‘This has been an unreasonable and opaque process from the beginning,’ musician and reluctant environmentalist says
After learning that 35,000 signatures on Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal citizen initiative petition had been ruled invalid on various grounds by Elections Alberta – enough for the provincial elections agency to ensure there is no ballot question on the matter – the Alberta-based singer-songwriter expressed his “grave concerns about how this number was reached and the fairness of the process itself.”
“Of the more than 205,000 signatures delivered to Elections Alberta on June 10th, 2026, roughly 35,000 were rejected,” Mr. Lund said in a statement emailed to media yesterday. “We are simultaneously shocked by this outcome, yet, unfortunately, not surprised, given the continual government rule changes and roadblocks we have faced throughout this campaign.”
“This has been an unreasonable and opaque process from the beginning, and despite diligently following every rule, we are left with more questions than answers,” the self-described reluctant environmentalist continued.
According to Elections Alberta, “the primary reasons signatures were rejected during the validation phase included incomplete elector information, invalid dates, electors signing the petition more than once, and incomplete or improperly completed canvasser signature witnessing declarations.”
“No seeded names were found on the petition,” the statement added, obviously significantly given the misuse of Alberta’s List of Electors by certain separatist groups.
“The primary reasons signatures were rejected during the verification phase included electors being unable or unwilling to verify the information on the petition sheet, and not providing valid contact information to reach them for verification,” the Elections Alberta statement also said.
This suggests that in an era when large numbers of people don’t answer their phones when unknown numbers are displayed – as was the case with Elections Alberta’s verification calls – it could be made even more difficult to verify a petition.
“This was the first petition verification process that included scrutineers, as added to the Act by Bill 23: Justice Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 on May 1, 2026,” the Elections Alberta statement also said. It’s hard to speculate without more information that Elections Alberta is unlikely to provide, but it would be interesting to know what role this played in the outcome.
Elections Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Petition Verification Scrutineers web page notes that “the citizen initiative petition proponent and the Minister of Justice may both, in writing, appoint one or more lawyers who are active members of The Law Society to act as a scrutineer during the petition verification process, and are required to pay any costs of their scrutineers.” (Emphasis added.)
Regardless of the reasons, this is a very convenient outcome for Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Government, which is weirdly desperate to see a foreign-backed coal mining proposal go ahead on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Southern Alberta.
Albertans are entitled to wonder why a popularly elected government is so determined to proceed with a development that is widely and wildly unpopular, including among a significant part of its own rural base.
In his statement, Mr. Lund thanked Albertans who signed the petition and the more than 3,000 volunteers who collected signatures. “Your commitment to protecting our headwaters and ranchlands has been extraordinary. This effort – and your effort – will not be in vain.”
He indicated he will have more to say on Monday.
Can we assume now that the next provincial election will be subject to the same forces?
Yeah, no. This isn’t right. 35,000 signatures disqualified? That’s malarkey. The kind of people collecting signatures for the “Water not Coal” petition, like the “Stay in Canada” petition, are not morons and didn’t screw up like that. If anything, the opposite. Having collected signatures for the latter, and meeting the other people collecting, and the ones for “Water not Coal” I know we/they were extremely diligent- anal, even, anticipating far greater scrutiny than for anything the Smith UCP government supports and enables. Total sabotage, IMO.
It doesn’t surprise me that a significant portion of the electors were declared Invalid.
The current administration is hell bent on poisoning Alberta.
My families names were legitimately signed and witnessed.
The way to weed out seeded names is to obtain the electors’ list from two parties, then eliminate any names that are not found on both lists. It wouldn’t be hard to find friendly parties to the cause.
Remind me, why are any parties privy to our personal data at this point?
Are we actually surprised? The only petitions that will go ahead are the ones the UCP wants, the others are all fake news of course.
I wonder if Mr Lund and his supporters will learn their lesson: they now have an additional 205,000 reasons to give up this quixotic attempt to change the UCP government’s mind on this issue, and pivot towards just changing the government.
Threaten the UCP’s lock on the rural seats that encompass the region most affected by coal mining on the Eastern Slopes by campaigning for, and raising money for, NDP candidates in those seats. Flip a few southern Alberta rural seats to the NDP from the UCP, and there could be a change of government in Edmonton that will halt those mines in their tracks.
Seems awfully convenient for Fraulein Schmidt, doesn’t it? Now if only EA applies these strict standards to the separatist’s petition, which we all know are now being counted again. Any bets that there will be no such malfeasance found and every signature will be deemed perfectly legitimate? Surely there will be no I.P. Freely’s or Seymour Butz’s or Jacques Strappe’s on that list. Oh that’s right, the separatists had the benefit of access to the names and info of every voting citizen in the province. Yup, something’s rotten in the state of Denmark alright.
Firth of Fifth: I would not doubt that at all. Notice how one petition, being the separation petition, has gotten the green light, and the other petitions, which are Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition, and Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal Petition, have been ignored by the UCP and Danielle Smith, or they were deemed invalid. Elections Alberta has been rendered a weak entity by the UCP. Whose hands are being greased? If it’s a way to make their rich friends even richer, the UCP are right there. Something is absolutely rotten, for sure.
Can’t help but wonder how much better things would be if those same 205,000 people had voted properly in the last provincial election. I’m also wondering how they will vote in the next election.
See my comment above …
Exactly! How many of the people affected voted for this horrendous government in the last election(s)? Seriously Alberta. It’s going to take something crazy to change the trajectory of the province. Something crazy like VOTING FOR A DIFFERENT PARTY. It’s very frustrating at this point. What is it going to take to get the people in this province to actually wake up to the damage and elect a different party??
Something sure is rotten with this.