So if either petition gets enough signatures it triggers a referendum?
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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There can only be one petition because they are too similar. Basically, the separatists can't submit their petition because Lukaszuk already submitted his.
I don't know what happens if the threshold is met. I believe the Alberta government has to at least make a response to it, but even that I'm not sure.
Ah, I didn't realize that bit. So realistically, just don't sign it.
Except you'd want to sign it. It's not a petition to leave, it's a petition to stay.
The separatists were proposing a question "Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?" which would mean even if, for example, 2 million Albertans refused to sign it, it wouldn't matter if 177 thousand people agreed to do so. Under the new question, "Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?" if those 2 million Albertans signed the petition, it wouldn't matter if those 177 thousand refused to sign it. Granted, it is a gamble because it's easier to do a thing rather than not do a thing.
I could be wrong on his intentions, but considering that Lukaszuk is the head of a movement called Forever Canadian, and from his twitter it seems like he's pro-Canada.
Edit: I meant it's easier to not do a thing rather than do a thing, wording got mixed up there.
But AB is already a part of Canada. If no one signs it, it stays that way. If enough sign it, it triggers a referendum and thus, a risk.
Regardless of which petition got in, the real question for either is "sign if you want a referendum". If you don't want AB to leave, just don't sign.
Unfortunately I suspect the damage is already done and a lot of Albertans are under the impression they should to sign the "stay" petition to save AB, which just gives the separatists exactly what they want - a referendum.
We live in the voodoo zone now. I would read everything with a hypercritical lens going forward when it comes to this government and this province. The murderer's calls are coming from inside the house, when it comes to Alberta. It's misinformation central.
In an ideal world I'd agree with you. But if we lived in that world the UCP wouldn't have formed government in the first place. And considering that our Opposition Leader has basically told Smith to put up or shut up, the referendum is happening regardless of whether it should.
But we don't want a referendum. If no one signs, it doesn't pass to get on the ballot. Whether the ballot says "do you want to stay?" Or "do you want to leave?" it's the same question. Both petitions lead to the same place - a referendum.
The question right now isn't whether or not you want to separate, it's whether or not you want a referendum to put it up for a vote. If you want AB to stay, just don't sign the petition. An actual referendum would be the worst thing AB can have, regardless of how the question is worded.
That is a good point, though the separatists themselves disagree, as they're still working to submit their own petition. I guess the question remains of how many times a petition like this can be made. If this one fails, can the separatists put forward another one? That's not going to be great. "Alberta couldn't pass a petition to stay but could pass one to leave."
Another thing to consider is our neighbour to the south. If the petition to leave passed, would they care that the threshold is extremely low, or that this doesn't actually mean that Alberta has separated? It's not like Trump has stopped believing that we should be the 51st state, and it's not like anyone in the American government cares enough to stop him.
A petition to leave passing might compel Trump to "little green men" us, because, y'know, we "voted" for it.
To be frank we're just in a really shitty situation.
It's not about which one passes though, they both lead to the same place. It doesn't matter what choice of words is used for the question to go on the ballot, we don't want it to be an option at all. The real question both petitions ask is "do you want to have a vote to stay or leave?" If the petition (either one) doesn't get enough signatures, it won't be on the ballot at all, and there's no vote at all.
Look at it this way: separatists want to vote to leave, so they want a referendum. This new guy says "I flipped it on em, get enough signatures now and the question won't be do you want to leave? It'll be do you want to stay?" They both have the same result, it's on the ballot for referendum with the same question worded differently. The separatists get what they want, a referendum.
While it's a good point to state that the best outcome would be that neither petition passes, I think we would have to hope against everything we've seen so far for it to come to that. The fact that the separatists were still trying to submit their petition despite the fact that Lukaszuk's petition is basically the same thing says that, at the very least, they don't want any petition and/or referendum on Alberta separatism to have an anti-separatism slant.
That's the thing though, let them. They won't get 177k signatures and the petition will fail. Instead, now there's a good chance that this one will get more than 177k, which means the separatists get their referendum. Whether voting yes means leave or yes means stay, leaving is still up for a vote with either petition.
Just don't sign it, we've already won so why risk losing it when we don't have to? This new language is just baiting Albertans to get a referendum on something that wouldn't pass the petition stage to begin with.
Literally, all Albertans have to do is just not sign the damn thing and there won't even be a referendum.
The threshold for the petition only requires about 6 percent of the electorate to actually sign the petition, so you'd only need about a third of the people strongly in favour of separatism. That's why the threshold for the referendum was lowered this much. In my opinion, it basically makes the petition passing inevitable. It certainly could be that the 30 percent who are slightly/strongly in favour of separatism are actually an overrepresentation in the polls due to various reasons.
I hear ya, it's a shitty situation regardless. Fingers crossed for AB.
So without Native land, where will the sovereign nation be?
They will use the 10 trillion dollars from the CPP they plan to get to buy some, I would love to be that detached from reality...
Holy shit, you mean the western separatist were all talk and no action? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!
It's dangerous to think that way. That is how we end up separated.
They were likely waiting until July 4th to submit their petition under the lower threshold, but Lukaszuk beat them to it.
It's hysterical. He's going to put a, "Should we stay in Canada" question to the people and get an overwhelming, "Yes", as the answer putting the separatist whinging to bed once and for all. How humiliating for them.
That's assuming more Albertans bother voting at all than separatists. The best outcome is separation isn't even a question on the ballot. Just don't sign the petition at all and it won't be.