Organizers of the Forever Canadian petition collected signatures outside Lou’s Pastimes and Treasures Thrift Store on Aug. 19.
The signature pop-up in Westlock saw a steady stream of supporters from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with around 200 signatures collected from people in the surrounding area including Barrhead and Athabasca residents.
The main motivations of the petition are that “separatism will threaten the Canadian and Albertan economy, the personal wealth of Albertans, the Canadian citizenship rights of Alberta residents, the treaty rights of First Nations and will have many other serious and negative consequences. We believe the majority of Alberta’s residents are loyal Canadians opposed to any form of separation.”
One of the event organizers also brought up the Quebec separation movement as a reference which brought tremendous political and economic instability throughout the province during their two referendums in 1980 and 1995.
The Forever Canadian campaign was started by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk as a pushback against the growing Alberta separation movement. It asks the question, “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada.”
The Forever Canadian campaign needs to collect nearly 300,000 signatures by Oct. 28 to have the question put on a ballot. The official number of signatures the petition needs to collect is 293,697 (10 per cent of all registered provincial voters).
Another goal of the petition is for any upcoming referendum to be objective and not directed by any special interest groups.
Various local organizers such as the ones in Westlock have created pop-up signature events throughout the province including in Calgary, Lethbridge, Cochrane, Okotoks, Canmore and Medicine Hat.
The petition is required to only collect in-person signatures. Many other pop-up signature times are planned throughout the province in the coming months with several permanent signature locations including at the Kingsway Legion in Edmonton.
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) has submitted a request for a referendum petition which is currently under review by Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure. The APP petition asks the question, “Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada.”
If approved, the APP petition is required to collect around 177,000 signatures to trigger a referendum.
The Forever Canadian campaign hosted a further petition signing pop-up in Westlock on August. 21 at Precision Collision.
Recent data from Town and Country This Week’s online polls suggests a slant towards federalism amongst readers.
A May 23 poll asking if readers feel more Canadian or Albertan saw 44 per cent identifying more with Canada, 37 per cent identifying more with Alberta, and 18 per cent saying they identify with both equally.
“This thing has a life and energy of its own,” Lukaszuk said. ”We are sort of just trying to channel that energy towards everyone in Alberta.”
“The major cities have their perspective,” said Lukaszuk. “But the petition is really going to prove its mettle when we get those municipal and rural signatures. We want to give every Albertan an opportunity to sign this petition.”
Lukaszuk knows there is a lot of work to do. With 3,000 volunteers helping to collect roughly 294,000 signatures by Oct. 28, he is inspired by the efforts of those in the fray.
“They are setting up their own events everywhere across the province,” he said. “They are setting up anything they can. From farmers’ markets to Latin festivals and musical events, we are everywhere.”
“This is an interesting phenomenon,” Lukaszuk continued. “In a political campaign, you try to sell something. Be it your leader or your party, or your ideology, but here we have something that everybody wants. Our challenge is to get every Albertan access to sign it because it is the old-style way of putting pen to paper. If this were online, we would've been done two weeks ago.”
From Lukaszuk, that is what makes this petition so special. It brings all Albertans together. Be it politically left or right-leaning people, they are lining up en masse to sign.
“We are completely bipartisan,” said Lukaszuk. “Ian McClelland, one of the originators of the Reform Party, is helping. So is Liberal Anne McLellan and Brian Mason of the NDP. We don't endorse candidates, but we are thankful that they are proponents of our cause.”
Lukaszuk added that with the municipal election being eight days before the petition’s deadline, some municipal hopefuls are killing two birds with one stone by volunteering to collect signatures while door-knocking to gain extra points with voters.
“(Those running) are finding that this is becoming a municipal election issue; people are asking them at the door if they are a separatist or are they an Albertan?”
Information on the Canada Forever petition can be found at forever-canadian.ca.
-With files from Trent Wilke
