CTV News is your Alberta Referendum headquarters. Live results. Expert analysis. Everything you need to know is here. Albertans still have time to vote in the referendum, but separatists aren’t waiting until that’s over to take action against Premier Danielle Smith. Regardless of how the vote goes, some separatists are rallying to oust her. “Danielle Smith can’t be trusted. She’s completely untrustworthy,” said Jeffrey Rath, a prominent voice in the separatist movement. Alberta separatists want to trigger a leadership review through the United Conservative Party’s bylaw 5.7. This would allow a special meeting if one quarter of the party’s constituency associations agree. “We need 22. And the third constituency association, Calgary Currie, just voted the other night for a review of Danielle Smith’s leadership. … I understand that there’s a whole bunch more that are going to follow,” said Rath. That bylaw potentially gives separatists considerable influence within the UCP, with some political experts saying it has hurt the party. “The party is associated at this stage with an unwanted referendum and outside support for separatism,” said Lori Williams, political scientist with Mount Royal University. Williams says Smith could come out on top if the first nine referendum questions were to receive favourable votes on top of Albertans deciding to stay in Canada. But if that doesn’t happen, Williams said it could be “a huge problem.” “If Danielle Smith loses on all nine of those questions, that is really going to raise questions about her leadership, because she has essentially pitched these questions as the ones she wants people to support her on. She has spent about $4 million of taxpayers’ money in this referendum in support of those questions,” said Williams. “If she doesn’t get a majority vote on any one of those questions, that could be very problematic for her. … It could signal a high degree of isolation." The UCP says Smith holds a 91 per cent approval rating and nearly 50 constituency associations have supported her leadership. There is an annual general meeting set for next month in Calgary, and a leadership review is not on the agenda. Separatist leaders are also urging voters to “decline the nine,” because they say Smith shouldn’t be trusted, especially when it comes to her handling of the federal government. “Danielle Smith is completely incompetent to lead the province of Alberta. She’s telling everybody to vote against our own best negotiating position against (Prime Minister) Mark Carney,” said Rath. “If you want to vote yes to all of Danielle’s silly questions in the hope that she might actually not lie to you for a change and actually do something, by all means, go ahead and do it.” A recent Abacus Data survey suggests Albertans don’t expect the topic of separation will end with the referendum, even if the vote is largely in favour of staying. The survey results show “considerable confidence in the vote count, but much less in what happens next.” “Sixty-eight per cent trust Elections Alberta to count the ballots fairly, including 26 per cent who trust it completely. Yet only 40 per cent trust that both sides will respect the result, while 44 per cent distrust that they will,” said Abacus Data in a release. “Sixty-one per cent expect Albertans will vote again on separation and continue to debate the province’s place in Canada. And even if a majority votes to remain, 73 per cent think the question will return in one form or another. “At the same time, two-thirds (67 per cent) want the provincial government to turn the page and focus on everyday issues like health care, affordability and jobs.” Abacus Data says the survey was conducted between Oct. 7 and 13. One thousand and twenty-one Alberta voters took part. “The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is approximately plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20,” said Abacus Data. Former UCP leader and premier Jason Kenney says he feels Carney is “making a persuasive case” for a united Canada. And he says the prime minister is doing it “through his actions.” “With the commitment to the west coast pipeline, repealing most of the bad Trudeau laws, trying to move forward and turning Canada into an energy superpower, deregulating, speeding things up,” said Kenney. “There’s a lot more work to do, but heck, we’ve seen a lot of progress, and I think it’s powerful to hear a prime minister referring to himself as an Albertan.” Kenney says his message to separatists, if the vote doesn’t go their way, is to “mend fences with friends.” “That’s one thing that concerns me. A lot of neighbours are not talking to each other. Some family members aren’t talking to each other now because of this,” said Kenney. “I hope on Tuesday we can heal those personal wounds and move on. ... If this is a strong vote for Canada, the worst thing would be for the separatists to say, ‘To hell with that. We don’t respect it. We’re going to keep wielding the ax.’ That would be very unfortunate and create lasting divisions in our society.”
