{"id":644814,"date":"2026-05-03T09:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644814\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T09:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:32:24","slug":"alberta-separatist-petition-effort-hits-final-day-for-gathering-names-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644814\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta separatist petition effort hits final day for gathering names \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EDMONTON \u2013 It\u2019s the last day for Alberta separatists to gather petition signatures that could trigger a referendum on pulling the province out of Confederation.<\/p>\n<p>Because the deadline falls on a weekend, however, they have two extra days to deliver the petition.<\/p>\n<p>Mitch Sylvestre, head of the group Stay Free Alberta, says it plans to hand the paperwork in Monday to Elections Alberta\u2019s head office in Edmonton.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f4d69e0c0d318d0c66eb4cjpeg.jpg\" data-pswp- data-pswp-width=\"5578\" data-pswp-height=\"3599\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f4d69e0c0d318d0c66eb4cjpeg.jpg\" alt=\"People line up to sign a petition that seeks to have a referendum on Alberta separation, in Stony Plain, Alta., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jason Franson\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople line up to sign a petition that seeks to have a referendum on Alberta separation, in Stony Plain, Alta., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jason Franson<\/p>\n<p>More than a month ago, Sylvestre said they had already collected more than the approximate 178,000 signatures required since the petition started in January.<\/p>\n<p>Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward with a provincewide referendum if enough names are gathered and verified, but the petition faces another hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>An Edmonton judge is expected to rule next week on a court challenge launched by a group of Alberta First Nations that argue the petition violates treaty rights.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2013 It\u2019s the last day for Alberta separatists to gather petition signatures that could trigger a referendum&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-644814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644814","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=644814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}