‘It’s so emotional’: Fear and unity on Alberta’s referendum campaign trail

EDMONTON — Alberta’s summer of unrest over its role in Confederation is striding into a final phase of rallies, lawn sign rivalry and hyperbolic warnings of doom and demise.

With one month to go before the Oct. 19 referendum, drivers going through many neighbourhoods can spot red and white lawn signs urging Albertans to vote to stand with Canada.

Blue signs are there too, supporting Alberta going its own way, but they look different. Keith Wilson, co-leader of the pro-separatist Let Alberta Decide campaign, says there’s a reason.

“We’ve had people who are supportive but don’t want to put a lawn sign on their home,” he said in an interview.

“(It’s) out of fear that their car will get keyed in the driveway.”

Wilson said his team is putting resources into their digital campaign and putting up giant signs, over a metre high, on public land along roads to avoid singling out homeowners for abuse.

“This is such a divisive issue, and it’s so emotional,” he said.

There have been regular reports on social media of signs on both sides of the debate being stolen or vandalized.

Cory Morgan, a political online commentator and organizer with the Pathway to Independence separatist group, said he’s accustomed to angry emails but has never been on the receiving end of the kind of threats, obscenity and vitriol as he is now.

“It’s above and beyond.”

Morgan said a supporter called to donate $1,000 to his group, and Morgan asked if he could put up a lawn sign.

“Oh no, I can’t do that,” Morgan said the supporter told him.

Still, requests for his lawn signs have gone up, Morgan said, in part because more people are paying more attention to the vote.

“When they see a neighbour or two put one of those signs out, they feel more comfortable doing it as well,” said Morgan.

“As far as the sign war goes, I think it’ll ramp up.”

On the other side of the fence is Thomas Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier for Alberta’s defunct Progressive Conservatives.

For more than a year, he has been criss-crossing the province in a pink and red RV dubbed the Unity Bus.

Lukaszuk collected signatures to try to force a vote in the legislature on staying in Canada and, now that there’s a referendum, he’s travelling around making sure people show up to vote for Canada – and not to take it for granted that the vote will go their way.

Recently, someone shattered a window on the bus.

Lukaszuk said he has heard from people about their patriotism, sense of purpose and fear.

“I’ve never seen as much crying, both from women and men, because they’re worried about what’s happening.”

Lukaszuk said he believes almost everyone has made up their minds about the referendum.

“The vote is already baked in, and it’s all about voter turnout,” he said.

So how did Alberta get here?

Separatism has been in Alberta’s political bones for decades.

In the early 1980s, it reared its head when the national energy program under former prime minister Pierre Trudeau artificially depressed oil prices in the name of Canadian sovereignty. Oil-rich Alberta took a hit, and Albertans have not forgotten or forgiven.

Separatism was a fringe protest movement until recently.

In late 2022, Premier Danielle Smith took the reins of the United Conservative Party and railed against Ottawa policies. She said the concerns of those who wished to quit Canada were valid and needed to be addressed.

After Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals won a minority government in April 2025, Smith’s government took action. It formed a travelling panel to let Albertans air their grievances. It changed the rules to make it easier for citizens to launch petitions. And Smith said if someone delivered enough signatures calling for a referendum to separate, she’d call it.

A separatist petition from Stay Free Alberta collected enough signatures earlier this year, but it was pushed into legal limbo after a judge ruled the government failed to consult First Nations.

The ruling angered Smith, who railed against judges going rogue. In May, she called the referendum question herself.

The question on the ballot asks if Alberta should stay in Canada or launch a second, binding referendum on whether it’s time to formally leave the country.

The issue has sparked pockets of anger and division.

In the town of Sundre this summer, a parade was cancelled after organizers were harassed for excluding a wagon featuring Alberta flags that risked becoming a flashpoint of separatist sentiment.

The Alberta flag has found itself subverted into a de facto symbol of disaffection, flown at separatist rallies.

A separatist billboard put up by Morgan in Taber also sparked a fight with town council, which issued a takedown order.

On the pro-Canada side, political luminaries from former conservative elder statesman Preston Manning to former premiers Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley have joined the fight.

Carney has also participated in the campaign, recently inviting Lukaszuk to pose at a cabinet retreat in Banff and signing the Unity Bus.

Smith’s motives have been questioned.

The premier has said that when you add up the pro and anti signature campaigns, Albertans sent a message that it’s time to settle the issue once and for all.

Critics accuse Smith of rolling the dice on Canada’s future, not to reflect Albertan’s wishes, but to placate hardline separatists in her party.

Election officials are busy assembling paper ballots for the separation question and nine others that ask if Alberta should fight for more elbow room on immigration and the Constitution.

Interest so far is off the charts. More than half a million Albertans have asked for ballots to mail in ahead of time.

In the weeks to come, more rallies and events are planned.

Monte Solberg, a former Conservative cabinet minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper, is part of the federalist Vote to Stay campaign.

His group has launched radio ads reminding listeners that one prominent Alberta separatist has bragged about meeting with the Trump administration in Washington.

Separatists are kidding themselves, Solberg said, if they think Alberta would remain independent “for more than five minutes.”

Solberg said he wants Albertans turn out and vote on Oct. 19.

“You see some Canadian flags, you see some Forever Canada lawn signs, that’s great, but you need people to speak up a lot more loudly.

“The real enemy, besides the separatist camp, is apathy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2026.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press