The referendum is done and overwhelming support for Alberta to stay Canadian is established. Now, there’s a blame game over who’s responsible for the question even being asked. Roughly 75 per cent of voters thought Alberta should remain a Canadian province. Official vote results are expected to be released on Oct. 29. Meantime, in the days after the Oct. 19 referendum, Premier Danielle Smith has put the blame for the question’s existence on Thomas Lukaszuk and the Forever Canada movement. Lukaszuk tells CTV News Calgary that’s incorrect. Premier’s position The premier’s office says she’s sticking to what she’s already publicly said on the matter. The premier’s stance was offered on CTV’s Power Play. “Any citizen who starts a petition campaign in a legal process through elections Alberta needs to take that seriously,” Smith said. “And the Forever Canada folks, they began this process. “They started a legal petition—a legal process—and got 400,000 signatures asking for a referendum on ‘remain,’ (and) there was another group of citizens—300,000 of them—asking for an Option 2, which was to start the process to leave.” “We will take seriously when citizens go through that effort,” she said. “But if somebody has cold feet partway through, then they should be really questioning whether or not that’s the right pathway. “For our part, we follow the law.” Lukaszuk’s take Forever Canada’s founder has long said he did not want a referendum to be a result of this. Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and deputy premier, says he checkmarked the correct option of two offered on his application for a citizen’s initiative. The application is publicly available. CTV News Calgary has seen it. The document shows Lukaszuk checked “legislative or policy proposal” rather than “constitutional referendum proposal.” Lukaszuk says this is a matter of the premier “hoping someone else will wear it.” “It,” Lukaszuk says, being a very expensive polling “delivering what we already knew—that vast majority of Albertans are not separatists.” “This is what a desperate premier looks like,” he said. The application, which was filed to Elections Alberta in early June 2025, also contains a “description of proposal.” It states, in part, “since a referendum appears to be imminent anyway, it should be objective and not directed by special interest groups.” “Therefore, we as represented by the signatory and applicant below propose a referendum on the following question: Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” Lukaszuk says the application was filed at a time when the provincial government was changing the law. “The day I filed that petition, the law clearly said that he who files a petition first blocks anybody else from filing a petition on a same or similar question for five years,” he said. “I wanted to block them from having a binding referendum on separation. “In the body of the application, you only get to check off one box, and that’s what matters.” As per Elections Alberta Emails between Elections Alberta and CTV News Calgary from May 2026 state the application was submitted as a policy proposal. Elections Alberta also noted, “The proponent does not choose the type of citizen initiative petition; it is determined by the legislation.” CTV News Calgary was told the proposal “did not seek to amend the Constitution or propose new legislation.” Therefore, Elections Alberta said, “policy proposal was the only available option.” Elections Alberta said, “The proponent does not choose what happens in the event of a successful petition.” CTV News Calgary was told in this case, “the decision on how to proceed is the government’s. Question 10 Elections Alberta approved the petition last year and the government sent it to a committee. It met only this past May and sent it back to cabinet and the premier’s office recommending a referendum. It was tacked on to the other nine questions announced months earlier. “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?” it read. “Option 1: Alberta should remain a province of 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.” Lukaszuk says what ended up being the 10th question on the ballot wasn’t his. He says it wasn’t the separatists’ question either. “Those were the premier’s questions,” he said. “And frankly, she ignored the half-a-million Albertans that signed the petition and wanted this issue resolved in the legislature.”
