Alberta Premier, chief electoral officer at odds over separation question

After Premier Danielle Smith and one of her ministers called on Alberta’s electoral officer to sign off on a proposed separation referendum question, he said it has constitutional implications impacting Albertans that require the court’s opinion.

Gordon McClure says he has a responsibility in a neutral, non-partisan position to determine whether the separation referendum question meets the requirements of the province’s law.

He made the statement Tuesday after Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery said it shouldn’t be held back by red tape.

The proposed question — which needs McClure’s approval before the group behind it can start gathering the signatures necessary to get it on a ballot — seeks a yes or no answer to: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”

Smith and Amery, on social media, say Albertans should be able to embark on gathering signatures “without needless bureaucratic red tape or court applications slowing the process.”

“As it is the Government of Alberta that ultimately decides how or if to implement any referendum result, those government decisions will ultimately be subject to constitutional scrutiny,” Amery wrote Tuesday.

“We encourage Elections Alberta to withdraw its court reference and permit Albertans their democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process.”

Smith, in her own post, says she agrees with Amery, but adds she believes in “Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada.”

However, McClure says the question is a “serious and significant question with the potential to impact all Albertans,” and it’s the responsibility of the chief electoral officer to determine if it satisfies the requirements of the UCP government’s newly amended Citizen Initiative Act.

Section 2(4) of the act says that “An initiative petition proposal must not contravene sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”

“Given the potential implications of the constitutional referendum proposal and given the Legislature has expressly authorized the Chief Electoral Officer to state a question seeking the opinion of the Court, the Chief Electoral Officer has referred a question to the Court for its opinion,” McClure said.

His statement includes asking the court if the question conflicts with several parts of the Constitution, including the democratic rights of citizens, right to life, liberty and security of the person, enforcement of guaranteed rights and freedoms, and recognition of existing aboriginal and treaty rights.

‘Authoritarian tendencies’

Opposition NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi, in a statement, accused Smith and Amery of going against the administration of a law they themselves set in order to appease separatists within the United Conservative Party.

“Yet again, Danielle Smith and her UCP government’s authoritarian tendencies, corruption and incompetence are on full display,” Pancholi said.

“Albertans deserve better than a government hell-bent on tearing our country apart to save their political skins.”

Mitch Sylvestre with the Alberta Prosperity Project, whose name is attached to the application submitted to the electoral officer, has not responded to interview requests this week.

Sylvestre has said he thinks interest among Albertans in holding a separation referendum increases with every speaking event his group organizes.

“The more people that hear what the message is, the more people that will be in favour,” he said in an interview last month.

Bu the lawyer for the Alberta Prosperity Project, the group that applied for a vote on leaving Canada, blasted McClure, the NDP and the premier.

“He’s (MCClure) just trying to delay things on behalf of his friends in the NDP, that’s all this is,” said Jeffrey Rath.

“She (Smith) could easily call the question under the Referendum Act, which I think is true leadership.”

Rath says he will go to court to fight for that vote because he believes Albertans will be richer and freer after divorcing Canada.

“How can just asking the question violate the Constitution?” Rath said. “It’s a silly question to put to the court, but this is where we’re at and I’m looking forward to being able to put these arguments to the court and hopefully get a ruling from the bench in very short order.”

177,000 signatures needed

Provincial law says a hearing date must be scheduled within 10 days of the court referral, and McClure’s office said Monday that he would have 30 days after a court ruling is issued to determine if the proposed referendum question meets other legislated requirements.

If approved, Sylvestre and the Alberta Prosperity Project would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to put the question of Alberta separation on a ballot.

In June, the chief electoral officer approved a competing question that seeks to have Alberta make it official policy that the province will never separate from Canada.

That petition, put forward by former Alberta Progressive Conservative Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk, was approved before new provincial rules took effect, which lowered the threshold for citizen-initiated referendums to appear on ballots.

Amery said Tuesday the rule changes were intended to make the process “broadly permissive” and that McClure’s referral to the court didn’t match the intent behind the changes.

–With files from Sean Amato in Edmonton