Thomas Lukaszuk speaks with The Everything Red Deer Podcast

Smith announced last week that Albertans will go to the polls Oct. 19 to vote on 10 referendum questions — the most prominent being one on separation.

“Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

What some may call the amusing part of all this is that neither the anti- nor the pro-separation crowds are too keen on how Premier Smith has gone about all this.

“This is the premier that keeps on talking about democracy and how governments ought to listen to people. Well, all the people are telling her don’t have a referendum now, or at least not the way you’re having it,” Lukaszuk told rdnewsNOW and The Everything Red Deer Podcast.

“Somehow, that is not penetrating the premier’s conscience. But as much as I disagree with separatists on the proposition of separating, obviously, I have a lot of respect for them because they’re Canadians, they’re Albertans, and they have gone through a process as well.”

He says the premier paved the way for them, and made it easier — only to end up, in their eyes, betraying them.

“The premier, smart like a fox, passed a piece of legislation herself that says you cannot have a binding referendum one year prior to an election and one year after an election. She now tells the separatists, ‘You have to re-elect me [in 2027],'” Lukaszuk surmised is Smith’s ultimate goal.

“They’re saying, ‘No, we’re not playing this game.’ The fact is that there shouldn’t be a referendum on anything on October 19, including the nine other questions which are unconstitutional.”

Lukaszuk also continues to lament the recent data breach which led to the personal information of around three million Albertans winding up in the hands of people who shouldn’t have access.

“I am asking Albertans a broader question: How do you think in this province that we are going to have a fair referendum? I don’t care what side of any issue you’re on, how are we going to have a fair referendum when we know that more than 5,000 separatists have gained access to the list of electors?”

“[And] you’d think it should be the separatists appealing it. This is the separatist question that is blocked by the courts, so why is the premier hiring lawyers…with taxpayer money, fighting the separatist cause? Shouldn’t they be hiring their own lawyers,” he asks.

“If the premier is putting a question to a referendum, that means that she is asking Albertans what our position on this issue is. So why is the premier taking a position on it and suing in court? Why ask us what our position is when the premier already has a position? The premier should be an innocent bystander, allowing Albertans to make a decision and tell her what we want.”

It “totally defies the purpose of a referendum,” Lukaszuk added.

Thomas Lukaszuk will be bringing his Forever Canadian trailer to Red Deer’s Pines Community Hall on Sunday, May 31, from 12-4.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE EPISODE BELOW…

In case you missed last week’s episode, with more reaction around the separatism debate, listen below:

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by Josh Hall

Thomas Lukaszuk speaks with The Everything Red Deer Podcast

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