Alberta premier promises separation referendum in 2026 if petition signatures warrant

Premier Danielle Smith called for direct talks with Ottawa to unravel what she calls "destructive legislation" in an address Monday.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will hold a referendum on provincial separation next year if citizens gather the required signatures on a petition.

Smith, in a livestream address Monday, said she wants a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada but there is a growing number of Albertans who are unhappy with Confederation, and are organizing petitions to push for an exit.

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“The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified. They are loyal Albertans,” she said. 

“They’re frustrated, and they have every reason to be.”

The speech comes a week after Smith’s United Conservative government introduced legislation that, if passed, would sharply reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum.

The bill, introduced the day after the federal election, would change citizen-initiated referendum rules to require a petition signed by 10 per cent of the eligible voters in a previous general election — down from 20 per cent of total registered voters. Applicants would also get 120 days, rather than 90, to collect the required 177,000 signatures.

Smith said Alberta has no choice but to take steps to combat a decade of hostile federal Liberal policies she says have not only taken an unfair share of Alberta’s wealth but in doing so have also undermined the oil and gas industry that drives its economy.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in person in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the tariff trade war and other issues, Smith said Liberal rule has turned Canada into an international laughingstock.

“We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on Earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch,” she said.

Smith said a rise in popular support for infrastructure projects across Canada, like pipelines, gives her hope, and she will continue working on negotiating a fair deal with the prime minister “in good faith.”

Meanwhile, her government is to appoint a negotiation team to try to bring an end to federal policies that have long irritated the province, and to demand guaranteed access to tidewater for Alberta’s resource exports including oil and gas.

Smith said she will also chair what she’s now calling an Alberta Next panel, hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans.

“It is likely we will place some of the more popular ideas discussed with the panel to a provincial referendum so that all Albertans can vote on them sometime in 2026,” she said.

The premier’s broadcast comes after hundreds of people rallied at the Alberta legislature Saturday to support seceding from Canada, with some saying they were prompted by federal election results that saw the Liberals win their fourth consecutive term.

Smith said her government’s actions are not in response to the fact their preferred candidate, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and his party lost the election.

“It’s that the same Liberal government, with almost all the same ministers responsible for our nation’s inflation, housing, crime and budget crisis, and that oversaw the attack on our provincial economy for the past 10 years, have been returned to power,” she said.

Smith said she’s committed to protecting and upholding the rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and treaties.

It comes after First Nations leaders representing the Assembly of First Nations and communities in Treaty 6, 7, and 8 territories have been vocal in warning against any talk of provincial separation. 

Many have noted the treaties predate the province, and that Alberta doesn’t have the authority to separate lands protected by those treaties.

The premier is expected to hold a press conference and take questions from reporters on Tuesday.

By Lisa Johnson

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.