CTV QP Podcast #531: Premier Danielle Smith on referendum

I will be requesting our government add an additional question to the October 19th referendum vote announced previously.

The additional question will be, should Alberta remain a province of Canada? Or should the government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith this week announcing the referendum question Albertans will answer in October.

To put it plainly, her government is asking Albertans whether they want to stay in Canada or to set a binding vote in the future on separating from the country.

This question, a referendum about another possible future referendum, stems from an Alberta judge's ruling earlier this month which struck down a citizen petition aimed at forcing a binding vote on separation.

The Alberta government describes that judge's ruling as an error and is appealing the decision.

And joining me now is Premier Smith.

Hi, Premier.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you very much for taking the time.

I appreciate it.

I heard you talk a lot at your press conference and even before that about democracy and how you don't want to suppress it by not having this or any secession referendum go ahead.

But you didn't run, Premier, on any of this in the last election.

You never talked about a referendum or calling one yourself, in fact.

What's democratic about that?

Well, it's correct.

And so my government policy is to remain in Canada, but we also have a citizen initiative process that people can go out and get petition signatures.

There were 400,000 people who signed a petition saying they wanted to vote to remain and 300,000 saying that they wanted a referendum to leave.

So that's 700,000 people representing about 25% of the Alberta electorate.

And I feel obligated from the point of view of respecting democracy to let that go ahead and have the debate.

Is that an accurate representation, though, of the true meaning of those two petitions? You know, I interviewed Thomas Lukasik this week, for example.

He testified before one of the legislative committees.

He's the organizer behind that other referendum on the positive question, kind of the stay in Canada question, who got over $400,000.

signatures yes there are mentions of referendums which are qualified as being inevitable in the application that he provided but he did not check the constitutional referendum box he checked the legislative policy box when you say it's a combined 700 000 signatures it's really only 300 000 on one petition that wanted to have a referendum on actually separating from canada and under the old law before you changed it that would not have met the threshold

Well, I would say that the distinction between the two is a policy referendum or a constitutional one.

I will be requesting our government add an additional question to the October 19th referendum vote announced previously.

The additional question will be, should Alberta remain a province of Canada? Or should the government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith this week announcing the referendum question Albertans will answer in October.

To put it plainly, her government is asking Albertans whether they want to stay in Canada or to set a binding vote in the future on separating from the country.

This question, a referendum about another possible future referendum, stems from an Alberta judge's ruling earlier this month which struck down a citizen petition aimed at forcing a binding vote on separation.

The Alberta government describes that judge's ruling as an error and is appealing the decision.

And joining me now is Premier Smith.

Hi, Premier.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you very much for taking the time.

I appreciate it.

I heard you talk a lot at your press conference and even before that about democracy and how you don't want to suppress it by not having this or any secession referendum go ahead.

But you didn't run, Premier, on any of this in the last election.

You never talked about a referendum or calling one yourself, in fact.

What's democratic about that?

Well, it's correct.

And so my government policy is to remain in Canada, but we also have a citizen initiative process that people can go out and get petition signatures.

There were 400,000 people who signed a petition saying they wanted to vote to remain and 300,000 saying that they wanted a referendum to leave.

So that's 700,000 people representing about 25% of the Alberta electorate.

And I feel obligated from the point of view of respecting democracy to let that go ahead and have the debate.

Is that an accurate representation, though, of the true meaning of those two petitions? You know, I interviewed Thomas Lukasik this week, for example.

He testified before one of the legislative committees.

He's the organizer behind that other referendum on the positive question, kind of the stay in Canada question, who got over $400,000.

signatures yes there are mentions of referendums which are qualified as being inevitable in the application that he provided but he did not check the constitutional referendum box he checked the legislative policy box when you say it's a combined 700 000 signatures it's really only 300 000 on one petition that wanted to have a referendum on actually separating from canada and under the old law before you changed it that would not have met the threshold

Well, I would say that the distinction between the two is a policy referendum or a constitutional one.