(Edmonton) The Prime Minister of Alberta, Danielle Smith, said that she would organize a referendum on the sovereignty of the province next year if the citizens collected the signatures required in a petition.
Posted at 6:27 p.m.
Lisa Johnson
Canadian press
In a speech broadcast live, Mme Smith said he wanted a sovereign Alberta in a united Canada, but that the voices of those who are unhappy with the Confederation are not those of marginal extremists and must be listened to.
This speech comes a week after the united conservative government of Mme Smith presented a bill which, if adopted, will considerably reduce the number of signatures required to trigger a provincial referendum.
The current minimal threshold for signatures is 10 % of voters from the last elections – 177,000 signatures – with four months to collect signatures on the petition.
Mme Smith claims that Alberta has no choice but to take measures to fight against a decade of hostile federal liberal policies and laws, which, according to her, have not only grabbed an inequitable part of the Alberta wealth, but also undermined the petroleum and gas industry, the engine of its economy.
She claims that in the meantime, she will negotiate the end of some of these federal policies while organizing a series of public meetings to hear the ideas and grievances of the Albertains. Mme Smith adds that some of these ideas could also find themselves in referendum issues.
