EDMONTON— Premier Danielle Smith vaguely committed on Thursday to re-evaluate her government's approach if the results from the October referendum do not favour the UCP, but is confident they will not need to."Well, I am of the view that you ask people questions that you want to get the answer to so that you can act on them, and so I'll, you know, I'll judge it at that time," Smith said on Thursday to the Western Standard.The Western Standard asked Smith whether her government will "accept the will of the majority, whatever way these questions go, or if they don't go the way you guys are hoping, one or two of them, would you still pursue them?"The Premier's Office later clarified Smith's wording to better explain their government's willingness to respect the results of the democratic process. "The Premier will listen to the will of Albertans when they vote on these government referendum questions," reads a statement from Smith's Press Secretary, Sam Blackett. "If an initiative were to receive a ‘no’ vote, then our government will re-evaluate our approach to align with the will of Albertans.”Smith does not think that will be necessary, though. The UCP selected the nine questions for the October 19 referendum ballot because they believe the majority of Albertans already support the proposed actions, but their government is seeking to confirm that with a clear mandate from the public..The UCP conducted the Alberta Next panel in 2025, which canvassed Albertans through in-person and virtual town halls, online submissions, and survey results, all aimed at gauging Albertans' interest in a variety of topics and used their findings to form the nine referendum questions.The panel's survey found that 79% of respondents support the province holding a referendum on the provincial government exercising greater control over immigration, which is a primary focus of many of the questions in October.It also said 62% of respondents supported a policy requiring non-citizens and non-permanent residents to obtain an Alberta government-approved immigration permit before accessing provincial programs. The four referendum questions unrelated to immigration did not receive more than 43% support from respondents, with just 17% agreeing that Alberta should advocate for the Senate in its entirety..Despite this, Smith still believes Albertans support her government."So, we think we've done that initial culling of the questions to make sure that we found the ones that are likely to get majority support," Smith said. "But I'm asking them so that I can get a mandate, and if I don't get a mandate, then we'll address what we do at that time."The questions on the referendum, especially the five questions centred on greater provincial control over immigration and the question calling for provinces to have a say in judicial appointments, are key points for the UCP government."I mean, they are government-sponsored questions, so I'm not going to just be a bystander in this," Smith said."We're going to be out actively persuading the public that this is the direction we want to go, but we want an endorsement from them, and so I think people need to understand exactly what it is we're asking, and they'll give us direction.".Given that the questions are government-sponsored and closely aligned with the UCP government's core policies, their success or failure could serve as an early indicator, roughly one year before the scheduled October 2027 general election.Smith is not concerned about support, though."I'm pretty confident from the consultation that we did that there's a high level of support for these," Smith said. "But again, we only get a small number of people who participate in surveys, a small number who participate in polls, a small number that participate in the in-person meetings."She also downplayed the Western Standard's question about how a potential impact of a "No" vote on the UCP's agenda for the remainder of their current term and into the 2027 election campaign."Sometimes you just need to have a broader mandate, and that's why we're doing it," Smith said. "But I'm anticipating that we will get an endorsement and we'll be able to move forward on it. If we don't, then we will address it at that time."
