EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA — Alberta’s journey toward holding a fall referendum on separation took a bizarre turn Wednesday — straight into another roadblock.
It occurred when the governing United Conservative members on a bipartisan legislature committee introduced a motion to formally ask Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet to initiate a provincewide vote on Alberta’s status in Confederation this October.
The motion was expected to pass, given the UCP members on the committee outnumber the Opposition NDP members on it three to two.
But while the motion was still being debated, the UCP caucus published a news release announcing the vote had taken place and that the motion had passed.
The news release even had laudatory quotes from committee chair Brandon Lunty, who is a UCP backbencher.
The news release was pulled back by the caucus about 20 minutes later, but the NDP members on the committee said the damage was done.
They said the premature release called into question the process and Lunty’s impartiality, and called for it to be raised to the legislature Speaker’s attention.
“This is spitting in the face of democracy,” NDP member Christina Gray told Lunty.
United Conservative member Jason Nixon said he agreed the premature release was a mistake, but he and the other UCP members ultimately voted against taking the matter any further.
“The employees that are involved have apologized for it, and I think it’s probably best if we move on with the business of Albertans,” Nixon said.
By the time that issue was resolved, the meeting had moved past its allotted time. The NDP members refused to give unanimous consent to continue and the meeting was adjourned.
Hours after the committee adjourned, another meeting was called for Thursday afternoon.
The motion the committee was in the middle of debating had to do with a petition organized by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. It was signed by more than 400,000 Albertans with the intent of affirming that Alberta is rightfully a part of Canada.
The NDP has accused Smith’s government of twisting Lukaszuk’s petition as a lifeboat to force a separation vote now that a second petition spearheaded by actual Alberta separatists is tied up in the courts.
Minutes before the motion was introduced, Lukaszuk told the committee, “If you choose to put any question you want to a referendum, you will be the proponent of a referendum of breaking up Canada and you will bear all the consequences of that position.”
He added, “Choose and be honest about your intentions. This matter is of national importance and should not be subjected to political games.”
Minutes later, United Conservative member Nate Glubish, who is also a cabinet minister, said Lukaszuk and the signatories clearly wanted a referendum.
“What I believe the right thing to do is, having heard what we’ve heard, is to give the 400,000 Albertans who signed this petition what they asked for,” Glubish said.
“Citizen initiatives are designed to end in a referendum if they hit the threshold of signatures. That shouldn’t be (a) surprise, that’s the whole point.”
Glubish’s motion specifically calls on the government to hold a referendum based on Lukaszuk’s question, but a clause in the motion stating the referendum should feature “an option for Albertans to vote for Alberta to remain in Canada” led NDP member Rakhi Pancholi to charge that the government planned to rewrite the question.
Pancholi said Smith’s government has shown its true colours by orchestrating a separatist vote despite never campaigning on it.
“The UCP is absolutely, undeniably, 100 per cent a separatist party,” she told the committee.
“There is no doubt now.”
The committee meeting is the latest development in what has become a long and tortuous path in a tale of two petitions.
Lukaszuk began gathering signatures a year ago under the name Forever Canadian. Under provincial rules, he needed just under 300,000 names to force Smith’s government to consider the issue. He received well over 400,000, and by the end of the year, Elections Alberta had certified the petition as valid.
The question on Lukaszuk’s petition reads: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
However, up until Wednesday, Smith’s government had done little to act on Lukaszuk’s petition. They sent it to Lunty’s committee for recommendations on how to proceed and to clear up outstanding issues. Smith has said one critical issue was what Lukaszuk wanted done with the petition.
Lukaszuk has said he collected the names not to force a referendum but simply to compel politicians in the legislature to stand and affirm they believe in a united country, but has also at times expressed support for a referendum.
The competing separatist petition, organized by the group Stay Free Alberta, has had, by turns, an easier and a harder path. Their question reads: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”
Unlike Lukaszuk, Stay Free organizers only needed to gather about 178,000 names to trigger a government response after Smith’s government rewrote the legislation last year.
They also faced having their petition tossed out as unconstitutional by a judge last year after Elections Alberta asked the courts to affirm the question was not offside with the Constitution.
But before the judge could rule on that, Smith’s government changed the law again, this time voiding Elections Alberta’s right to put such questions to the courts. The judge involved issued his ruling anyway, saying such a question would, indeed, have violated the Constitution.
Despite the ruling, Stay Free Alberta’s second attempt at a petition was issued in January, and three weeks ago the group submitted for verification what they said were more than 300,000 signatures, far more than what was required.
However, that petition was put into legal limbo last week. Several First Nations had challenged the petition in court, calling for it to be scrapped on the grounds that it violated treaty rights.
Last week, a Court of King’s Bench judge agreed with them, and quashed the petition. Smith has promised to appeal that decision, calling it “anti-democratic.”
The NDP has accused Smith of being both arsonist and firefighter, proclaiming she loves a united Canada while clearing the path for a vote on separation. They say Smith is walking a political tightrope, championing Canada in order to stay onside with the majority of Albertans while also clearing the path for a separation vote in order to appease hardliners in her caucus and party.
Smith has said she has been a Canadian patriot from the start but that the voices of those disaffected in Confederation deserve to be heard.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2026.
Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
