{"id":75,"date":"2026-05-22T04:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=75"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:12:55","slug":"alberta-province-plans-a-public-vote-on-whether-to-hold-a-binding-referendum-on-leaving-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"Alberta province plans a public vote on whether to hold a binding referendum on leaving Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Canada\u2019s oil-rich province of Alberta <span>will hold a referendum<\/span> in October on leaving Canada, but the province\u2019s premier said Thursday it won\u2019t actually be a vote on whether to separate.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=73\">Brazilian grieving father says justice still missing after Airbus, Air France guilty verdict<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Danielle Smith said voters instead would be deciding whether it\u2019s time to hold a referendum on quitting Canada.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be clear. I support Alberta remaining in Canada, and this is how I would vote on separation in a provincial referendum. It is also the position of my government,\u201d Smith said in televised remarks. <\/p>\n<p>The question will ask whether Alberta should stay in <span>Canada<\/span> or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff to ex-Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a now a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said Smith appears to be proceeding very carefully.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cA vote to see if people even want a vote. It\u2019s a good way to let the swing voters swing against separation,\u201d Brodie said.<\/p>\n<p>A \u201cyes\u201d vote in a binding referendum still would not trigger independence. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place. A 1998 Supreme Court ruling means provinces cannot secede unilaterally from Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel B\u00e9land, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, noted Smith has publicly opposed independence so some people have compared her stance to the one of Britain\u2019s then-Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of the Brexit referendum, which he embraced as a way to manage a vocal faction of his ruling party while not wanting the U.K. to leave the European Union.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<!-- AP \"Read More\" embed (place mid-article) --><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cPolitically Smith seems committed to do so to appease supporters of her own party who want a referendum. If she doesn\u2019t follow suit, she might face a potentially perilous mutiny within her partisan ranks,\u201d B\u00e9land said. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier Thursday, three members of Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party of Alberta caucus passed a motion in committee asking her and her cabinet to put the issue to a referendum on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=71\">UN council urged to use \u2018every means at its disposal\u2019 to press Hamas to disarm<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s federal Liberal government has been working with Smith to get <span>an oil pipeline to the Pacific coast built<\/span> to make many Albertans happy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanada\u2019s government strongly believes that the interests of Albertans and all Canadians are best served when we work together,\u201d Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, posted on social media. <\/p>\n<p>B\u00e9land said Smith\u2019s question is framed in such a way that some voters could vote in favor of an independence referendum to send a message to the federal government and the rest of Canada without actually taking the risk of voting directly for independence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt might lower the apparent stakes, making it perhaps easier for some voters to think they can send a political message to the rest of the country without taking the risk of leading the province to the point of no return,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>B\u00e9land said a possible future referendum is likely to lose as support for separation is slightly less than 30% but said campaigns do matter. <\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Opposition Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre earlier said he and all Conservative members of Parliament would press for Alberta to remain part of Canada in a referendum campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said a judge made an error last week when she ruled a citizen led petition designed to force a referendum was unconstitutional. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn her address, Smith explained that a recent court ruling makes such a binding reference impossible for now, which justifies the new question,\u201d B\u00e9land said. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=69\">Residents burn an Ebola treatment center in Congo as anger grows over the outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government in the oil-rich province of Alberta plans a referendum on leaving Canada but says it won&#8217;t actually be a vote on whether to separate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says voters instead would be deciding whether it\u2019s time to hold a binding referendum. Smith says she supports Alberta remaining in Canada. The question posted in the October referendum will ask whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving. If the \u201cyes\u201d votes trigger a binding referendum, that vote still would not trigger independence. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Alberta province plans a public vote on whether to hold a binding referendum on leaving Canada - Top Moving Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=75\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alberta province plans a public vote on whether to hold a binding referendum on leaving Canada - Top Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government in the oil-rich province of Alberta plans a referendum on leaving Canada but says it won&#039;t actually be a vote on whether to separate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says voters instead would be deciding whether it\u2019s time to hold a binding referendum. Smith says she supports Alberta remaining in Canada. The question posted in the October referendum will ask whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving. If the \u201cyes\u201d votes trigger a binding referendum, that vote still would not trigger independence. 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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says voters instead would be deciding whether it\u2019s time to hold a binding referendum. Smith says she supports Alberta remaining in Canada. The question posted in the October referendum will ask whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving. If the \u201cyes\u201d votes trigger a binding referendum, that vote still would not trigger independence. 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