Smith leaves door open to government-led Alberta separation vote
Posted May 11, 2026 7:17 pm.
Alberta’s Premier is not ruling out using her authority to approve a provincial separation vote this October, a move independence leaders are now openly urging her to make.
Danielle Smith offered no assurance on Monday when asked directly whether she would commit to not calling such a vote.
“Well, I can tell you we’re waiting on a few things,” she replied. “We’ll have to decide that as a caucus and cabinet afterwards, but I think we have to just wait for the process to play out.”
Separatist leaders Jeff Rath and Mitch Sylvestre are now urging supporters to buy UCP memberships to pressure Smith into putting separation on the ballot this fall.
CityNews asked several UCP cabinet ministers whether they believe the premier should use her power to call the vote.
Finance Minister Nate Horner said he does not support the idea.
“I’ve ran against separatist candidates,” said Finance Minister Nate Horner. “So no, I don’t think that she should do that, but I’ll let her comment.”
Hospitals Minister Matt Jones echoed that sentiment, saying “the UCP is not a separatist party, so we should be pushing for a strong Alberta within a united Canada.”
Separatist organizers claim to have delivered 300,000 petition signatures to Elections Alberta last week, though it remains unclear when, or if, those signatures will be verified. A court injunction prompted by First Nations challenging the process has halted the count.
Rath, a lawyer for the Alberta Prosperity Project, is accusing the courts of interfering.
“There should be real concerns about the degree to which the courts are trying to put their thumb on the scale,” he said.
The Alberta NDP argues the referendum cannot proceed under current conditions, citing the recent leak of voting data for nearly three million Albertans.
“There’s no way we can have a referendum right now and feel confident either in its results, or in the petition that led to it,” said NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi.
She also accused the premier of enabling the separatist push.
“She has done everything she could in the last year to make this separatism referendum a reality, Pancholi said. “Her staff has looked the other way during an unprecedented data breach of personal information of voters by the separatists, who are her supporters and her friends.”
Political scientist Duane Bratt of Mount Royal University believes Smith may ultimately allow the vote to proceed, not necessarily out of ideological commitment, but to maintain unity within the UCP.
“Watching her actions, I still don’t know which side she is on,” Bratt says. “But what she is concerned about is the unity of her party. It’s about keeping the separatists in the camp.”
Rath says he intends to force a special general meeting on separation in August.
