Alberta Premier Smith's government formalizes Oct. 19 separation question

Alberta's upcoming referendum question on separation was made official Thursday, and it mirrors what Premier Danielle Smith announced last week.

Smith and her cabinet issued an order in council confirming the date and format of the Oct. 19 referendum, along with the question.

It will ask voters to pick one of two options.

Option one reads: "Alberta should remain a province of Canada."

Option two reads: "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."

The cabinet order also confirms, as Smith has stated, that the fall vote will not be binding.

Mail-in ballots will be allowed.

Smith has said she considers the threshold for a majority to be 50 per cent plus one and that she will respect the result.

It is one of 10 questions that will be put to Albertans that day. The other nine, announced in February, deal with questions on immigration policy and constitutional concerns.

Elections officials confirmed Thursday that the referendum question will be the first in a stack of unique colour-coded ballots for each of the 10 questions.

A spokesperson for the agency said voters will be free to mark an X or leave any given question blank.

"As with any election, an elector may refuse any or all ballots at the voting station," said Michelle Gurney in a statement.

Gurney said that up to 38 million printed ballots will be required for the vote.

"This will require 60,000 to 90,000 election officers to administer and count the referendum," she said.

If the staffing level needed is at the higher end of the range, it would be enough to almost fill Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium twice over.

The last provincial general election in 2023 cost taxpayers $37 million, but only required about 13,000 election officials.

The ballots this fall must be hand counted within 48 hours, provincial law indicates, and the question on whether to hold a binding separation referendum will be counted first.

Smith's decision to call the question has drawn ire from some of her provincial counterparts, as well as some petitioners on both sides of the debate who characterized her handling of the issue as a betrayal.

She has said she shares past frustrations about the federal government, but aims to test the waters of public opinion. Smith has said she and her United Conservative Party want to remain in Canada, and that she will vote accordingly.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this week the "question about a question" does not invoke the federal Clarity Act, which allows Parliament to weigh in on separation questions, because Alberta's fall vote is explicitly non-binding.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh