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CultureAlberta separatists submit thousands of signatures on referendum petition - It's actually over 300k, but CTV news is fake and gay and won't put that in the headline
Alberta separatists submitted thousands of signatures on a petition referendum that would ask Albertans if the province should leave Canada.
Elections Alberta still has to confirm the number of signatures, but Mitch Sylvestre, head of the Stay Free Alberta campaign, said they collected more than 300,000 signatures, well over the 178,000 required.
“It was a lot of work and it was full-time work for four months,” Sylvestre told media at the Elections Alberta office in Edmonton Monday afternoon. “We’re happy with the number.”
Now that the signatures have been submitted, Stay Free Alberta will be dissolved, said Sylvestre, and he will move his efforts back to the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP).
“We put the Alberta Prosperity Project to bed because we didn’t want any conflict of interest or third party violations,” said Sylvestre. “Right now, Stay Free Alberta is done. It succeeded. It accomplished the mission.”
Mitch Sylvestre is seen at the Elections Alberta office in Edmonton on May 4, 2026. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)
Albertans could see the question on separation on a ballot in October, but an Edmonton judge is anticipated to deliver a ruling on a court challenge of the petition launched by a group of First Nations who say it violates treaty rights.
Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the referendum is “increasingly likely” to go forward, even if the courts order the petition unconstitutional.
“This group has indicated that the premier has the power under the Referendum Act … and there will be pretty intense pressure on her to do so,” said Williams.
Once the signatures have been verified by Elections Alberta, the legislative assembly will review the petition and the government will bring forward a motion to have the proposal referred to a committee.
If the petition moves forward, Albertans could see the question on separation alongside Forever Canadian’s, which would ask if Alberta should remain in Confederation.
Led by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, the Forever Canadian petition acquired more than 456,000 signatures in late October.
Alleged voter privacy breach
Last week, Elections Alberta disclosed that voter information may have been used inappropriately or distributed by separatist group the Centurion Project.
Sylvestre said founder David Parker showed him the app that sought to connect volunteers with people they know, but had ultimately turned it down because he questioned the legality of it.
He went on to say that turning down the app actually fractured his relationship with the Take Alberta Back founder as well as Cam Davies, head of the Republican Party of Alberta.
Mitch Sylvestre is seen speaking with media at the Elections Alberta office in Edmonton on May 4, 2026. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)
“David and I, for the last couple of weeks, haven’t been talking based on the fact that I didn’t want anything to do with that.”
Elections Alberta was granted an injunction to prohibit further use of the data. The Republican Party of Alberta and the Centurion Project are also required to identify every person or entity they shared voter information with.
The agency said it will conduct a “very thorough” petition verification process following the alleged breach.
“We will check for the seeded names from the Republican Party of Alberta’s copy of the list of electors,” said chief electoral officer Gordon McClure in a statement Monday.
The citizen initiative petition verification process was amended on May 1 to determine if any of the seeded names from the Republican Party of Alberta’s list of electors are included in any petition going forward.
“If any seeded names are included, further scrutiny will result,” said Elections Alberta.
The Centurion Project said volunteers were able to use its app to find people they know, but did not have access to emails or phone numbers.
But an Edmonton city councillor said he and his team are helping a woman facing intimate partner violence relocate with her children after her address was leaked in the alleged privacy breach.
Official Opposition and New Democrat leader Naheed Nenshi said the breach affected nearly three million Albertans.
“One of, if not the largest, data breaches in Canadian history,” said Nenshi at a virtual press conference Monday. “The situation is serious … It demands action from this government.”
Nenshi added that, during question period at the legislature, Premier Danielle Smith said the province would not be intervening with Elections Alberta in the investigation.
“We need to know precisely what actions the chief electoral officer is taking … Albertans deserve to know what he is doing.”
Justice minister Mickey Amery said he was confident in Elections Alberta’s ability to conduct the investigation.
“They have a very comprehensive and robust procedure in place to ensure that signatures are legitimate,” said Amery. “They have a 95 per cent or more sampling rate requirement for credibility and reliability, and I think that is a number we can take comfort in.”
Elections Alberta said it is working with RCMP on the investigation into the alleged breach.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg and Sean McClune and The Canadian Press
Apparently Danielle Smith will be making a big announcement tomorrow. It's possible she will state that the results of the petition show a clear desire for the referendum question being posted, and she disapproves of the nonsense blocking it, so she will submit the referendum question herself as public opinion has forced her hand. Or it could be something unrelated, we don't know yet.
So Danielle Smith bought airtime to do a province wide announcement this evening, which might be related to the referendum or might not be.
I'm still confused about what is going on with the Forever Canadian petition. From what I remember they clearly wanted a referendum but they seem to have fully backtracked on that despite a massive signature collection process and massive funding. I guess the government was set to vote to add that question to the referendum, but a premature news release caused some confusion and delayed the vote.
Members of Danielle Smith’s United Conservative (UCP) caucus have passed a motion asking her to include a question about separation on Alberta’s fall referendum ballot.
The recommendation came Thursday afternoon following a vote by the UCP majority special committee reviewing Thomas Lukaszuk’s “Forever Canadian” petition.
The remainers were all gung ho about having the Forever Canadian petition and i really don't know what they were thinking because I (and i bet most of the people signing) thought it was intended to be a request for a provincial referendum and not a legaslative vote, i'm pretty sure they tried to backtrack once they realized that if the remain vote failed that would mean the seperate vote needed to have a referendum and the government realized they should just save time by rewording the question to be acceptable by the clarity act.
I think they wanted a temper tantrum for the sake of attention and didn't realize their temper tantrum would be used against them.
20 minutes until Danielle Smith addresses the province.
Update: Since between the two petitions there are 700,000 signatures (that are presumed to not overlap significantly), We will be holding a combined referendum question, "Should Alberta remain a province of 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?"
This question is Not in compliance with the Clarity act, but if Albertans vote for separation to commence the provincial government will begin the process of preparing for separation.
I would consider this a win, as the biggest hurdle to getting people to vote to separate is the lack of clarity on the process and the fear that everything will go tits up. Since this referendum does not explicitly make Alberta seperate it is a safer question, and leads to the process of clarifying what seperation will look like and what procedures and treaties will be in place. So when the properly formed Seperation question does occur at a later date, people can better understand the pros and cons and what is involved - something that might be enough to get enough yes votes, or makes seperation supports grateful they can change their mind if the process looks to be super painful.
ironically if the judge didn't block the separation question we would be going into it half blind and be likely to have more people say no, compared to now where we will have a clearer plan from the provincial government before we vote.
Update: Since between the two petitions there are 700,000 signatures (that are presumed to not overlap significantly), We will be holding a combined referendum question, "Should Alberta remain a province of 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?"
This question is Not in compliance with the Clarity act, but if Albertans vote for separation to commence the provincial government will begin the process of preparing for separation.
I would consider this a win, as the biggest hurdle to getting people to vote to separate is the lack of clarity on the process and the fear that everything will go tits up. Since this referendum does not explicitly make Alberta seperate it is a safer question, and leads to the process of clarifying what seperation will look like and what procedures and treaties will be in place. So when the properly formed Seperation question does occur at a later date, people can better understand the pros and cons and what is involved - something that might be enough to get enough yes votes, or makes seperation supports grateful they can change their mind if the process looks to be super painful.
There's definitely going to be a propaganda push on par with the lead up to the Brexit referendum. Canada is not going to let her wallet leave without a fight.
Update: Since between the two petitions there are 700,000 signatures (that are presumed to not overlap significantly), We will be holding a combined referendum question, "Should Alberta remain a province of 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?"
This question is Not in compliance with the Clarity act, but if Albertans vote for separation to commence the provincial government will begin the process of preparing for separation.
I would consider this a win, as the biggest hurdle to getting people to vote to separate is the lack of clarity on the process and the fear that everything will go tits up. Since this referendum does not explicitly make Alberta seperate it is a safer question, and leads to the process of clarifying what seperation will look like and what procedures and treaties will be in place. So when the properly formed Seperation question does occur at a later date, people can better understand the pros and cons and what is involved - something that might be enough to get enough yes votes, or makes seperation supports grateful they can change their mind if the process looks to be super painful.
I don't think the referendum will be held. I do think the Feds will step in and say it's not legit thru the courts.
I think however that doing so will be a mistake as many Albertans will see it as more overreach by Ottawa. Just like how that court order stirred up more resentment when Carney steps in and says Albertans can't vote under some legal mumbo jumbo it will just stoke the fires higher.
We knew the first place the Feds would turn was the courts, Smith got her pipeline but nothing else and I'm not even sure Carney will keep his word anyway. Hopefully this announcement by Smith will spur Ottawa into more blatant power moves that piss off more Albertans.
Danielle Smith has stated she's against separation and I do believe her. However, I believe she sees the separation debate as leverage over Ottawa to stop fucking with us and sabotaging our economy - and for that leverage to be taken seriously it needs to be seen as a legitimate threat. For it to be a legitimate threat she needs to at least keep it in play, and be visible as taking the potential reality of the separation seriously - as it would be no good for Alberta if she panics or is caught off guard if support is higher then anticipated and ends up blocking it. I don't know if we actually will separate or not, but taking it seriously is for the best for Alberta.
Danielle Smith has stated she's against separation and I do believe her. However, I believe she sees the separation debate as leverage over Ottawa to stop fucking with us and sabotaging our economy - and for that leverage to be taken seriously it needs to be seen as a legitimate threat. For it to be a legitimate threat she needs to at least keep it in play, and be visible as taking the potential reality of the separation seriously - as it would be no good for Alberta if she panics or is caught off guard if support is higher then anticipated and ends up blocking it. I don't know if we actually will separate or not, but taking it seriously is for the best for Alberta.
Thing is Ottawa is absolutely going to tap into Globohomo money to do a massive propaganda push at the very minimum. It's definitely different than Quebec threatening it for more gibs because Alberta is one of the only provinces that makes money for Canada.
Thing is Ottawa is absolutely going to tap into Globohomo money to do a massive propaganda push at the very minimum. It's definitely different than Quebec threatening it for more gibs because Alberta is one of the only provinces that makes money for Canada.
Pray tell me what their narrative is going to be? The majority of their voters are in the East so they can't exactly ball wash Alberta and promise the moon. And this will be going on during the American midterms where the airwaves will be swamped with calling for the deaths of all conservatives.
Thing is Ottawa is absolutely going to tap into Globohomo money to do a massive propaganda push at the very minimum. It's definitely different than Quebec threatening it for more gibs because Alberta is one of the only provinces that makes money for Canada.
Also the elephant in the room is that the Liberals spent the last 16 years called Alberta the devil, Albertans redneck bigots and how Alberta's oil patch makes more carbon then all of Canada combined.
It's going to be really hard to go back on everything the Liberal's have said over the years and just pretend we're all just one big happy family.
Just like in the US the left can't seem to see past the next few moments and often shoot themselves in the foot.
Pray tell me what their narrative is going to be? The majority of their voters are in the East so they can't exactly ball wash Alberta and promise the moon. And this will be going on during the American midterms where the airwaves will be swamped with calling for the deaths of all conservatives.
No more free universal health care and implying that America will threaten them. Think all the moves and abusive partner would use and then some. They will not let this be clean at all.
Also the elephant in the room is that the Liberals spent the last 16 years called Alberta the devil, Albertans redneck bigots and how Alberta's oil patch makes more carbon then all of Canada combined.
It's going to be really hard to go back on everything the Liberal's have said over the years and just pretend we're all just one big happy family.
Just like in the US the left can't seem to see past the next few moments and often shoot themselves in the foot.
Speaking of, Canada is absolutely going to fire up the militant leftists to try and block this. If it gets that far it will be all hands on deck for Ottawa.
Nawh this one will be allowed, besides not being a true independence vote it also provides the legal answer to the Forever Canada petition so provincial lefties will be hesitant screwing with that (plus it falls under with Notwithstanding Clause use vs. federal treaty law). Both Smith and Ottawa are banking on this one having a majority yes vote since it shuts down the separatist argument outright. And if it fails they have a second chance at their desired outcome with a binding vote that will guaranteed be slow rolled to give all the time in the world for fear mongering and second thoughts tilt opinions back towards rejecting independence.
Also the elephant in the room is that the Liberals spent the last 16 years called Alberta the devil, Albertans redneck bigots and how Alberta's oil patch makes more carbon then all of Canada combined.
It's going to be really hard to go back on everything the Liberal's have said over the years and just pretend we're all just one big happy family.
Just like in the US the left can't seem to see past the next few moments and often shoot themselves in the foot.
Don't forget a large portion of those years was Trudeau, who, much like Joe Biden, packed his cabinet with activists and let them run things their way while he partied it up and labeled every critic a racist bigot.
While I don't trust Carney as far as I can throw him, he has moderated a lot of Trudeau's policies, which for up here is better than nothing.
Trudeau's environmental minister, Stephen Guilbeault, the one that pissed Alberta off the most and fueled the fighting over the carbon tax, was a full-blown Greenpeace Member and known for Spidermanning up the CN tower for his cause in the 90s, and he resigned from Carney's cabinet when the 2025 budget quietly dismantled his big beautiful environmental stuff.
No more free universal health care and implying that America will threaten them. Think all the moves and abusive partner would use and then some. They will not let this be clean at all.
Just for the sake of getting into the realm of the theoretical, if Alberta was able to become independent would it still have enough money to sustain its health care system or would it really be in danger of breaking down?
Just for the sake of getting into the realm of the theoretical, if Alberta was able to become independent would it still have enough money to sustain its health care system or would it really be in danger of breaking down?
Just for the sake of getting into the realm of the theoretical, if Alberta was able to become independent would it still have enough money to sustain its health care system or would it really be in danger of breaking down?
Albertans generally pay higher per-capita federal taxes due to higher average incomes. Because Alberta generates roughly 13% to 16% of total federal tax revenues, it is estimated that Alberta taxpayers contribute $3 billion to $4 billion annually to the national equalization program.
Net Fiscal Transfers: When taking into account all federal taxes paid versus federal dollars spent back in the province (including healthcare, social transfers, and EI), Albertans contribute a net amount averaging roughly $20 billion per year to the rest of Canada. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
yah...I think Alberta could fund it's own health care easily. Especially if it stopped the Jeet influx.
edit: keep in mind this is what Ottawa is willing to admit too, so chances are the amount is much higher. They no doubt don't count GST or all those Fed taxes on gas and carbon.
Albertans generally pay higher per-capita federal taxes due to higher average incomes. Because Alberta generates roughly 13% to 16% of total federal tax revenues, it is estimated that Alberta taxpayers contribute $3 billion to $4 billion annually to the national equalization program.
Net Fiscal Transfers: When taking into account all federal taxes paid versus federal dollars spent back in the province (including healthcare, social transfers, and EI), Albertans contribute a net amount averaging roughly $20 billion per year to the rest of Canada. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
yah...I think Alberta could fund it's own health care easily. Especially if it stopped the Jeet influx.
edit: keep in mind this is what Ottawa is willing to admit too, so chances are the amount is much higher. They no doubt don't count GST or all those Fed taxes on gas and carbon.
Yup, Trudy broke out the war measures act to deal with a few, less then two hundred people, who were protesting against him. He jailed them, he froze the bank accounts of anyone he could identify, he used the RCMP to spy and wire tap them for evidence, and now they are being sued (in a Liberal court) for tens of million of dollars in emotional stress and economic damages. And they will lose too, as an example for others to see.
The left knows how to use the system to crush their opponents and they ain't afraid to throw the book at whitey anytime he gets uppity. Chugs and Nogs? Nah, they will use the kid gloves cuz bless 'em those poor Chug'ers just don't know any better. They're not real people so can't be held to any standards. But whitey? Oh boy, he should know better and I'm sure we can all agree that a sizable chunk of GTA residents would openly cheer on a heavy handed Federal crack down on Alberta. Rights and Freedoms be damned, those dirty redneck bigots deserve it!
Now think what the Liberal government will be willing to do to people when 25% of the country's GDP votes to leave. Those at the head of Alberta Free may indeed end up in jail for treason. Sounds crazy right? But it could happen, the laws are there and the courts are firmly in the Liberal corner and any appeal to freedom of speech or freedom to protest will be tossed aside while the CBC tells everyone your a redneck racist bigot who just loves Trump so much.
Things will get dirty, Ottawa will come down. They will start with the propaganda but it won't work as the only people who watch the CBC are Liberal Boomers anyway and they will all be on Team Canada 100% because of home prices. Then they will start in the courts, the supreme court is 100% Liberal appointees so how do you think that will go? Any case will be 9 to 0 ruling against Alberta before the case is even heard.
Then they will crack down on people. Talking openly about voting to leave? Encouraging other to do the same? Well that's a hate crime now. Your de-platformed, your de-banked and your jailed for a few years. The leaders? They're made out to be Trump thugs, agents of the ebil GoP trying to break up a stronk and vibrant Canada for...reasons. And I can see Carney and Co pushing for real harsh sentences for those who refuse to bend the knee. Nothing crazy like a death penalty but decades in jail for speaking out or being a ring leader. Like I said, over the last decade or so the Liberals have put a lot of new laws on the books that can help them deal with any kind of uprising. Hate speech is just the start, the very tip of the iceberg of Federal power. The new spy powers and subpoena rules passed last year means you have zero civil protection against even the most egregious privacy invasions. The Feds want your internetz history? A quick phone call and it's in their hands. Your banking records? Your tax records, your employment status, you emails, your phone calls...all are now wide open to any Federal inquiries.
I talk to people all the time and each one seems to think Ottawa will just accept the results, "just like they did with Quebec". Quebec is not the beating heart of Canada's tax base. Quebec is a player in the game and everyone knows at the end of the day they will never leave, they get too much from Canada to ever leave. But Alberta? Who shells out billions in equity payments every year? Alberta, whose economy Ottawa desperately wants to cripple for "green" reasons? Nah, Alberta has everything to gain by leaving and if the average Albertan realizes it...well then shit will hit the fan.
Ottawa will fight back and it won't be pretty. That's why I don't think it will work. Canadians are sheep, once they start getting personally effected by this "separation business" they will fold like a wet towel.
If you watch and listen to what the Liberals in Ottawa are saying you can tell they're not really concerned, they know Canadians too well. They know Alberta Free is 90% hot air and when push comes to shove Alberta will buckle and toe the line like the good little cash cow it is.
I've been advising some of the more active people to have an exit plan, just in case. They think I'm crazy but they don't know the things I know. I've been a victim of Federal suppression tactics for decades and that was back in a time when the courts were fair...well fairer. Now the courts are openly Liberal and all you can expect is a kangaroo trial and CBC mockery as your black bagged in the middle of the night and marched off to prison.
If you plan to take part in any Alberta Free activities, plan accordingly. Your identity will be known and you will be targeted. The Feds already have plants on the inside and it will only get worse if the referendum pick up speed.
I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post as an American, and Brexit taught the West that people aren't to be trusted with votes. It explains 2020 down here. Honestly, if Alberta wants this they'd better realize they're swinging at the king
