Referendum on a referendum: Jeffrey Rath, Naheed Nenshi, Cindy Jefferies & more react

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

Nenshi said he believes 80 per cent of Albertans are against separatism, but does that matter if voter turnout is as low as it typically is, he was asked by rdnewsNOW during the Q&A portion.

$60,000 goal

19th annual Run/Hike fundraiser for Red Deer Hospice Society returns June 7

May 23, 2026

the everything red deer podcast

Referendum on a referendum: Jeffrey Rath, Naheed Nenshi, Cindy Jefferies & more react

May 23, 2026

Life-changing literacy program

Smile cookie campaign raises over $80,000 for Reading College

May 22, 2026

He said the party has talked to people who lived through Brexit, as well as the Scottish independence movement of 2014, and that’s not to mention the 2018 Calgary Olympics plebiscite, and past separatist efforts in Quebec.

• Premier Smith addresses Albertans; unveils separation referendum question
• Alberta is to vote on whether to hold a separation referendum. Here’s how we got here
• ‘Baffling’: Reaction to Alberta’s referendum on a separation referendum

“You can’t take this for granted; we cannot sleepwalk into this. We’ve got to vote in big, big numbers,” he said.

“If this [referendum] was only the anti-immigrant [questions], I might just say ‘Just don’t go’ or ‘Spoil your ballot’ and give Danielle Smith an incredibly low voter turnout to show she has no mandate. We can’t do that with separatism. There are many people across Britain who woke up the day after Brexit 10 years ago and said, ‘Oh, crap, I should have voted.'”

Nenshi too repeated his criticism of Premier Smith, insisting she is a separatist given her actions to, from one point of view, placate separatists.

Le May Doan, who was born in Saskatchewan but has lived in Alberta for many years, was also asked by rdnewsNOW about the role of athletes and people with celebrity in this debate.

“Every Canadian has a role to play in this. Everybody should stand up,” she remarked, adding that athletes like her don’t need to be challenged because they know how much Canada and Alberta mean to one another.

Red Deer Mayor Cindy Jefferies, meanwhile, shared her reaction to Smith’s televised address, admitting she’d hoped for a sign that this debate could be put to rest.

“I’m in touch with a lot of people in the community, and I’d say overall the message I’m hearing is [people] want to remain in Canada, and there’s good reason to remain in Canada. We benefit from being part of the larger country, and we want stability, not chaos,” she stated.

Jefferies also acknowledged that she agrees with Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack’s late Thursday statement, “one hundred per cent.”

Jefferies shared that city council is yet to take a formal stance on the matter, but that happening in the future isn’t out of the question.

Frank Creasey, CEO at the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce, also shared that his reaction was to think about stability.

“From an investment perspective, stability, and labour, the focus should really be ‘What is the province doing, and where are we going?'” he said.

Then there’s Jeffrey Rath, lawyer for Stay Free Alberta, the group behind the petition which proclaims to have garnered more than 300,000 signatures. Investigations and court rulings are currently holding the petition up from being verified, however.

If you ask Rath, Premier Smith hasn’t done his side of the Loonie any favours with the announcement.

“One of our staff actually leaked the question early in the day because they were so disgusted with what she was doing. Our position is that her announcement was completely dishonest, completely corrupt. She looked every citizen of Alberta square in the eye and lied through her teeth,” Rath told The Everything Red Deer Podcast.

“She’s claiming that she has to do this because of court decisions.”

But Rath called that and more of what Smith said “bulls**t,” claiming judges have given Smith an out in their decisions to simply call a referendum on separation.

“She’s telling all of these Albertans that want a binary choice on independence, basically, ‘Screw you, I’m the queen of Alberta, [and] I don’t want you to have a binary vote this fall, even though, you know, you both complied with all of the rules under the Citizens Initiative Act and turned in over 708,000 signatures to Elections Alberta. I’m going to come up with a phony question that I’ve cooked up to help my buddy Mark Carney because I promised him that there won’t be a referendum this year.'”

Rath claimed certain polls show higher support for separatism than what Nenshi quoted, even suggesting a super-majority of the UCP support his movement.

LISTEN TO THE FULL UNFILTERED CONVERSATIONS WITH RATH, JEFFERIES, AND MORE ON THE MAY 22, 2026 EPISODE OF THE EVERYTHING RED DEER PODCAST! AVAILABLE ON SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCASTS, AMAZON, IHEART, RADIOPLAYER CANADA, POCKET CASTS, AND RDNEWSNOW.COM!