Smith promises to allow independence referendum in 2026, blasts Ottawa's 'unbearable' policies

Danielle Smith has said an independence referendum will be held in Alberta next year if enough people request one via petition.

In a blistering attack on Ottawa and the Liberal Party, the province’s premier said many Albertans are “frustrated” with the federal government's "unbearable" policies – and “have every reason to be."

The people demanding separation from Canada are not “fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified” but rather “loyal Albertans,” she added.

Smith last week announced a bill that, if passed, would reduce the amount of signatures needed to trigger a referendum from 20 per cent of total registered voters to 10 per cent of eligible voters at the previous general election.

Today, I will be addressing Albertans on our province’s path forward with the federal government following a meeting with the Alberta government caucus. https://t.co/FHMIR7bLMK

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) May 5, 2025

Petitioners would require, therefore, only 177,000 signatures, and would have 120 days to get them, rather than the previous 90.

In her address to Albertans and Canadians, Smith went through a list of grievances she and her supporters have with the federal government.

"We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on Earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch," she said, branding Ottawa’s approach to Alberta “hostile.”

She also expressed anger at Canada’s equalization system, which she said makes sense when cash is sent from big provinces to small ones, but doesn’t add up when the likes of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia receive subsidies from Alberta.

The fight we face is with President Trump, not Ottawa, and certainly not each other.

Danielle Smith is dividing our country and picking fights in a moment that calls for national unity.

Watch my response to the Premier's address: https://t.co/djiSQDd6xd#abpoli #ableg

— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) May 5, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is in Washington, DC today to meet with President Donald Trump, has spoken positively about Alberta so far, Smith said, but she emphasized that Albertans care more about actions than words.

She will nonetheless work with Carney in “good faith,” she added.

That will be accomplished in part by a negotiating team she will chair titled “Alberta Next.”

Its objectives include convincing Ottawa to repeal a series of laws, including the controversial Bill C-69, which Smith has said has hamstrung Alberta’s natural resources economy.

Carney has promised to make Canada an “energy superpower” in both renewables and what he calls “conventional energy.”

But Smith said Ottawa is still under the control of “the same Liberal government, with almost all the same ministers responsible for our nation's inflation, housing, crime and budget crisis, and that oversaw the attack on our provincial economy for the past 10 years.”

Meanwhile her opposite number, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, accused the premier of shooting at the wrong target.

"The fight today is with President Trump, and we cannot win that fight if we think the fight is with Ottawa, with our fellow Canadians or with our fellow Albertans," he said in a video.