Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she sees the upcoming referendum related to the issue of independence as a way to stave off a national divorce.
“There’s a certain segment of our Alberta population that wants to file the divorce papers, and I want to go into couples counselling … I’m confident it'll work out as long as we can work through the issues one by one,” Smith said at the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region’s annual summit in Edmonton on July 20.
Smith announced on May 21 that her government would include a question in an upcoming Oct. 19 referendum on whether Alberta should remain in Canada or begin the legal process for a binding vote on separation.
Smith’s proposed question differed from the initial one proposed by Alberta separatists, which asked whether Alberta should “cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state.”
While the separatists had been set to have their question on the Oct. 19 referendum, Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard ruled against Elections Alberta’s processing of their separation petition in May, saying it should not have been authorized because the province failed to fulfil its duty to consult First Nations on the potential effects of Alberta’s independence.
Court of Appeal Justice Alice Woolley ruled on June 29 that Alberta’s chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, could begin verifying the petition’s signatures and report the results, but could not take any further steps to advance the petition pending the appeal.
Smith told the audience on July 20 that she wanted to give Albertans a way to make their voices heard, and that “can’t have 25 percent of your voting public say, ‘We want to have this debate,’ and ignore that.”
Smith said based on the latest polling she had seen, she believed the majority of Albertans will vote for the province to remain within Canada. “I think that people in Alberta respect democracy, respect the process, and it'll be my job after that, for the losing side, to understand that they’ve been heard and to also try to heal that divide,” she said.
The Alberta premier also dismissed concerns that discussion about the referendum could be harming investor confidence, saying that there are 29 American states that have citizen initiative propositions. “I think the folks in California do 10 or 15 every election cycle,” she said.
Smith has said she would like to see Alberta remain within Canada, but have more sovereignty over its natural resources and less federal interference in areas that fall under provincial jurisdiction.
