A new group calling itself Before You Vote has launched with the goal of informing Albertans about the risks of the separation, immigration and constitutional changes questions on the ballot on October 19.
Supporters of the group include Judith Dyck, Linda Hughes, Peggy Garritty, Marie Gordon, Sheila Grekol, Anne McLellan, Joanne Pawluk, and Doug Stollery.
Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish was met with jeers from the crowd at the government’s AI Data Centre town hall in Lacombe. The Canadian Press reports:
“Albertans do not want data centres,” said one man who came from the neighbouring town of Ponoka.
Another woman told Glubish to “get your boxing gloves on” if another AI data centre was being planned for the region.
“Your words are nice, you explain things well, but I don’t trust you, and I think that the people in this room agree with me,” she said to big applause.
Glubish encountered a similar response from local residents at a Redwater town hall with Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally:
Sturgeon County resident, Connie Shields, said she doesn’t trust the government to properly regulate projects like these.
“You are the people we elected. You should be saying what we’re telling you to say,” Shields said.
“You shouldn’t be making up your own rules, you shouldn’t be dictating what goes where.”
The NDP has been hosting their own town halls in response to the data centre backlash. Leader Naheed Nenshi was joined by Edmonton-South West NDP MLA Nathan Ip at a town hall meeting in Red Deer earlier in August
Voting for separation weakens Canada and Alberta against Trump’s economic attacks
We are now 58 days away from the province-wide referendum that will ask Albertans whether they want to hold a future referendum on Alberta’s independence from Canada.
Leaked voters lists, billboards, lawn signs, political assemblies (from which just last week very candid and horribly racist remarks were delivered from a prominent separatist movement leader), and Premier Danielle Smith musing about holding a binding referendum next spring have grabbed the headlines in the separatism discussion. But there’s one big question that hasn’t been asked in this debate: Would Alberta be allowed to be an independent country?
I believe the answer to this question is no.
I wear my Canada and Alberta flags on my sleeve and am proud to call this place my home. My family settled here around 130 years ago and has deep roots in this part of the country. I have lived in Alberta my entire life and have spent more than two decades writing about its politics and history, so I would never punch down on Alberta — but I’m also realistic.
Lawyer Irma Roberts is the third candidate to enter the UCP nomination contest in Calgary-South East. Roberts has served as a regional director representing Calgary on the UCP’s provincial board of directors since 2023.
Roberts’ campaign is being run by right-wing political organizer Craig Chandler, who recently ran Mike Derry’s successful campaign for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Shaw. Chandler is also running Erin Averbukh’s UCP nomination campaign in Calgary-Acadia.
Alabi Adenekan and former Freedom Conservative Party chief of staff Stephen Burry are also running for the UCP nomination in this riding.
Karen Peters has been disqualifed from the United Conservative Party nomination contest in Grande Prairie-Wapiti, making first-term MLA Ron Wiebe widely expected to be acclaimed to run for re-election in the 2027 provincial election.
Peters was the UCP constituency president in the northwest Alberta riding and has posted on her personal Facebook page about chemtrails and vaccination conspiracy theories. These posts raised eyebrows among political watchers but neither issue is grounds for disqualification in the current UCP.
Premier Danielle Smith has set Monday, September 14 as the date of the by-election vote in the Calgary-Shaw riding vacated by former UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz earlier this year.
The by-election will see UCP candidate Mike Derry face New Democrat Kyle Campbell, with Progressive Tory candidate Kyle Joseph trying to break into what has been a two-party race in Alberta politics, and Liberal Party leader John Roggeveen trying to get his party back on the radar.
Just east of Edmonton, former MLA Jordan Walker, who served one term from 2019 to 2023, is facing a challenge from separatist organizer and former UCP constituency president Kathy Flett. Walker was unseated by NDP candidate Kyle Kasawski in 2023.
Flett is a spokeperson for the Alberta Women for Independence Network third party advertiser and has been a featured speaker at numerous pro-separation events across Alberta ahead of the October 19 referendum.
Two Grande Prairie MLAs and one former Edmonton-area MLA are facing nomination challenges as United Conservative Party members choose their candidates ahead of Alberta’s next provincial election.
First-term Grande Prairie UCP MLA Nolan Dyck is facing a challenge from firearms shop and indoor gun range owner Robin Coward.
Coward’s Bullets and Broadheads Shooting Center was listed as a signing location for the Stay Free Alberta petition that called for a referendum on the province to separate from Canada. Coward also recently promoted a separatist event in Grande Prairie on his social media.
A province-wide referendum on whether to hold a binding referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada is being held on October 19.
While a large majority of Albertans support the province remaining in Canada, UCP supporters are divided on the question. The issue has shone the spotlight on separatist organizers who are entrenched in positions of influence in the governing party.
It appears that at least two UCP MLAs will face challenges for their nominations ahead of the next provincial election:
Albertans need to get out and vote on October 19, 2026
Even after writing about Alberta politics for more than 20 years it’s still sometimes hard to fully understand and explain what is happening in our province.
Albertans are now 87 days away from having to vote on Premier Danielle Smith’s 10 referendum questions, including a convoluted question about holding a future binding referendum on Alberta separating from Canada. It feels like we’re having some kind of weird fever dream and we’re definitely sleepwalking into it.
Despite putting the future of Alberta’s place in Canada on the ballot in less than three months, I am shocked at how many people have told me Smith is barely or not even mentioning the separation referendum in many of the public speeches she is making during her summer travels across the province.
Public school trustee Angela Sommers is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in Red Deer-North at a July 30 nomination meeting. Sommers was first elected to the board of trustees of the Red Deer Public School Board in 2021.
The riding has been represented by UCP MLA Adriana LaGrange since 2019. LaGrange was re-elected in 2023 with 57.4 per cent of the vote. Her 2023 NDP opponent, Jaelene Tweedle, was elected to Red Deer City Council in 2025.
The NDP will nominate Michelle Baer in the neighbouring Red Deer-South riding on July 25. Baer is a former city lawyer who ran for the NDP the riding in 2023.
It was expected and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has just confirmed it. Nenshi will run in a Calgary riding when the next provincial election is called. The NDP leader and former Calgary mayor won a by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona in June 2025 to replace former MLA and premier Rachel Notley but he had yet to officially announce his plans for the next election.
In a statement published on social media today, Nenshi said:
Today, I’m letting you know of a decision I’ve made. While I’ve been thrilled every day to serve as your MLA, I will be seeking election in a Calgary riding in the next general election.
This will open up Edmonton-Strathcona for a new representative from this beautiful community. I am informing you today so that the incredible constituency association in this riding has time for a healthy and robust nomination process to select a candidate and a future MLA worthy of representing you. Interested candidates can express their interest now and more details on the nomination process and dates will be coming soon.
Former school trustee Trisha Estabrooks is expected to announced her plans to run for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona at a July 17 press conference at Frank’s Community Pub. The riding has been held by the NDP since 1997 and from 1986 to 1993 before that.
Former United Conservative Party president Cynthia Moore has launched her campaign for her party’s nomination in the Calgary-Elbow riding in the next provincial election.
Moore currently serves as chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, a role she was appointed to by the UCP government in 2024, and as chair of the Real Estate Council of Alberta. She previously worked as an executive of the Kahanoff Foundation.
Moore was UCP president from 2021 until 2023 — a tumultuous time in the governing party’s history that saw rank and file members revolt against Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership and rocket Danielle Smith into the Premier’s Office.
A list of pro-Canada and Alberta independence supporters in the October 19, 2026 referendum
Albertans are being asked to vote on ten referendum questions on October 19, 2026 and, unsurprisingly, the one question attracting the most attention is about Alberta’s separation from Canada.
I am a proud Canadian and proud Albertan and will be voting for Alberta to remain in Canada in this referendum.
One of my key goals since launching Daveberta more than two decades ago has been to help Albertans better understand the politics of their province. So, in the months ahead, I will be writing a lot about the referendum questions and maintaining a running list of groups, politicians, and individuals who are campaigning or taken positions in the Alberta separation referendum debate.
Similar to my nomination candidate tracking list, I will be updating this page as I receive new names, so please click on the title link and bookmark it to keep up to date.
If there are any names or website links that should be added or removed from this list, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I am striving to do my best to keep this list as accurate as possible during a very noisy political debate.
Publicly-owned Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Trans Mountain Corporation to build pipeline to the Pacific Coast
The path already taken might be the easiest way to get a new oil pipeline built from Alberta through British Columbia to Canada’s Pacific Coast.
That’s what Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are betting on as they announced a proposal for a new pipeline to follow the route near the Trans Mountain and Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipelines to BC’s Lower Mainland. So let’s call it TMXL.
After months of speculation, rumours, and political jostling over the proposed route of the new pipeline — Smith’s government is believed to have preferred the much more politically fraught northern route to Kitimat or Prince Rupert — the southern proposal was announced in Calgary by Carney and Smith.
The pipeline announcement comes days after Carney visited BC Premier David Eby to announce a new Memorandum of Understanding that reaffirms the North Coast tanker ban and includes $3 billion in federal funding to replace the aging Massey Tunnel and other investments — smoothing over any expected opposition from the NDP government on the Left Coast.
