TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta will hold a referendum in October on leaving Canada, but the province’s premier said Thursday it won’t actually be a vote on whether to separate.Danielle Smith said voters instead would be deciding whether it’s time to hold a binding referendum on quitting Canada.“I want to be clear. I support Alberta remaining in Canada, and this is how I would vote on separation in a provincial referendum. It is also the position of my government,” Smith said in televised remarks. The question will ask whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving.A “yes” vote in a binding referendum still would not trigger independence. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place. A 1998 Supreme Court ruling means provinces cannot secede unilaterally from Canada.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, noted Smith has publicly opposed independence so some people have compared her stance to the one of Britain’s then-Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of the Brexit referendum, which he embraced as a way to manage a vocal faction of his ruling party while not wanting the U.K. to leave the European Union.
