lukaszuk, wrote Mr. Braid, “is now branded ‘Tommy the Commie.’”
Even before yesterday’s announcement, Mr. Lukaszuk broke the news that former Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach had endorsed the Alberta Forever Canada campaign. “I support a strong Alberta within a strong Canada,” Mr. Stelmach wrote. “This is why I support the Forever Canadian initiative and ask all Albertans to sign the petition and help collect signatures.”
Well, I suppose it’s only a matter of time before the same people start calling Mr. Stelmach Red Ed.
Mr. Lukaszuk told me yesterday, “we will be launching our campaign probably on Saturday and we will have volunteers across the province collecting signatures. We have over 3,000 volunteers so far.”
“The best thing to do is to get onto our registration page and register, and we will contact you,” he added. That page is found at www.forever-canadian.ca.
Well done Mr. Lukaszuk! And thank you David for getting the word out. Now let’s get those signatures and watch Marlaina lose her traitorous mind.
When the large majority of the Alberta voters voted for the UCP party in the last provincial election, why are there now 456.000 signatures Forever Canadian supporting the narrative policies of the liberal Party? Did Thomas Lukaszak explain in detail that the “MOU” regarding the pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast of BC will never be built as long as the liberals are in power? Alberta sends to Ottawa nearly $ 70 Billion transfer payments, and Alberta receives a very small fraction back from Ottawa. Albertans should take in consideration when Albertans vote forever Canadian or vote for independence from Ottawa, and Albertans keep the $ 70 billion transfer payment here in Alberta, and that will benefit ALL Albertans
“is now branded ‘Tommy the Commie.’”
The outdated juvenile silliness that is red baiting or red tagging and the associated red scares that are its adjuncts never seems to go away, perhaps because of its appeal to those individuals seeking to influence certain sectors within the larger population that are its selected targets. As tactics employed to discredit political opponents the use is historically well documented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-baiting
“In the 19th century, the ruling classes were afraid of socialism because it challenged their rule.” Apparently and unsurprisingly very little has changed.
When 6 of us true Conservatives created S.U.N. (Seniors United Now in 2003) the idea was to talk to groups of seniors throughout the province about what Ralph Klein was doing to them and what it would do to their future. Don Getty came to one of our meetings and told us he fully supported what we were trying to do.
It was a complete shock to us when these mindless fellow seniors found it smart to call us liars, traitors, communists, left-wing nuts, and closet Liberals. They were too stupid to understand what were saying. Klein was there hero and now they are paying for their stupidity and likely needing help from food banks, that’s how stupid they were.
Alan K. Spiller: Even Peter Lougheed was embarrassed to be in public with Ralph Klein. That’s how bad Ralph Klein was. Can you blame him? Peter Lougheed didn’t trust Danielle Smith either. It’s easy to see why.
Anonymous Peter Lougheed made no bones about it he always told my parents that he deliberately refused to appear anywhere in public with Ralph Klein he was so disgusted by what Klein was doing to us and Klein’s mother Flo, father Phil, and daughter Angie felt the same way.
I was accused of supporting communism because of purchasing groceries at a local Coop. Twenty first century McCarthyism thrives in the dull, hate filled minds of US wannabes,
Perhaps this is what really got Smith so upset and in a such rush to get the more separatist friendly referendum question she favours approved.
Of course Smith and the UCP had carefully jigged the system for the separatists as much as they could, making a much lower threshold for their question to be considered, easier than, say, recalling the Premier. However, they hadn’t counted on the Chief Electoral Officer and others scrutinizing the implications of the more separatist question, such as being compliant with other laws and our Charter of Rights.
If the more Canada friendly question goes ahead before the one the UCP prefers, Smith will really blow a gasket. So this here is a good lesson to those want to be autocrats like Smith, you can’t always control everything even when you think you can.
Maybe if would have also saved her and us some grief, if Smith remained the supposed Libertarian she once often claimed to be instead of turning into such an autocrat.
Is there anyplace to go to sign the petition or do I have to wait to be canvassed at my front door?
Donna: The law requires the petition to be witnessed by a person accredited to perform that duty by Elections Alberta. While I’m sure there will be places where one can go to sign in the presence of such a witness, registering on the site so somone can be sent to your door is probably the best way to ensure you get the chance. DJC
I am unable to submit the request to sign the petition which I 100% wish to do. I do not want to donate, volunteer or canvas. I am a senior who wants Alberta to remain in Canada. It feels unfair to me that you expect more than my signature which I thought this is REALLY about.
That is someone I could vote for. well done Mr. Lukaszuk.
Were I still living in Calgary I’d be the first to sign.
How crazy are the times we are currently living in, when hard-core lefties like me (?us?) find ourselves cheering for lifelong dyed-in-the-wool conservatives like Mr. Lukaszuk and Mr. Stelmach?
Jerry: Canada is a great cause. A lot of people believe in it. Party affiliations and personal feelings matter less in situations like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Gil McGowan and and Mr. Lukaszuk (who were not fans of one another when Mr. Lukaszuk was the minister of labour) sitting on the same committee. DJC
Smith and her posse of corrupt and dishonest cohorts has turned this lifelong true blue conservative into an NDP provincially and Liberal federally.
Good on Thomas Lukaszuk for doing this.
Anyone heard anything from Nenshi about all of this? I’ve seen nothing posted by him except drivel about all the fun the NDP is having at fairs and rodeos. I realize it’s important for them to cultivate the rural vote, of course, but whenever I see the latest grip-and-grin pix from whatever tiresome festival Nenshi is attending, I can only think, “Say something! This is serious shit that’s going on!” Watch for Lukaszuk to become the leader of the reincarnated Alberta Party and the next premier of Alberta. Anybody agree?
Nope! I do not reside in Fantasyland.
I don’t think he can say anything concrete even if his life were on the line.
What is the question Smith is proposing?
Expat: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a Sovereign Country and cease to be a province in Canada?” Technically, the question is being proposed by the Alberta Prosperity Project. Clearly, though, the Premier’s Office has a hand in this. DJC
Now that it appears that the Alberta sovereignists can’t organize a pillow fight, let alone the paperwork for the referendum, it may require that they put pressure on Smith to make things better. How? Make sure the referendum never happens.
The referendum that wasn’t would put the whole question into the realm of extreme uncertainty. At this point, it pretty much anything goes. Smith will make all their pronouncements about Alberta Uber Alles, while TBA plays their asymmetric warfare game.
I signed this morning!
A group of volunteers were at the gazebo, just west of the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. They were doing a brisk business, and the woman I spoke to thought they would probably be there again next Saturday. (Actual location 104 St. and 83 Ave. in Edmonton)
There was, incidentally, also a fellow in the same park with a big banner that read ‘Alberta Sovereignty Now’. He was standing all by himself.
Thank you very much Mr. Lukaszuk. All your hard work is greatly appreciated. I live in an apartment condo very close to South Common. Where can I go close by to sign the petition? Or, can somebody come to my building so that I can sign the petition?
I signed up here http://www.forever-canadian.ca/ for notification on how to sign.
I think Mr. Lukaszuk should consider running to become an MP in Canada’s federal Parliament. His talents would make good impact in Ottawa.
When will there be a large drive in South Calgary to sign the Alberta Forever Canada petition?