Forever Canadian<\/a> initiative, said he\u2019s not surprised but it\u2019s \u201cbizarre\u201d the committee, led by governing United Conservative Party members, shut down a proposal to soon hear from him directly.<\/p>\n\u201cIt shows pure cynicism and disregard for this democratic process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lukaszuk said Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s UCP is playing a \u201ccynical, political game\u201d to give a separatist petition, currently gathering signatures, a leg up on putting their question on an October ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor lack of a better term, the process is a sham,\u201d Lukaszuk told reporters after observing the committee\u2019s first meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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The committee was struck in early March to discuss Lukaszuk\u2019s \u201cForever Canadian\u201d petition, after its signatures were verified and its policy proposal was tabled in the legislature in early December.<\/p>\n
Lukaszuk said it\u2019s disheartening the government has been ignoring the voices of nearly half a million people \u201cfrom the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
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UCP members on the committee also voted down an Opposition NDP motion to wrap up its work before the legislature rises in a few weeks, saying they didn\u2019t want to rush it.<\/p>\n
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Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney told the committee that being overly prescriptive in setting dates was irresponsible, since government officials need time to prepare technical briefings to present.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe voices of Albertans are very important to the government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said the committee may or may not need to hear from Lukaszuk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know it yet. This is cart before horse,\u201d he said in the meeting.<\/p>\n
The legislature is expected to rise on May 14 for the summer.<\/p>\n
Stay Free Alberta petitioners have until May 2 to collect signatures for a referendum on separating the province from Canada, although organizers have already said they\u2019ve surpassed its 178,000-signature threshold.<\/p>\n
Smith has said that question could be added to a referendum, with nine government questions, slated for Oct. 19.<\/p>\n
The legislature is not set to meet again until Oct. 27.<\/p>\n
NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi, who sits on the committee, said the UCP has slow-walked the committee\u2019s work since December, and she doesn\u2019t believe it will move forward in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re willing to put off hearing from Thomas Lukaszuk as long as possible. I mean, we\u2019re still at the mercy of the chair to decide when this next meeting is going to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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She said she believes it\u2019s all to avoid a vote in the house that would answer whether or not the UCP denounces separatism.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf (Smith\u2019s) afraid to have that vote in the legislature, it\u2019s because she\u2019s afraid of what she\u2019s going to have to tell Albertans about who her party is, what they value, what they support, and that many of them support separatism,\u201d said Pancholi.<\/p>\n
Committee chair and UCP backbencher Brandon Lunty told reporters he\u2019s going to make sure they can co-ordinate a schedule as soon as possible, but he didn\u2019t commit to a deadline.<\/p>\n
He said the legislature committee is the first of its kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there\u2019s an urgency. There\u2019s an understanding that, again, we had 400,000 Albertans as part of this process. And as legislators, this is the way that we can make sure that we\u2019re listening to those voices,\u201d said Lunty.<\/p>\n
Smith has long said her government supports a sovereign Alberta staying in Confederation. But she has also made it easier for groups to hold a referendum on quitting Canada by changing the law, including to lower the signature threshold.<\/p>\n
In late March, Smith said questions needed to be cleared up on whether Lukaszuk\u2019s petition drive was about triggering a provincewide referendum or a vote by legislators in the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to hear from Mr. Lukaszuk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lukaszuk said the committee refused to hear from him, despite being given the opportunity.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think that (Smith) enjoys being confused, because being confused plays very well into her game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he filed his petition as a policy proposal, because he wants it to be resolved in the legislature by a vote. But his group is preparing, if the premier calls a referendum on the issue, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never seen a larger mandate demanding that this question be asked on the floor of the legislature. And I have no idea why UCP MLAs are so reticent, so hesitant to vote on such a clear question: \u2018Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?’\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former politician who gathered more than 456,000 signatures to keep Alberta in Canada says he watched first-hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7611,49,48,28598,44,714],"class_list":["post-619794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-legislature","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-forever-canadian","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619794","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=619794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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