EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on her “no more independence referendums” message on Wednesday, clarifying that she will not call another vote, even if the pro-independence group Stay Free Alberta wins its court appeal.“I want to make it clear tonight that for as long as I am Premier, I will honour this mandate from Albertans and will not be holding another referendum on this issue,” Smith said in her address on Tuesday, following Monday’s referendum, in which roughly 75% of Albertans voted in favour of Alberta remaining in Canada.“It is time to move forward together as a strong and free Alberta within a united Canada.”.Smith introduced the Alberta independence referendum question in May, claiming it was based on two successful citizen initiative petitions calling for a referendum: the federalist Forever Canadian and the nationalist Stay Free Alberta.The premier said for months that Albertans needed to have the debate over independence and that prolonging it would do more harm than good. However, she said the referendum results must be respected.The move came after a judge shut down the Stay Free Alberta petition, ruling that the Government of Alberta had failed to fulfill its duty to consult by issuing the petition before consulting with First Nations about an action that could infringe on their Treaty rights. Stay Free Alberta and the Government of Alberta are currently appealing the decision, which froze the petition. If the ruling is overturned, the petition could be reactivated and trigger a binding referendum. .The Western Standard asked Smith on Wednesday whether such a situation would force her to hold another Alberta independence referendum. “No, because, I mean, I know that Question 10 was mischaracterized a lot, but Question 10 really was the choice between two citizen initiative ballots,” Smith said.She said option one, “Alberta should remain a province of Canada,” was based on Forever Canadian’s petition, and option two, “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,” was based on Stay Free Alberta’s petition.Both Stay Free Alberta and Forever Canadian’s leaderships have rejected Smith’s claims that their petitions prompted the Alberta independence referendum question..Forever Canadian leader Thomas Lukaszuk said his group wanted a vote in the legislature on whether Alberta should remain in Canada, not a referendum.Lukaszuk’s legislative or policy proposal citizen initiative petition application stated: “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?’”.Stay Free Alberta petition proponent Mitch Sylvestre said his group expected a binding referendum if it collected the required signatures, not a question about whether to hold one.“We expect to be given a path,” Sylvestre told the Western Standard in May. “If we reach the threshold and we do the work, we shouldn’t have to play around, playing silly games forever, basically.”The group’s proposed petition question asked: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?”“Albertans chose option one," Smith said. "Seventy-five percent supported option one, which is Forever Canada petition position, and then option two, Stay Free Alberta petition position at 25%."“And so, since it does not have a mandate to move forward, we’ve already asked the question, and that’s why I can confidently say Albertans have spoken, and we are going to accept the mandate that we’ve been given.”
