AP, TORONTO
Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta is to hold a referendum in October on leaving Canada, but Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday said that it would not actually be a vote on whether to separate.Voters instead would be deciding whether it is time to hold a referendum on quitting Canada, Smith said.“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.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pose for a photograph at Carney’s office in Ottawa on May 8.
The question is to ask whether Alberta should stay in Canada or take legal steps under the Canadian constitution to hold a binding referendum on leaving.Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff to former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and a now a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said that Smith appears to be proceeding very carefully.
“A vote to see if people even want a vote. It’s a good way to let the swing voters swing against separation,” Brodie said.A “yes” vote in a binding referendum still would not trigger independence. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place.A 1998 Canadian Supreme Court ruling means provinces cannot secede unilaterally from Canada.Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said that Smith has publicly opposed independence so some people have compared her stance to the one of then-British 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 UK to leave the EU.“Politically, Smith seems committed to do so to appease supporters of her own party who want a referendum,” Beland said.“If she doesn’t follow suit, she might face a potentially perilous mutiny within her partisan ranks,” he added.
