{"id":573555,"date":"2026-03-31T19:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/573555\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:52:18","slug":"alberta-independence-petition-leaders-say-signature-requirement-reached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/573555\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta independence petition leaders say signature requirement reached"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Leaders behind an Alberta separatist petition say they\u2019ve reached the required number of signatures to trigger a provincial referendum or a legislative vote on the matter.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel for Stay Free Alberta, tells Global News the group has reached more than 177,732 signatures \u2014 10 per cent of the total votes cast in the last provincial election.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elections.ab.ca\/uploads\/2025-CIP-10-Bill-14-Application_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">petition application<\/a> proposes a \u201cReferendum relating to Alberta Independence,\u201d applicant Mitch Sylvestre wrote to Elections Alberta.<\/p>\n<p>According to the application, Sylvestre aims to ask Albertans, \u201cDo you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you&#8217;ll never miss the day&#8217;s top stories.<\/p>\n<p>The group began collecting signatures on Jan. 3, and has until May 2 as part of the official petitioning period.<\/p>\n<p>Elections Alberta says it won\u2019t be able to verify the count until that time.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce they submit their signature sheets to Elections Alberta we will then count and verify the signatures,\u201d an Elections Alberta spokesperson says in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey may choose to hand in their sheets before that date, in which case we could begin our verification process before the posted signature collection end date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The province is planning to hold a referendum on several questions on Oct. 19, but it is unclear if the question would be added on that date if the current petition is successful.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal is first forwarded to the lieutenant-governor in council and the wording could be changed to make it clearer for voters.<\/p>\n<p>Sylvestre did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Alberta businesses face economic anxiety over separation talks'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SITE_ALBERTA.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:07<br \/>\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\tAlberta businesses face economic anxiety over separation talks\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size Leaders behind an Alberta separatist petition say they\u2019ve reached the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[78630,25158,49,48,44,173408],"class_list":{"0":"post-573555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-politics","9":"tag-alberta-separatism","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-stay-free-alberta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573555","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=573555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}