Alberta Referendum 2026: more questions than answers

Either way you look at it though, Albertans will be voting on our place in confederation this fall.

Credit: Radio Canada

Danielle Smith’s greatest skill is talking a lot while saying very little. There are times when it seems like she’s just relying on her radio host experience and ensuring there’s no dead air. Other times, it feels more purposefully implemented to avoid answering a direct question.

Referendum questions are not legally binding on a government in Canada (even when they say they are). The governing party cannot bind another governing party, and they also cannot bind their own; it’s just political theatre we can all play a part in.

Referenda, then, are just a really expensive way to do public consultation on something the government didn’t campaign on.

As if to rub that in our faces, the Premier has decided that Albertans didn’t understand the referendum question in 2021 and her government will not respect outcome. Not that they are bound to.

If only there was a referendum free-for-all happening a few months from now in which she could rectify this “misunderstanding”.

Alas; that might give the impression that the outcome of this exercise actually mattered.

Considering the Premier went out of her way to say that Albertans didn’t understand the question the first time, one could be forgiven for thinking that the governing party would make an attempt to ensure their questions are clearer this time.

They did not.

Additionally, the UCP already introduced the Immigration Oversight Act, which outlines “protections” for temporary foreign workers or immigrants and fines for those who exploit them or lure them to Alberta under false pretenses— just in case they didn’t want to make use of the Canadian criminal code.

Of course, the governing party doesn’t want to punish all businesses who seek to hire temporary foreign workers, or those who hire people who have legally obtained a temporary work visa. Instead, the governing party has just the thing: they will offer an “Alberta approved immigration status” to allow them access to provincially-funded programs.

If I were trying to find a way that a governing party could “reward” corporate supporters and donors, I don’t think I could do better than this.

Bill 26, the Immigration Oversight Act, already requires businesses to register with the province if they hire someone who is neither a permanent resident nor citizen as of 2027. And if they feel your business made a “justifiable decision”, the governing party can offer that worker access to public services their tax dollars, and the tax dollars of the company, are already supposed to be covering.

We’re talking about a Premier who wanted to see 900,000 people move to Red Deer— with its current population of 108,000. The same Premier who wanted to see Alberta double its population to reach 10,000,000.

For perspective, Alberta grew by 500,000 people between January 2014 and July 2022— 8.5 years. After the “Alberta is Calling” campaign that launched in August of 2022, Alberta’s population grew 500,000 within 2.5 years.

My main issue with punishing businesses and people who choose to make Alberta their home is that it doesn’t make any sense. A family from Saskatchewan or B.C. has not paid up front to access public services. It’s no different than a family moving to Alberta from Australia or the U.K..

They’ve all contributed the same amount toward provincial services before they get a job: zero.

Not that anyone believes this is about “logic”.

They’re also asking Albertans if a 12 month penalty of not being allowed to access healthcare or education for working or attending post-secondary in the province would be acceptable.

Can I just point out that the system of “free services” in Canada has always been about paying it back? Even people who are born in Alberta get their first day in hospital without charge, and then they attend K-12 (mostly) without charge, and some go to post-secondary without additional penalty (even if they went to the doctor’s office before), and then they start earning money and paying back into the system that helped them get wherever they go.

While it looks like it’s entirely punitive to people looking for work, the system would also hurt businesses— unless they can get themselves onto the “friends of the UCP” list to ensure their employees can be “Alberta approved immigrants”.

I don’t see how it acts as anything other than another grift by the governing party.

I’m sure the idea that others have to pay their way will be an easy sell. It’s always popular to suggest that someone else will have to pay— like electing an entirely incompetent and allegedly corrupt governing party “popular”— and if you can somehow buy your way into getting the governing party to exempt your employees, it’s just the cost of business in Alberta.

Business that puts them in the room with UCP cronies, to be clear.

The final non-constitutional question is straight out of the darkest places.

Most people have identification. The number of people who don’t have identification to vote is a margin of error in the grand scheme of things but they also tend to be the most marginalized in society. There has never been a grand vote scam. We can’t even get more than 67 per cent of Albertans to vote. Unless you’re soaking up the conspiracy theories on Facebook and YouTube, you already know this.

Which brings us to constitutional questions.

The UCP wants support for appointing their friends and staffers to the Court of King’s Bench. They want to abolish the “unelected senate”. They want to opt out of programs that benefit all Canadians while taking the money to not provide those benefits, and; they want to elevate provincial law to “equal” federal laws.

I’ve had people ask me before why I trust the federal government at all. The answer is simple; the more people that a government/power is accountable to, the less likely they are to get away with something they shouldn’t.

It’s a numbers game.

Alberta’s UCP hasn’t attacked the rights of a majority of Albertans— they’ve picked on the minority— just ask a trans kid, or a teacher, or a doctor in Alberta.

Ask an Albertan who had to be moved to a different hospital to access the right to die with dignity.

The fewer people available to hold those checks and balances in place, the worse it is for individual rights.

The UCP doesn’t need “a mandate” to work with other provinces to change the constitution. The UCP doesn’t need “a mandate” to refuse public services to Albertans (apparently— they’ve been doing it for the better part of a year).

The UCP want Albertans to think they’re giving the government “a mandate” because no matter how much double-speak the Premier offers, she has been trying to ensure people are available to vote on the separatist question.

Even if the Alberta Prosperity Project/UCP constituency association president Mitch Sylvestre’s question doesn’t happen— the UCP still have the Forever Canadian petition in their back pocket.

Danielle Smith didn’t bring the Forever Canadian application out during the press conference for nothing; she was reminding Albertans that even if the separatist’s petition doesn’t make it to the October referendum, she has a backup.

The court challenges against the separatist petition specifically may stall, but Alberta will be voting on separation this October— it was always the risk.

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