Alberta sets referendum date for province to separate from Canada
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has set a referendum date-Oct. 19-on whether the province should separate from Canada. If approved, it would begin the legal steps for Alberta to hold a second binding separation vote later, marking the first time any province besides Quebec has put separation to its residents.
Smith said the matter is about getting Albertans’ views and moving on, and she indicated she would vote to keep Alberta in Canada. The separatist group Stay Free Alberta says it collected over 301,000 signatures for the campaign. Many Albertans argue Ottawa neglects the province despite Alberta being a major net contributor, citing concerns about federal funding and equalization. Polling suggests the separation measure is unlikely to pass.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday set the date for a referendum deciding whether the province will move to separate from Canada.
The provincial vote is scheduled to take place on Oct. 19, and will mark the first time in Canadian history that a province other than Quebec has put the question of separation to the public. If residents greenlight the measure, it will trigger the legal process for Canada’s fourth most populous province to hold a second binding vote on separation at a later date.
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“It’s time to have a vote, understand the will of Albertans on this subject, and move on,” Smith said during a televised address.
The development comes after separatist group Stay Free Alberta said that they’d collected more than 301,000 signatures in support of their campaign. That’s a fraction of Alberta’s total population, which sits at 5 million people as of January.
Many in the western Canadian province feel they’re neglected by Ottawa, as it is by far the largest net contributor to the federal government, yet gets little direct funding in return. The Canadian federal government disperses more funding to provinces and territories that don’t have as significant an income of their own in a process called equalization. The process addresses “fiscal disparities among provinces,” according to the government.
Smith said she would vote in favor of Alberta remaining a part of Canada.
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“That is how I would vote on separation in a provincial referendum,” she said. “It is also the position of my government and my caucus.”
Polling indicates the separation effort will fail to hold the necessary support for the measure’s passage. Should Alberta secede, it would strike a blow to Ottawa, as the province has the fourth-largest such reserves in the world, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
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