(LifeSiteNews) – A group behind a citizen-led movement for Alberta’s independence from Canada in light of increasing frustration with the Liberal federal government made public the question it will put to a future referendum that could come in 2026.
The Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), which bills itself as a sovereignty advocacy group, released Monday the question it wants on a referendum.
“Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a Sovereign Country and cease to be a province of Canada?” the question reads.
Thus far, the group says it has over 240,000 pledges from people who say they will vote “yes” to the referendum question. The group wants to have at least 1 million signatures, which is more than the 600,000 needed before a citizen-led petition would be allowed to be brought before Alberta’s legislature.
The APP says its mission is to “empower the Alberta government to restructure Alberta’s relationship with Canada by educating and mobilizing public support for Alberta Sovereignty.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her conservative government will allow but not support a citizen-led referendum on independence.
Smith’s comments came after she said recently that she would consider taking serious steps for Alberta to have greater autonomy from Canada after the Liberals were re-elected to a fourth consecutive term.
Asked about the APP’s statement, Smith said, “I’ve made my position clear.”
“I support a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, and it’s my job to see if we can get a new deal with Ottawa, so that I can convince more Albertans to feel the same,” she said to the press.
Her announcement also comes just days after her United Conservative Party government announced Bill 54, which sets the groundwork for possible independence referendums by making such votes easier to trigger. If passed, the bill would lower the signature threshold from 600,000 to 177,000. It is now in third reading.
As it stands, Albertans can call a referendum under the Referendum Act and the Citizen Initiative Act, but in order to trigger such a vote, citizens would first have to collect signatures from 20 percent of eligible voters (about 600,000 citizens) within just 90 days and do so on an official government-approved petition.
Some pre-election polls have shown independence sentiment on the rise among Albertans, with over 30 percent favoring a move toward sovereignty.
The calls for independence have grown since Liberal leader Mark Carney defeated Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre, who also lost his seat in the 2025 federal election. In Alberta, almost all of the seats except two went to conservatives.
Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.
