[Below we highlight those parts of a CTV News release that provide views in keeping with our own. To read the whole article, we’ve provided a link at the bottom.]
CALGARY — Alberta is planning to ask residents in an Oct. 19 referendum whether the province should stay in Canada or if there should be a future binding referendum on separation.
It was prompted by two citizen-led petitions.
A petition from the group Forever Canada, asking if Alberta should stay in the country, was verified in December with about 400,000 signatures.
The separatist group Stay Free Alberta, which handed in the other petition in May, said it collected roughly 300,000 names of people who want Alberta to become an independent state. Soon after, a judge quashed the petition, ruling it never should have been issued and that the government neglected its duty to consult First Nations.
United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith says she can’t ignore those who signed the petitions and that the referendum will give Albertans a chance to have their say.
Smith says she’ll be voting for Alberta to stay in Canada and hopes to convince others, but she understands many have resentments with Ottawa over energy and environmental policies.
Here’s what some of those who signed the petitions say about the upcoming referendum:
Sheree Zielke, 70, Edmonton
Zielke, a freelance editor, says she’s a steadfast supporter of Alberta leaving Confederation.
And she’ll be voting to have a binding referendum separation.
She says she signed the Stay Free Alberta petition at a course preparing her to canvas for other signatures. Her official badge never came in the mail, so she turned to sharing information online about separation.
She has faced a plethora of insults about being a separatist, she says, but the remarks no longer rattle her. “I come from the boomer era where we learned ‘sticks and stones.’”
Some have called her a traitor.
“We’re not traitors. We actually love Canada. Many of us have been here for decades, myself included,” she says.
“But we love Alberta first.”
Zielke says she works to correct some of the rhetoric around separation, including that it’s a racist movement. She says there’s a melting pot of nationalities.
For example, immigration in an independent Alberta, she says, ought to retain people who are in Alberta legally, regardless of race, and deport those who are not.
The referendum question faces contention from both sides, she adds, but she thinks it’s reasonable.
“Danielle Smith has her hands tied. She’s done the best she can do within a democratic process.”
Eldon Siemens, 42, Calgary
Siemens, a security systems technician, is among those in the independence movement who find the referendum question meaningless.
It’s “designed to appease kind of everyone while accomplishing nothing,” he says.
Regardless, he says he’ll be marking his ballot for another referendum. And his goal is to convince others to do the same.
Siemens says he believes the federal government is unconstitutionally meddling in Alberta health care and education, and that the legal system is deeply flawed.
He says he follows the same belief as his grandfather, who was in favour of separation, too.
What would an independent Alberta look like? Siemens says that could be solidified in the transition following a successful binding referendum.
He thinks an independent Alberta wouldn’t abandon the Canada Pension Plan and that First Nation treaties could remain unchanged or be renegotiated.
It’s hard to find people willing to have a clear conversation about separation, he says, because some are so vehemently opposed.
“The arguments we receive is that you can’t do it and you’re not allowed to do it and you’re not able.”
No one has given a good reason for Alberta to stay, he says.
He thinks a proposed pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast, part of a recent energy deal between Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney, won’t come to fruition.
Colleen Campbell, 70, Red Deer
The retired health food store manager and ski instructor doesn’t like the referendum question and says the premier might lose her job over it.
The question just kicks the issue of separation down the road, says Campbell.
She says she’ll be voting for a binding referendum on secession.
“The (United Conservative Party) base wants separation,” she says. “So if (Smith) wants to remain the premier, she better quit stalling.”
Campbell says the judge had no right to quash the separatist petition calling for a clear question on leaving Confederation.
She has many issues with the federal government, including with its equalization program, which gives money to provinces with lower revenues.
Federal elections are also decided before votes are counted in the western provinces, Campbell says.
She believes that an independent Alberta will be better for her children and grandchildren, with an improved constitution and better policing.
Some extreme groups have discussed taking up arms to fight for separation, she says, but she shuts down that talk when she hears it.
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