Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she hasn’t signed separatist petition

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claims she has not signed a petition currently gathering signatures for a referendum to pull the province out of Confederation.

Smith made the declaration during an unrelated announcement in Calgary on Thursday.

“I believe that a citizen-initiated process is meant for citizens, and so I’m watching all of the petition campaigns that are out there,” said Smith.

“If any of them get the requisite number of signatures, then we’ll have to talk about prioritizing when we would have a referendum on them.”

The push for a vote on Alberta becoming its own country is now in its second month of collecting signatures, and the group behind it, Stay Free Alberta, has until May to get nearly 178,000 signatures.

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Smith has long attempted to stay above the fray, saying she supports a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, but that she believes in direct democracy.

But she and her United Conservative Party government have faced, and rebuffed, a series of calls in recent weeks to denounce the independence movement.

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Her government twice removed legal hurdles that would pave the way for the separation petition.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has also confirmed he didn’t put his name to the effort, and Environment Minister Grant Hunter’s office said the same for Hunter.

During an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Hunter was asked if he had signed and whether he supported Alberta independence.

“I am a proud, United Conservative Party member. I am a member of cabinet,” he said. “I will continue to work for Albertans, and Alberta is a member of Canada in good standing, and we will continue to be a member of good standing in Canada.”

Earlier this month, two of Smith’s other ministers publicly confirmed they had not signed the petition, including Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko this week, and Assisted Living Minister Jason Nixox.

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Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, along with other premiers and former federal Liberal leader Stéphane Dion — who helped write the rules on separation votes in Canada — have all called on Smith to take a clearer stance on the matter.

However, the premier has said she won’t demonize those who have lost hope in Canadian federalism and that it’s her responsibility, along with Ottawa’s, to prove Canada can still work in the province’s favour.

A leader for the separatist group in Alberta has claimed that some unnamed members of Smith’s caucus have added their names to the list, but Smith has said she isn’t aware of any who had.

Emails sent to more than 20 UCP backbenchers last week asking if they had signed went unanswered.

A statement attributed to the UCP caucus said it also wasn’t aware of any legislature members adding their names to the petition, but added that MLAs are free to express their personal views.