This is Thomas Lukaszuk. He was a former deputy premier of the conservative party of Alberta. He is the backbone behind the Forever Canadian group. . Last year, this group developed a question.
“Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
Lucaszuk started a petition for the purpose of presenting the question to the Alberta legislature for them to vote on the question. He had the option of also having this go to referendum. He chose not to do that because he did not want to create tensions and divide the province. Under legislative law at the time, Lukaszuk how to get signatures representing 20% of voters, who voted in the last provincial election and he had to do this within 90 days. He ended up getting over 460,000 signatures far above the required number of signatures.
It was presented, after being approved by elections Alberta, to the legislature at the end of 2025
Alberta separatists wanted their own question. UCP premier Danielle Smith eased the path for the separatists by bringing in new legislation that for any petitions, only 10% of those who voted in the last election was required and the time limit was extended from 90 days to 120 days.
The question developed by the separatists was as follows
“Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”
This question, itself, was challenged for its constitutionality. Before a judge could make decision, Smith used her leverage to take the judge out of the equation. The question is also being challenged by First Nations in Alberta. A judge here ruled in favour of First Nations, but Smith appears to be ignoring that.
A committee was formed to look at the question developed by the forever Canadian group. The UCP has done a slow walk on this committee. Given a UCP controlled committee, Lukaszuk was not even allowed to speak on behalf of the forever Canadian group
The committee held another meeting yesterday. Prior to the meeting Lukaszuk was informed that he had five minutes to present his case. This is where the mess exploded. During the meeting, prior to any votes being made, the UCP issued a press release
“More than 400,000 Albertans signed Mr. Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition. Combined with the reported 301,000 who signed the Alberta independence petition, this means over 700,000 Albertans want — and deserve — the opportunity to have their voices heard in a referendum.”
The meeting exploded into chaos. Rakhi Pancholi, Edmonton- Whitemud NDP MLA, announced during the meeting,
“I understand the UCP has already issued a release about a referendum being called and that’s already been released to media.”
The meeting went downhill from there. The meeting was abruptly ended with no vote held, meaning no recommendation on the referendum was made. The committee will be meeting again this afternoon.
Following the meeting, Lukaszuk who wanted to question, settled by the legislature rather than by the referendum route, stated the following..
“It was always abundantly obvious that this government wanted to have a referendum on tearing Canada apart by hook or by crook. And the process was fixed to such a point where they already had press releases ready.”
Where does this leave Danielle Smith in this whole mess? Tomorrow’s chirp will cover that.
That’s all I have today, though.