'NO STOPPING IT': Mitch Sylvestre declares independence referendum is now inevitable

CALGARY — Stay Free Alberta revealed on Tuesday that its Alberta independence petition has surpassed the signature threshold required under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act.To qualify, organizers had to collect signatures from at least 10% of eligible voters — roughly 177,000 people, based on turnout in the last provincial election.Mitch Sylvestre, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) and a leading proponent of the petition, told the Western Standard that the campaign has collected “well more than 177,000” signatures to date, but did not provide an exact figure.Sylvestre said the decision to announce the milestone now was partly strategic, aimed at signalling momentum and reinforcing to supporters that a referendum is effectively inevitable.“I came out and said that for a lot of reasons. One was so that everybody understands that this is actually going to happen,” Sylvestre said.“There's really no stopping it now as far as we're concerned. We've done our job. We will have a referendum on independence based on what the requirements are. Now, how big that becomes is up to the people.”The announcement also comes ahead of a potential legal challenge that could seek to halt the petition effort by the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, which argues that an independence petition is unconstitutional and violates Treaty 8.Sylvestre argued that even if an injunction were granted, the campaign has already achieved its primary goal.“We already have the signatures,” he said..STEPHAN: A referendum on independence is good for Alberta.While independence figures such as Jeff Rath have previously floated the ambitious target of acquiring one million signatures, Sylvestre said that goal was unlikely to be reached at this stage and characterized reaching the legal threshold as a significant achievement, with multiple weeks left to gather signatures.“I also totally understand how big an accomplishment getting 177,000 signatures is,” Sylvestre said.“We're over the threshold. We're probably going to be over the margin of error already as well at this point, and so just saying we have succeeded in doing what we wanted to do is great. Now, we're just going to pile on.”When asked if he thought the campaign could gather over 400,000 signatures like former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition has done, Sylvestre said there was a major difference between the two campaigns, with the pro-Canadian one only collecting signatures.“[Lukaszuk’s] signatures were verified, but they were signatures. There were not physical addresses with verified ID, which is what we have,” Sylvestre said, adding that pro-independence canvassers had to get “street descriptions and house numbers. They didn't have to do that.”“It's been a big impediment,” he said.Looking ahead to a potential referendum in October, the APP CEO downplayed the idea that the independence campaign needed a single public figure to be the de facto leader of the movement, similar to how Lukaszuk led the pro-Canada petition..Smith to let the Alberta independence petition play out.He added that while figures such as Rath play a significant role, the movement is not structured around a traditional political hierarchy.“Jeff Rath is a leader of our group. No question about it,” Sylvestre stated.“But Jeff Rath is not a politician, doesn't want to be a politician, and I'm not a politician and don't want to be a politician either."“We have leadership that is very capable. It's gotten us to the point where we are. We've done things nobody's ever done. So, I don't know what more needs to be done.”He added that announcing the signature milestone was to boost morale internally and to signal that the campaign has momentum to those watching on the outside.“We're very happy to be where we are. It was a real feel-good moment for our volunteers, our people who work so hard, and it’s also a heads up to the other side,” he said.“We're already over our threshold… It's game on.”The signatures must be submitted to Elections Alberta by May 2, where they will undergo a formal verification process before the referendum can be approved.

'NO STOPPING IT': Mitch Sylvestre declares independence referendum is now inevitable

Related Stories