This is not the first time Alberta has held a referendum. In fact, Alberta has a longstanding history with referendums and has held eight referendums.
In 2021, Albertans voted on whether to pursue changes to the federal equalization program as well as whether to adopt permanent daylight saving time. The majority of Albertans supported pursuing changes to equalization and continuing to change their clocks twice a year.
Despite the government of Alberta claiming this was a binding referendum, the Alberta government passed legislation in 2026 that will implement permanent daylight saving time.
“Governments interpret the results that they want. We had a referendum saying we were not going to go to permanent daylight savings time, and now we’re doing it anyway,” said Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University.
While referendum questions can arrive on the ballot through a citizen’s initiative, the ten questions on this referendum were written by the government, he said.
The government decided which questions made it on the ballot and which ones would not.
Bratt questions why there aren’t questions on topics such as education, bike lanes, healthcare or data centres.
Additionally, Bratt explained that a petition for a referendum on secession had 700,000 signatures across the province. “What she’s doing is collapsing two different referendums, one that was to stay in Canada, [one] was to leave Canada, neither one of those questions are on the ballot” Bratt says.
This referendum is a government driven process in which the government will in turn interpret the results.
Similar to the referendum on daylight saving time, Bratt explains “there is no such thing as a binding referendum in a parliamentary system.”
The same applies for the upcoming referendum this month.
When asked what would happen next for the province of Alberta should Option 2 be voted in favour, Bratt said “it would just create greater uncertainty in the province of Alberta.”
– Ruby Graham
