A Calgary group of nearly three dozen faith, labour, education and other local organizations has launched the next phase of its campaign to encourage Albertans to vote in the upcoming referendum. The Calgary Alliance for the Common Good held its “Get Out and Vote Assembly” at the Scarboro United Church in southwest Calgary on Wednesday night, gathering to strategize ways to encourage eligible voters to cast their ballot on Oct. 19. It’s key themes are to connection with citizens, help them understand the referendum questions and their potential impact and turn out to the polls. “This (referendum) will be determined by voter turnout, so tonight’s about people both learning and making a commitment to turn out members of their organizations to vote,” said Ryan Andersen, the group’s executive director. While the bulk of the political focus has been on the 10th referendum question — which asks Albertans if they’d like the province to remain in Canada or if they’d like to participate in a second, binding referendum about Alberta’s independence — Andersen says the first nine questions posed by the Alberta government could have a “profound” impact on local communities if a yes-vote succeeds. “It’s unlikely that separation will actually happen … but the questions around immigration could literally result in thousands of kids being left out of school,” Andersen said. “Our question is who’s going to take advantage of those kids? What’s going to happen to them if they’re not in school? What’s going to happen to families who suddenly don’t have access to health care?” The alliance, which describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, launched its campaign encouraging people to vote no to the questions set to appear on the ballot in June. It calls the first nine questions a “political act of scapegoating” that blamed “immigrants and the rest of Canada for the complex issues our communities and province face.” “The provincial government is asking Albertans to reject this central value of the common good. The government is forcing Albertans to vote on a series of referendum questions that are both misleading and dehumanizing,” a campaign launch document said. For Andersen, the fundamental value the alliance holds is democracy. “It doesn’t matter where you stand across the (political) spectrum,” when turning out to vote, he said, but that voters “have a stake in the community” and want to find solutions to the problems the community is facing. Albertans head to the polls on Oct. 19.
