‘Our question is not on the referendum’: Forever Canadian founder pushes back against Danielle Smith’s claim

Forever Canadian ralies in Grande Prairie and Peace River drew hundreds of supporters this weekend.

What if your government spent millions of dollars on a citizen-initiated referendum that didn’t offer any questions initiated by Alberta citizens?

That was the question Saturday on Your Premier, Your Province from show host Wayne Nelson, who put the question to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at the end of their one-hour-long radio program.

Nelson asked it in reference to the anti-coal petition launched by Corb Lund, which won’t be on the October referendum because, Smith said, it missed a June 1 deadline that Lund says he was unaware of.

“(Are) only (the Alberta) government’s hand-picked questions making it onto the referendum this fall?” Nelson asked.

“None are really – if you want to get technical – citizen-led," Nelson added.

“That’s not true,” Smith said. “The Forever Canada petition asked the question, ‘Do you want to remain in Canada? Yes or no?’ We just felt like we had to define what (Forever Canada’s) ‘no’ meant.

“Because otherwise, if you end up with the majority of people saying ‘no’, what does that actually mean?” she asked.

“So in this case we put the Forever Canadian petition up with Option 1 being Remain, and then Option 2 being ‘Do you want to start the process to leave (Canada)?’ and that was also prompted by a pretty clear appetite on the part of a citizen initiative group (Stay Free Alberta) to ask a question around this.

“We didn’t ask their (exact) question, but we’re asking one,” she said.

Reached in Peace River Sunday, Forever Canadian founder Thomas Lukaszuk disputed the notion that his citizen-led petition, which collected more than 404,000 signatures, was on the October referendum.

“Our question is not on the referendum,” Lukaszuk said. “It is the premier’s question. It’s not our question.

“It’s misleading and our campaign is taking no position on it because it’s not our question.”

When CTV News sought clarification from the Premier’s office Sunday, spokesperson Sam Blackett said, “The question the Oct. 19th referendum ballot has virtually the exact same wording as the Forever Canada question, but it also defines what a no vote means - do you want to start the process to leave, which is what Stay Free Alberta wanted: a question on leaving.

“To be clear, the government added the question on Alberta remaining in Canada because 700,000 Albertans signed petitions asking for a referendum on this issue.”

Rural Alberta

Lukaszuk is spending a wet weekend in northern Alberta and said the response to Forever Canadian has been enthusiastic.

He said he had distributed 150 Forever Canadian signs in Peace River and that the community were buying out the supply of Canadian flags.

“The weather is better (in Peace River),” he said. “The rain (has) stopped whereas in Grande Prairie, it was a monsoon and 300 still showed up.”

Lukaszuk also disputed the conventional wisdom that small communities in rural Alberta are dominated by separatist supporters.

“Quite the contrary,” he said. “Smaller towns are really appreciative that the (Forever Canadian) bus shows up, instead of just going to Calgary and Edmonton and places like that. They have a lot of gratitude.”

He said there is also a small group of separatists who find out where the Forever Canadian campaign is going and show up to counter-protest -- loudly.

“A small group of separatist counter-protesters find out where I’m going and they show up and wave Alberta flags and play rock music really loud in a really aggressive way,” he said.

“I have some frustration with some separatists because in small towns, everyone knows everyone and they take an aggressive approach.”

“They block parking lots. They’re like very loud chihuahuas,” he said.

Sunday, Lukaszuk spoke to CTV News at halftime of the Canada-South Africa knockout game in the World Cup, which Canada won 1-0.

“We’re in the lounge and lots of people are wearing Team Canada jerseys,” he said. “Most of them don’t have the soccer one, so they’re wearing Team Canada hockey jerseys -- but that’s just as good!”