CTV News is your Alberta Referendum headquarters. Live results. Expert analysis. Everything you need to know is here. The leader of Alberta’s opposition party says he’s confident Albertans will vote to stay in Canada and his party is ready to get to work convincing conservatives to back the NDP. “My battle is to get into the hearts and minds of Albertans and say we deserve… a better government that’s focused on us,” Naheed Nenshi told CTV News on Monday. Polling has shown adding the question of whether to stay in Canada or hold a second, binding referendum on whether to separate has divided United Conservative Party members. A survey conducted by Abacus Data last week found 44 per cent of respondents who voted for the UCP believed the referendum should not take place, while 47 per cent of voters supported it. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government did not campaign on holding a separation vote when they won the last provincial election in 2023, but some Albertans’ anger with the state of affairs under former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau boiled over. That frustration led to hundreds of thousands signing petitions both for and against Confederation. In the months leading up to Monday’s historic vote, Smith has said she supports a “sovereign Alberta in a united Canada” and has said she will vote for Alberta to remain a part of Canada. But the premier has said adding the separation question to the referendum ballot is necessary to resolve the matter once and for all. Nenshi, a vocal proponent of the federalist camp since the referendum was announced, said by “forcing” the referendum, Smith has made one of the biggest political blunders of the year that has led her to become the “least trusted” and “least liked” politician in Alberta. “The UCP is in free-fall,” he told reporters later Monday at the NDP’s referendum results watch party. He says it will be his job to convince conservatives who feel disenfranchised to throw their support behind the NDP. — with files from Timm Bruch
