EDMONTON — The man who helped write the rules on separation votes in Canada says if Alberta’s premier is going to take her province down that “worrying” path, she has a duty to spell out to everyone how it will be triggered and what happens afterward.
Stéphane Dion says Danielle Smith must make it clear what she would do if Alberta votes to leave and whether she would also carry out the required negotiations with the federal government.
Dion also says it’s up to Smith to determine the clear majority threshold number for a successful referendum, as the federal law doesn’t specify.
“She owes that to the people of Alberta and the whole people of Canada,” Dion said in an interview Wednesday.
“She may say it’s very unlikely that there will be a yes vote (to leave Canada),” he added. “(I’d) agree with her, but in politics you’re supposed to prepare for the worst.”
Dion is a former Liberal cabinet minister and party leader. He tabled the Clarity Act in 1999 after the sovereignty referendum in Quebec held four years earlier failed by a razor-thin margin.
He was a central figure as the government turned a Supreme Court ruling on separation into legislation. That ruling said provinces didn’t have the right to secede unilaterally, meaning without federal input.
The Clarity Act says a vote with a clear majority in favour of separation creates an obligation for provincial and federal governments to enter negotiations that could, one day, lead to secession.
Dion said Alberta is heading down a “worrying” path toward its own separation referendum. Smith’s government twice last year changed the rules to make it easier to hold such a vote.
Smith has stressed that she doesn’t want to leave but instead supports a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.” Critics have dismissed that statement as nonsensical “word salad.”
The government’s legislation last year relaxed the rules for what types of questions can be spurred through citizen petitions while drastically reducing the signature threshold those petitions need to succeed.
In a statement, Heather Jenkins, press secretary for Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery, reiterated that the changes made to the referendum rules were to help Albertans have their voices heard.
“Alberta’s government will not speculate as to what citizen initiative petitions will or will not be successful or those that end up going forward to referendums,” she said.
Dion said it’s historically unusual for a government to simultaneously support unity while also helping clear the path for dismemberment.
“(Smith) decided to modify the rules for a referendum at a time where there is no separatist government in Alberta,” he said.
He pointed to Quebec and other international examples where governments committed to the cause were in place when the separation vote occurred.
“It’s pretty odd to go through this process without a majority of MLAs that are separatists willing to separate from Canada.”
A petition seeking a separation vote for Alberta is now underway under the relaxed rules. Organizers for a group called Stay Free Alberta have said they expect to get far more than the required 178,000 names by May as signing events across the province have drawn large crowds.
Jeff Rath, one of the prominent figures in the group, has said some unidentified members of Smith’s United Conservative Party caucus have signed. Smith has said she isn’t aware of any of them doing so.
Rath, in an interview, also said he expects Smith to follow through on the province’s end of the bargain should a referendum pass.
“If she doesn’t do that, then she’s going to have a majority of Albertans who have signed a petition to get out of Canada, who have voted to get out of Canada, being thwarted by (Smith) because she has a little silly slogan that goes, ‘I don’t care what the rest of you want, I believe in a strong Alberta within the united Canada,’” Rath said.
“At that point, can she even continue to lead her party?”
Rath and others in Alberta’s separatist movement have met with unnamed U.S. officials about their drive for secession. Rath said one part of the discussion has been the possibility the U.S. could recognize Alberta’s independence immediately following a successful referendum.
He said no such promises have been made and Dion said any such recognition would be a stark exception to diplomatic norms.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2026.
Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
