For university students in Calgary, the upcoming referendum is about much more than ticking boxes; it’s about how they see their province, their education, and whether Alberta will stay part of the country they call home.
The referendum asks Albertans to weigh-in on key issues like immigration policies and the province’s place within Canada, and for many students, these questions are deeply personal.
Carina Moreno Certad, a Mount Royal University student whose parents immigrated from Venezuela, worries about separation.
“Being part of Canada makes us feel included in big decisions,” she said. “If Alberta stands alone, I honestly don’t think I’d want to stay here anymore.”
Autumn Ewaskow, a student who is originally from B.C., agreed.
“I travel back and forth a lot, so I want Alberta to stay connected to Canada,” she said.
Joshua Liu Halfe, a student who is part Cree from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, said he doubts separation is even possible without consulting Indigenous communities.
“They didn’t even ask us,” he said. “So I don’t think it will happen.”
Other students are focused on the ballot’s five immigration questions. Chris Mueller, a policy studies student, says the questions are important because they tie into jobs and housing.
“We need to make sure Albertans have access to jobs and places to live first,” he said. “Immigration policies should support that priority.”
Ballot questions cause confusion
While there’s widespread information about the vote, do students understand what they are voting for?
“I have done a decent amount of reading, preparing myself for this election, and so I would say I’m decently confident with my answers,” Mueller said.
While most feel confident in their research, others are having a hard time.
“As someone who struggles with reading, I do not really understand what the questions are asking for,” science student Jada Hartin said. “I wasn’t even aware there were other questions, besides the one asking to separate until someone told me otherwise.”
With so much information on the referendum focusing on the question of separation—even though the vote is about holding a future vote to separate— it’s no wonder many students are unaware of the rest of the issues on the ballot.
“Many people are just seeing it as one question— do we want to separate or do we not? Everyone is forgetting about the other questions that hold consequences for Albertans,” Mueller said.
Students urged to consider the consequences of their vote
SAMRU, the MRU students’ association, has been holding information sessions where students can meet, ask questions and discuss their ideas on the vote.
“We hope to be able to engage in meaningful conversation so that we can understand where people are coming from when they are making the decisions that they want to make,” Mariana Mejia, vice president external with SAMRU, said.
Mejia says part of SAMRU’s goal is to get students to consider the consequences the vote could have on their own future.
“If you feel like [the election] is going to directly impact you, people are more inclined to go out and vote,” said Mejia.
Hartin finds the questions confusing, and most sources she has seen online are unhelpful.
“Social media makes it more confusing because what people post is just their beliefs, making the majority of them biased, rather than properly informing people who are trying to understand,” Hartin said.
An informal survey of several MRU students showed that many are relying on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to get information about the referendum. But there’s no consensus on whether what they see is useful to help them decide how to vote, or whether to vote at all.
“The majority of people are misinformed and very close-minded” when they post online, Mueller said. “The content you see will always have a slight skew to the side you promote, so I think it is important for people to acknowledge both sides and to do further research past the TikTok for you page.”