{"id":676188,"date":"2026-05-17T20:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/676188\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:49:15","slug":"edmonton-councillor-pitches-forever-canadian-street-amid-separatist-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/676188\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton councillor pitches \u2018Forever Canadian\u2019 street amid separatist push"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Edmonton city councillor says he wants to ingrain the love Albertans have for Canada in a red-and-white street sign.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Janz says he will be submitting an application to rename the portion of 99th Avenue that\u2019s adjacent to the Alberta legislature in downtown Edmonton to Forever Canadian Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a high tourist destination,\u201d Janz said about the east-to-west thoroughfare in a phone interview after his Sunday announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the place where school groups and other groups come by to visit, and where they can hear and learn about the Forever Canadia<\/a>n (petition) and how many patriotic Canadians and Albertans supported this movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForever Canadian\u201d is the name of a pro-federalist petition which had just over 400,000 signatures verified by election officials in December.<\/p>\n

Janz said many of his constituents signed the petition and volunteered to help collect signatures for it.<\/p>\n

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The province\u2019s lawmakers have yet to decide whether the petition\u2019s proposed question, \u201cDo you agree that Alberta should remain within Canada?\u201d will be put on a ballot in a fall referendum or to a vote in the legislature.<\/p>\n

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Janz\u2019s Sunday announcement comes days after a judge\u2019s decision to throw out a separatist group\u2019s petition calling for a referendum.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:57
\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\tWhat\u2019s next after judge throws out Alberta separation petition?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The judge said the Stay Free Alberta group\u2019s petition shouldn\u2019t have been issued under a provincial law that Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s government made changes to, aiding the separatist effort.<\/p>\n

The judge also said Smith\u2019s government neglected its duty to consult First Nations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Smith has said she supports a sovereign Alberta in a united Canada but also that Albertans are frustrated with Ottawa and deserve to be heard.<\/p>\n

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Stay Free Alberta and Smith have said they will be appealing the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Janz said the separatist issue in Alberta hasn\u2019t just affected the national and provincial political climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spectre of separatism is an enormous risk to investment in our province, jobs in our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s creating uncertainty. You can\u2019t build a robust economy, a prosperous Edmonton, with this looming spectre of separation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janz said he will submit his application for the street renaming to Edmonton\u2019s Naming Committee soon.<\/p>\n

He hopes to celebrate Canada Day in July on a street called Forever Canadian Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about one government or one premier but it\u2019s about a moment when Albertans came together and said over 400,000 of us are willing to sign that we want to remain in Canada,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Jack Farrell<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Edmonton city councillor says he wants to ingrain the love Albertans have for Canada in a red-and-white…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[25158,49,48,23752,714,25161,248573],"class_list":["post-676188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta-separatism","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-politics","tag-separatism","tag-separatist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676188","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=676188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}