‘Alberta Forever Canada’ organizer says lack of separatism question on October referendum by design

Despite Albertans saying they want a vote on the province remaining in Canada amidst increased separatist sentiment, that question isn’t currently one of nine on a referendum scheduled for October.

Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, who successfully gathered more than 400,000 verified signatures for his ‘Alberta Forever Canada’ petition, says the addition of a question on separatism in the fall vote will likely depend on the outcome of the ongoing petition on the topic which directly opposed his efforts.

“I suspect that Premier Smith is simply waiting for separatists to get their 177,000 signatures so that she can add their question to the referendum,” he told CityNews. “There’s just no way that she can get away not having a question on separatism on the referendum, because as we now know, the UCP is a separatist party, and her voting base, those who also want to bash immigrants, they expect a separatism question on the ballot to appear.”

Stay Free Alberta has until May to get nearly 178,000 signatures on its petition, which asks ‘Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?’

That effort gained increased attention after one of the leaders of the effort, lawyer Jeff Rath, said members of the United Conservative Party (UCP) had signed their name but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality.

Smith has said she hasn’t — and won’t — sign the petition, as she believes the citizen-initiated petition is for citizens. Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, Environment Minister Grant Hunter, Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko, and Assisted Living Minister Jason Nixon have also said they have not signed.

Lukaszuk’s effort didn’t specifically call for a referendum on the subject, but he explains the aim was for it to lead that way.

“We were hoping that our premier will do the rational thing and resolve this question in the legislature and give the opportunity to Alberta members of legislature to vote on this question should Alberta remain in Canada,” he said. “But she chooses not to do that because she knows that in her UCP caucus, she has separatists and they would stand up and vote for Alberta to leave Canada and possibly join the United States.”

He claims Smith has instead opened the door for separatists to put their version to the people and is running a distraction campaign in the meantime.

“She has paved the way for them and has gotten rid of all the obstacles from having their petition,” Lukaszuck said. “But in the meantime, she’s confusing the issue with putting a whole bunch of, you know, frankly, for lack of a better term, racist questions on the ballot, targeting the most vulnerable people in our community, depriving the children who have arrived in Canada of education and of health care.

“And frankly, even if you were so callous as to accept that, imagine what this will do to our community, where we will have children and families walking around sick, not being able to obtain medical help, not being able to go to school.”

According to Lukaszuk, the next step for Alberta Forever Canada is for Smith to form a legislative committee.

‘MAGA-like way of doing politics’

Lukaszuk is also blasting the referendum announcement as a whole, calling the effort “regrettable.”

The Oct. 19, 2026 vote will put several questions to Albertans, focused on immigration policy and constitutional reform.

“I find these questions to be very upsetting and extremely un-Canadian, frankly,” he said. “Some of them on the verge of creating a separation between immigrants and the rest of our community.

“It’s a MAGA-like way of doing politics, dividing Canadians and not providing basic humanitarian services of health care to those who have come to Canada seeking refuge from other parts of the world and came here legally and have obtained visas.”

Lukaszuk also notes the switch-up on immigration sentiment by Smith and the governing United Conservative Party.

In a January 2024 sit down with the Shaun Newman Podcast, Smith said she wanted to double Alberta’s population to 10 million people by 2030, claiming that being the second most populated province in the country would give it leverage in the fight against Ottawa.

“So many people have come to our province, I look at that as a positive, and we want to keep that going,” she said. “Let’s have an aggressive target to double our population. We have to be that bastion of liberty and people are going to want to come here, and we want to embrace them, and we want to be able to build this place out so that we can actually have the political clout in Alberta that we deserve.”

In her Thursday address, Smith spoke of the impact of declining oil prices on Alberta’s economy.

The province is facing a $6.4-billion deficit ahead of the release of the budget next week.

While geopolitical tensions and fluctuating oil prices have undoubtedly caused issues, the premier also laid the blame on the federal government’s immigration policy for putting pressure on provincial finances and core services like education and healthcare.

Lukaszuk says immigrants are being used as a scapegoat.

“When you have these nationalist populist governments with authoritarian tendencies, they always have to have a scapegoat because of course, it’s not her and her mismanagement of government,” he said. “It has to be somebody else.”

Premier Danielle Smith is expected to take questions from the media at a press conference Friday morning. The Opposition NDP is also holding an availability of its own.

Ahead of the address, Alberta NDP Deputy Leader Rakhi Pancholi accused Smith of using the speech to “distract, scapegoat, and play the blame game” rather than address crises in health care, education and affordability.