The Betrayal.

>Instead she used the separatists’ 301,000 signatures to justify the exact opposite. (Those signatures btw are already under scrutiny after a pro-sovereignty group was illegally handed Alberta’s voter list.) And now she’s cleverly combining both numbers to claim 700,000 Albertans want a vote. They don’t. That’s not what those 456k signatures say and she knows it.

Now let’s imagine how this plays out when the referendum proceeds.[ Look at this question](https://calgary.citynews.ca/2026/02/19/alberta-referendum-questions-october-2026/):

>*Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?* 

Voters can either agree or disagree. *But what does that mean:* Yes Alberta should remain part of Canada, or Yes the Government of Alberta should commence the legal process to leave?

Smith has selected a question that allows her to read the results whichever way she likes. Because she has shown her willingness to be dishonest in this manner by conflating the two campaigns *I think it’s within reason* to expect that the outcome is predetermined. It doesn’t matter how the vote unfolds if the question lacks clarity.