The Alberta Prosperity Project has formally filed its constitutional referendum petition to begin collecting signatures in a bid to trigger a vote on Alberta’s independence.
The Alberta Prosperity Project has formally filed its constitutional referendum petition to begin collecting signatures in a bid to trigger a vote on Alberta’s independence. A rival petition to keep the province in Canada faces a much steeper climb after a critical timing blunder.
Mitch Sylvestre, Dennis Modry and Jeffrey Rath submitted the official constitutional independence referendum petition question to Elections Alberta on Friday morning.
The group had previously unveiled the official question in May.
“Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a Sovereign Country and cease to be a province of Canada?”
The Alberta Prosperity Project also filed its placeholder petition in May. However, the group specifically requested that Elections Alberta hold the application until Bill 54 was officially proclaimed.
The new regulations drop the number of petition signatures to 10 per cent of ballots cast in the last provincial election, meaning the Alberta Prosperity Project will need to gather around 176,000 signatures. Additionally, the time to collect signatures was extended from 90 to 120 days. All signatures must be collected in person.
Conversely, former Conservative cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk did not wait to file his petition, which aims to ask Albertans whether the province should stay within Canada.
Because he did not wait, Lukaszuk will have to gather 293,976 signatures—10 per cent of provincial electors on the post-election day list of electors—within only 90 days. Therefore, he has a month less to gather nearly 118,000 more signatures.
Even still, Alberta Prosperity Project leaders have called Lukaszuk’s petition inadmissible.
“The question is not a proper referendum question to be used on a constitutional issue,” said Rath. “Furthermore, to the extent that the question seeks nothing more than to preserve the status quo, it is not a suitable question for determination through a citizens’ initiative referendum.”
Because the Alberta Prosperity Project deemed Lukaszuk’s petition as a “mischief application,” it asked Elections Alberta to prioritize the approval of the pro-separatists’ question ahead of its counterpart.
Lukaszuk’s application was approved on June 30.
The Alberta Prosperity Project continues to host town halls across the province as it prepares to launch its official campaign under the lower threshold.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pledged to put the question of separation to a vote in 2026 if the required number of signatures is met.
The Alberta Prosperity Project also released its 44-page costed fiscal plan on Thursday.
The plan suggests that an independent Alberta would have a revenue of $4.71 trillion between 2025 and 2045, while saving almost $700 billion, creating 300,000-450,000 jobs, and investing $1.3 to $1.4 trillion in the Heritage Fund.
https://www.thecountersignal.com/p/alberta-separatists-file-petition
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