Western Standard - September 01, 2026


Will There Be ANOTHER Referendum？ Danielle Smith Responds


Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

180.74

Word count

366

Sentence count

16


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 I'm wondering if you can give us a clear answer here.
00:00:03.920 After October 19th, will you promise Albertans that there will be no more referendums before the next general election?
00:00:12.100 Well, the question on October 19th is do you want to remain in Canada
00:00:18.620 or do you want to start the legal process to hold a binding referendum?
00:00:22.540 So if the majority of Albertans vote to remain in Canada, I would look at that as being at an end.
00:00:30.260 So yes, but if the other option is chosen,
00:00:34.260 then I would have to start taking the legal steps to hold a binding referendum.
00:00:38.980 Thank you for that. That's the process.
00:00:41.400 But the last time you were asked about this,
00:00:43.960 you pointed to your own legislation
00:00:45.680 and the sort of blackout period before a general election.
00:00:50.700 But you've changed that legislation multiple times.
00:00:53.220 So I'm wondering if you can just confirm one way or another
00:00:57.000 whether you're taking it off the table that there would be a spring binding referendum on separation
00:01:04.560 or if you're willing to change your own legislation to open the door to that.
00:01:08.500 Well, I wish I could give a more clear answer, but the courts have put a bit of a monkey wrench in it
00:01:15.220 because they have said that we can't hold the citizen initiative question without doing consultation.
00:01:21.800 And yet we don't know what the parameters of those would be.
00:01:24.220 So it's why we're challenging the legislation.
00:01:25.780 We think that citizen initiative questions should be able to be put forward, but I would have to understand a little bit more about what would constitute sufficient consultation in that environment.
00:01:36.440 And then also the Clarity Act requires the House of Commons to approve the question.
00:01:40.600 They have their own seating schedule.
00:01:42.120 So I would say that we will work to put it on the ballot at the earliest possible moment, but I would have to see what that would look like based on those two parameters in law that I'd have to follow.
00:01:53.180 but the fact is that I just need to hear from Albertans on October the 19th first
00:01:58.480 and then we can play What If after the fact.