That was reassuring

I was one of the 404,293 verified signatures on the Forever Canadian petition a few months ago. Smith is so deluded, or so in thrall to the separatist idiots in her party that she seems to think these people want a referendum on leaving Canada. 

The 300,000 or so unverified signatures in a petition tainted by the organizers breaching the law in sharing the electors database, yeah, you could fairly say the actual people signing want a referendum on leaving Canada. Whether they actually want to leave is another question. I think of it as a child threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue. Personally, I think the data breach invalidates the entire petition.

There are about 4 million adults in Alberta. Ten percent of them went out of their way to sign a petition saying they want to continue to be Canadians. The other 3.3 million Albertans  didn't sign either poll, and anybody can make up whatever story they like about what that means. I suspect it means those people are mostly ok with the way things are now. They might be cranky about both of the Trudeau's, or the perceived inequities that Alberta struggles under, but recognize Alberta is better within Canada, even as you agitate for changes. 

Just in case you are wondering, the idea of Alberta becoming an independent country is one of the stupidest ideas the provincial Conservative government has supported. Make no mistake, despite Smith's protestations that she wants Alberta to stay in Canada, I don't believe her. She and her party have bent over backwards to accommodate the separatists. They could, and should have squished the concept right from the start. Instead, we get a stupid petition question, see below the photos.

I don't think any of the separatists have actually read the Clarity act, or thought about what it means. And then there are Treaties 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10, which cover all of Alberta. Those treaties (which to be fair have been honoured more in the breach than the observance) are signed between the Crown and the many indigenous people before Alberta became a province. They cannot be waved aside like an inconvenient nuisance. There is much more that can be said on this topic.

When I saw you can get a lawn sign I signed up. Pickup was today at the Renfrew Community Centre. I hoped lots of people would show up, and the knot of traffic looking for a parking spot said it was happening. I ended up parking 2 blocks away. 

There was probably 100 people in line in front of me, and one of the volunteers said the line had been that long right from opening time. It went quick though. Once inside, you show them the code you got for registering, and back out again with your sign. I didn't time it, but the photo meta data says it took about 10 minutes from joining the line, to walking out with my sign. Into the cold windy rain. The line was just as long as it had been. 

Some people hung around to get their photo in front of the van, but most people hustled back to their cars. Some people were milling around inside the hall, mainly because it was warm.

You can register for your lawn sign here. Do it.

I loved seeing it. People coming out in the rain, socializing, chatting, in good spirits, showing how they feel about their country. We have our flaws, and there's things we could do better, but Canada is a country to be proud of. My Canada includes Quebec, and Alberta, and all the other provinces and territories.

Here's the 10 questions on the ballot this fall. My responses are in () brackets so as to not mess up the formatting more than it already is. 

O.C. 110/2026 sets out the following questions and orders the results of the referendum on these questions are not to be binding. Electors will mark either “yes” or “no” for each question on their ballots.

1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?
   (No. This is a shared jurisdiction. Alberta law needs to function within Canadian law. Alberta government was the one that asked for more immigration.)
   
   
2. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta­ approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?
   (No. They want to discriminate against immigrants, and sidestep Canadian law.)
   
   
3. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?
   (No. Who keeps track? What is the cost of doing so? Who defines residency?)
   
   
4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the healthcare and education systems?
   (No. See previous responses. )
   
   
5. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?
   (No. There are already adequate identification requirements for voting. There are essentially no cases of fraudulent voting in Canada. )

O.C. 109/2026 sets out the following constitutional questions. Electors will mark either “yes” or “no” for each question on their ballots:

6. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?
(No. Amending the Canadian Constitution is essentially impossible, much as some people might desire it. The government of the day would appoint judges that favour their policies.)

7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?
(No. See above. Open to discussing changes to how they are selected, within the current Constitution. )

8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?
(No. See above. The province wants to get federal funding without the feds having any say over it.)

9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?
(No. See above. Having provincial laws take precedence over federal laws is a stupid concept.)

O.C. 160/2026 sets out the following question and orders the results of the referendum on this question are not to be binding. Electors will mark an “x” next to the options of their choice on their ballots.

10. Should Alberta remain a province in Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

Option 1: Alberta should remain a province in Canada.

Option 2: The Government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.

(That's really bad phrasing, but at least it's not a yes or no question like I feared. Is there anyone in any doubt I'll be voting for option 1?)

My only consolation is that they didn't include questions on creating an Alberta Pension Plan to be funded by raiding the Canada Pension Plan, or creating a Provincial Police force. In case you were wondering, both of those are stupid ideas. AIMCo (the board for managing pension and the Heritage funds) has demonstrated little competence in managing funds, and the people appointed to that board are beholden to the provincial Cabinet. And having the police run by the province means the government can control what they investigate, and with the conservatives, there's lots to investigate. 

But really, I think all these questions are designed to distract the voters from the real issues of the day, and get them all worked up about something other than their incompetence. None the less, it will be easy to deal with. Vote no to all of it.