Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote

Leader of the Alberta NDP Naheed Nenshi speaks to media about the Alberta 2025 budget in Edmonton, on Thursday February 27, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Alberta’s Opposition says the decision by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives to schedule a last-minute committee meeting suggests the government might be looking for a new way to get a separation question on a fall referendum.

A bipartisan legislature committee headed up by the UCP is to meet Wednesday to discuss a pro-Canada petition put forward by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk.

Lukaszuk gathered more than 400,000 names to force either a legislature vote or a provincewide referendum on keeping Alberta in Canada.

The committee has been discussing what to do with his petition. Lukaszuk has said he wants a legislature vote, not a referendum.

Smith and her UCP members of the committee have argued that Albertans who signed Lukaszuk’s petition believed they were demanding a referendum — not calling for a legislature debate.

The question: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”

The NDP has said the committee is bogging down the process in order to avoid a vote in the house and move ahead with a second petition put forward by Alberta separatists to force a vote on the province leaving Canada.

That second petition is in limbo after a judge quashed it last week because First Nations were not properly consulted.

It wanted to ask: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters Tuesday he’s worried that with the separatist petition in a legal holding pattern, Smith could force a divisive referendum on Lukaszuk’s petition and wash her hands of responsibility.

“If she does do that, then the mask slips, and we know she’s been a separatist this entire time,” said Nenshi.

He said UCP members on the committee waived the requirement to give New Democrat members advance notice of motions they plan to propose Wednesday.

The legislature has risen for the summer, so it’s too late to put Lukaszuk’s question to a vote in the house before an Oct. 19 referendum on nine previously announced questions about immigration and constitutional changes.

Nenshi said those nine questions are “meaningless and performative” and should be scrapped along with any other question on separation.

“(It) is dangerous and threatens our country," he said.

Lukaszuk said he’s been invited by the committee, should they decide in favour Wednesday, to offer a brief presentation and take questions.

“Five minutes to talk about the future of Alberta and Canada — they must be very busy,” he said.

The chair of the committee, UCP backbencher Brandon Lunty, said in a statement that the committee can invite stakeholders, including Lukaszuk, after receiving technical briefings from the justice ministry and Elections Alberta on the referendum law.

Lunty declined to respond directly to Nenshi’s statements or to answer questions from The Canadian Press about details of the meeting’s agenda and why they were withheld from the NDP.

Smith’s government has changed the law multiple times to remove legal hurdles that stood in the way of a separation referendum.

Nenshi repeated that the UCP was not elected on a mandate to hold a referendum on independence, but Smith has been pandering to separatists in her party in order to avoid losing her job.

“The arsonist waives the right to call the fire department,” he said.

Nenshi pointed to unconfirmed reports that Smith has a provincewide televised address planned for Thursday. The premier’s office didn’t respond to questions about it.

Smith has repeatedly said she wants to keep Alberta within Canada. She and many in her cabinet have said they believe in direct democracy and want Albertans’ voices to be heard.

She has also called Justice Shaina Leonard’s decision to toss the separatist petition “anti-democratic” and promised to appeal it.

Despite facing pressure to put the separatist question on the ballot herself, Smith hasn’t committed one way or another.

On Friday, Stay Free Alberta, the group behind the separatist referendum petition, filed an appeal of the judge’s decision.

The group plans to argue that the judge erred in her ruling, especially in finding that issuing the petition triggered a duty to consult with First Nations.

Jeff Rath, a lawyer for the group, said he’s planning to apply for a stay to put the court decision on hold for the time being.

Rath has said more than 300,000 signatories on its petition expect Smith to call a referendum on leaving Confederation.

Later Tuesday, Rath took to social media with what he called a warning notice to Smith: if she goes forward with the Lukaszuk question “hundreds of thousands of Albertans will (be) forced to mobilize to remove her as the leader of the United Conservative Party.”

Rath said in that case, Smith will have betrayed the more than 300,000 Albertans who signed the separatist petition.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2026.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press