Boxes of signatures are unloaded from a trailer to the door of Elections Alberta by Stay Free Alberta volunteers on Monday, May 4, 2026. Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia

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The Stay Free Alberta separation petition has been verified. What’s next?

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For one, the direct referendum proposed by Stay Free Alberta still cannot go ahead. Their question — “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” — cannot be put before voters despite having received more than the required number of votes (223,000 versus 178,000) to trigger a citizens’ initiative.

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Stay Free’s direct question is still unlikely to be included in this fall’s plethora of referendum questions on Oct. 19. Despite having allowed Elections Alberta to verify the Stay Free signatures, the Alberta Court of Appeal has blocked the chief electoral officer from taking any additional steps (such as holding a vote) until questions regarding the referendum’s constitutionality can be settled.

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Instead, Albertans are likely to vote only on the government’s more indirect question: “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?”

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It’s meaningful, though, that the group of separatists behind Stay Free Alberta (there are other competing separatist groups) collected far fewer signatures in their petition drive than they claimed in May when they submitted their documentation.

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According to Elections Alberta, Stay Free canvassers gathered just 223,000 signatures, not the 301,000 they claimed. The roughly 78,000 signatures rejected by the elections office were determined to have been incomplete or guilty of sloppy work by canvassers.

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Equally fascinating, though, is the fact that another separatist group, Let Alberta Decide, leads all pro-separation and pro-Confederation groups in fundraising.

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Let Alberta Decide, a relative newcomer to this fall’s debate, is headed by far more reasonable leaders than Stay Free Alberta.

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Stay Free Alberta’s leaders, Mitch Sylvestre and Jeffery Rath, spout a version of separation that is likely to appeal only to Albertans who already agreed with them. Moreover, Rath, a lawyer, has had run-ins with the Alberta Law Society over ethical claims and has recently had his assets frozen by the courts while it is determined whether he misappropriated millions from a First Nation.

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By comparison, Let Alberta Decide’s co-leaders, Keith Wilson and Tanya Clemens, take a more measured approach. Rather than threatening to split apart the governing UCP and force Premier Danielle Smith from office if they don’t get their way (which is the Stay Free approach), Let Alberta Decide has chosen to participate in the debate on this fall’s indirect referendum.

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That may explain why Let Alberta Decide, which was not involved in signature collection, has managed to raise nearly half of the money ($360,000 out of $779,000) collected by both pro-separation and pro-federalist groups.