Anti-Separation Petition Is Approved by Elections Alberta Just in Time For Canada Day
On June 30 2025, Elections Alberta has approved Thomas Lukaszuk’s citizen initiative petition. This petition is to request the Province hold a referendum vote with the following question
Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?
Lukaszuk is a former Progressive Conservative MLA who was first elected in 2001 representing Edmonton-Castle Downs, losing his seat in 2015. He was the first Polish-born cabinet minister and deputy premier in Canada.
(Photo from Thomas Lukaszuk’s Facebook account)
The petition subject is Alberta Forever Canada”.
Lukaszuk must appoint a Chief Financial Officer by July 30. Once that is done and the 30 day publication period is complete, Elections Alberta will set out the following parameters
- the number of signatures needed
- the signing period dates
Elections Alberta will issue the petition signing sheets as well as the witness affidavits. More information can be found here
Section 6 (2)(c) and Section 6 (3) of the Citizen Initiative Act (CIA) says the signature threshold in the case of a constitutional referendum proposal is at least 20% of the total number of electors in the Province. The 20% threshold must be met in at least 2/3 of all electoral divisions. According to Elections Alberta, the current number of required signatures for a constitutional referendum proposal is 587,952 (20% of 2,939,762).
(NB - Recent changes to the CIA may reduce the number of signatures necessary.)
The Opposition
A group called the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) has been travelling the province trying to drum up support for the following question -
"Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?"
It appears as if the APP has waited too long. Part of the requirements for a Citizen Initiative Petition says
The Application for Citizen Initiative Petition requires the proponent to provide a statement of the subject-matter of the application that complies with the following requirements…
The proposal is not the same or substantially similar to a proposal that is currently underway or would conflict with the outcome of a petition currently underway.
The proposal is not the same or substantially similar to a proposal determined to be unsuccessful in the previous 5 years, unless the Chief Electoral Officer has determined the previous petition to be unduly delayed taking advantage of this section of the legislation. (source Elections Alberta)
What’s Next?
Elections Alberta says
The proponent must appoint a chief financial officer within 30 days (by July 30, 2025).
Once the 30-day publication period is complete and a chief financial officer has been appointed, Elections Alberta will:
issue the citizen initiative petition,
publish a notice on the Current Initiatives Petition page of our website indicating the petition has been issued, specifying the signing period dates, and the number of signatures required for a successful petition, and
issue the citizen initiative petition signature sheets and witness affidavits. Signatures collected on other forms will not be accepted.
More information on the process, the status of the citizen initiative petition, financing rules, third party advertising rules, and frequently asked questions may be found on the Elections Alberta website.
Timeline
Once the petition is issued, the petitioner has 90 days to collect the required number of signatures at which time it must be submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer. If the petition is issued on July 31 the end date would be October 28 2025.
The Chief Electoral Officer then has 60 days to determine if the petition is successful or not which brings us to December 27 2025.
If it is deemed successful, the responsible Minister sends it to the Lieutenant Governor in Council for the purpose of a referendum under the Referendum Act.
Collecting Signatures
Local residents have been preparing to collect signatures. They says they will be setting up collection sites as well as going door to door. Shelley Ewing and Kym Porter explain. (Credit Kelly Allard, June 28 2025)
Only registered canvassers may collect signatures; each canvasser will have identification documents provided by Elections Alberta.
A Facebook Group called Forever Canadian is gathering volunteers to collect signatures. At the time of posting this article about 2000 people have joined the page in the past week, 400 in the last hour alone.
