{"id":435589,"date":"2026-01-27T03:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435589\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:15:12","slug":"hundreds-line-up-in-calgary-to-sign-petition-urging-vote-on-alberta-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435589\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds line up in Calgary to sign petition urging vote on Alberta separation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people lined up Monday at Calgary\u2019s Stampede grounds to sign their names on a petition calling for the Alberta government to hold a referendum on the province\u2019s separation from Canada.<\/p>\n

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Calgary is the most recent stop for a group called Stay Free Alberta that has been given the OK by Elections Alberta to gather names.<\/p>\n

They need almost 178,000 signatures by May, and similar long lines have been seen in recent weeks in other locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a really strong message to the government of Alberta that Alberta is going to be a free and independent country so they better get their heads around it,\u201d said Jeffrey Rath of Stay Free Alberta.<\/p>\n

The push for independence comes amid ongoing suggestions from the U.S. government that perhaps Alberta would like to join its neighbour to the south.<\/p>\n

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Some of those in the lineup on Monday said they want to join the U.S., while others said no.<\/p>\n

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Some say separation might be the only way to fix what they call a toxic relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alberta\u2019s opposition New Democrats are calling on all government MLAs to sign a pledge declaring whether or not they support separation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to take this seriously and we have to stand up on the side of Canada and Team Canada,\u201d said NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi at a news conference in Calgary on Monday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe cannot repeat the mistakes of 1995 in Canada, we cannot repeat the mistakes of Brexit, so I\u2019m reaching out to all Albertans, saying let\u2019s stand up for what we really believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NDP says the separatism debate is proving harmful to the province\u2019s interests, potentially costing jobs.<\/p>\n

The UCP caucus did not say whether they\u2019d sign the pledge, calling it a distraction, and accusing Nenshi of fearmongering.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith has said she supports a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, a phrase that Nenshi called nonsensical \u201cword salad.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new Ipsos poll suggests 29 per cent of Albertans support the province\u2019s separation from Canada<\/a>, but when faced with the costs and consequences of doing so, only half of those interested in separatism are truly committed to following through.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think there are a lot of questions about clarity and even though the question is clearly \u2018Do you want to leave?\u2019, the motive for voting yes in this referendum is quite unclear,\u201d said Lori Williams, a political science professor at Calgary\u2019s Mount Royal University.<\/p>\n

\u2013with files from The Canadian Press.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:16
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t3 in 10 Albertans support separation according to January IPSOS polling\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people lined up Monday at Calgary\u2019s Stampede grounds to sign their names on a petition calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25159,35932,49,48,44,714],"class_list":["post-435589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-referendum","tag-alberta-separation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}