Albertans appear to support several of the province’s referendum proposals by wide margins, but an Angus Reid Institute experiment found support can change substantially when bundled questions are broken into their individual components.The non-profit polling organization found 21% of Albertans described the wording of the 10 referendum questions as difficult to understand, while 34% considered them very clear and 43% said they were mostly clear.ARI initially surveyed Albertans using the official referendum wording before conducting another survey that separated policies contained within some of the questions.The largest differences emerged on immigration.Using the Alberta government’s wording, 62% said they would vote “Yes” to a question combining increased provincial control over immigration, lower immigration levels, preference for economic migrants and priority for Albertans in hiring.However, when ARI asked about the components separately, 56% supported reducing immigration from current levels and 58% supported prioritizing immigrants based on their economic contribution.Albertans were almost evenly divided over whether people already living in the province should receive priority for jobs.ARI said 80% disagreed with at least one component contained in the government’s bundled immigration question, despite only 33% saying they would vote “No” when presented with the official wording.Another government referendum question concerning access to provincially funded health care, education and social services based on immigration status received 64% support.ARI said responses changed when access to health care, education and income assistance for non-permanent residents was considered separately..Differences also emerged on questions involving federal and provincial powers.The official question asking whether provinces should be allowed to opt out of federal programs while retaining federal funding produced a 44%-44% split.When the issue was presented differently, 58% said federal funding should generally require provinces to meet national conditions. Another 52% said Ottawa should be permitted to reduce or withhold funding when provinces fail to meet those conditions.ARI also tested alternative wording concerning Alberta's place in Confederation.The institute said 65% would vote to remain in Canada under its wording, compared with 61% when respondents were presented with the Alberta government's question.The referendum contains 10 questions covering issues including immigration, access to social programs for temporary residents, voter identification, judicial appointments, the Senate, federal-provincial jurisdiction and a future binding referendum on Alberta independence.The wording has drawn criticism from some legal organizations and commentators. The Canadian Bar Association's Alberta branch has questioned whether voters will be able to determine the practical implications of approving some of the questions.After reviewing more than 400 words contained in the 10 questions, 77% of respondents told ARI the wording was either very clear or mostly clear.The polling organization said its experiment nevertheless indicates the results may be more complicated to interpret when a single question contains several distinct policy proposals.Interest in the referendum has already translated into heavy demand for special ballots. Elections Alberta said last week it had received almost 520,000 special ballot applications as of Sept. 17, with more than 330,000 ballots mailed to electors.
