Lukaszuk’s anti-separation petition surpasses 450,000 signatures
Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk says his “Forever Canadian” petition has shattered expectations, surpassing the threshold required to trigger legislative review.
By: Isaac Lamoureux, True North
Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk says his “Forever Canadian” petition has shattered expectations, surpassing the threshold required to trigger legislative review under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act.
Speaking at a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, Lukaszuk said his petition collected 456,365 verified signatures, with an additional 23 that had been submitted as he was speaking, well above the 293,976 required under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act. The petition urges the government to reject separation and affirm Alberta’s place in Canada.
“Because of you, because of your effort, because of everything that you have been doing every day, collecting signatures in rain in southern Alberta and snow in a variety of places, you have achieved what all of us were hoping for,” said Lukaszuk. “Not only did we meet the required target of 300,000 signatures. But we have actually just blown past that.”
Because Lukaszuk filed his petition before Bill 54 was proclaimed, he had to gather 293,976 signatures—10 per cent of provincial electors on the post-election day list of electors—within only 90 days.
“In a short period of time, 456,365 Albertans have decided that our future, Alberta’s future lies in Canada,” he said. “456,365 Albertans have said they don’t want anything to do with separatism, and they are asking our Premier to do the right thing.”
He told supporters that the signatures will be delivered to the Chief Electoral Commissioner for tabulation and certification before being turned over to the Alberta Legislature.
However, despite surpassing the threshold, Lukaszuk said he doesn’t want a referendum.
“We knew that the vast majority of Albertans want to remain Canadian. Hence, we are not asking for a referendum. We already know that we are Canadian and we will always be Canadian. We are asking the Premier to do the right thing and ask Alberta MLAs to vote on this issue and put separatism to bed once and for all,” he said.
Lukaszuk said there are other important issues for Alberta’s politicians to focus on and urged them not to be distracted by issuing a referendum.
General Counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project, Jeffrey Rath, told True North that the APP is “absolutely thrilled” with Lukaszuk’s results, as it proves that over 400,000 Albertans want to have a referendum on independence.
“She has discretion under Section 1 of the referendum to call her own question that complies with Section 1(3) of the Clarity Act, and the question should read: Do you agree that Alberta shall cease to be a province of Canada and become an Independent state?” said Rath.
He added that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s base expects her to call a standalone constitutional question for the Spring or Summer of 2026.
The result comes as the Alberta Prosperity Project continues its own, opposing campaign to trigger a referendum on separation from Canada. That group’s proposed question: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?” is currently under constitutional review by the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, after being referred by Elections Alberta in July.
Lukaszuk said his team had over 5,000 signature collectors, and that he didn’t even know they met the threshold, let alone passed it, until last night.
When adjusting for population, Lukaszuk said that his group collected around the same percentage of signatures from rural and urban Alberta.
If the government does proceed with a referendum, Lukaszuk said he will get back to work campaigning for people to vote to stay in Canada.
“I certainly hope we don’t have to do that because there are other issues, important issues that we should be addressing. But I can tell you the Forever Canadian movement is ready for that. And I have no doubt that more than 80 per cent of Albertans will vote to remain in Canada,” he said.
Despite collecting signatures for 90 days to hold a petition on a referendum, Lukaszuk said this process was about giving Smith the chance to avoid a referendum.
“This is not something that this province or this country needs at this time. We live in very volatile times from a geopolitical perspective, and we need to show Canada as a united front when others are attacking us, and any divisions within Canada are just not good to our province and they’re not good for Canada. We are united as Canadians and no one should be trying to explore any divisions there,” he said.
Lukaszuk explained that the signatures being collected was precedent-setting as the biggest in the country’s history and that the Chief Electoral Officer would have to develop a new process. Lukaszuk said he expected that to be done with expedience and accuracy.