Alberta Forever Canada petition gathering signatures in Medicine Hat

Lukaszuk needs to collect nearly 300,000 signatures in 90 days in order to get his question on a ballot.

He said his application was approved the day before new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds took effect.

“The premier purposely changed the law the day after we filed our application to make it a little easier on the separatists,” Lucaszuk told CHAT News on Thursday.

Thousands of volunteers across the province are helping with the signature collecting.

“If you look at our Facebook, these micro campaigns have now formed across the province, virtually in every municipality, staging their own signature gathering events,” Lucaszuk said.

“We are coordinating it as a campaign team. But a lot of the organizational work happens on the ground in each municipality by the thousands of volunteers that we have.”

The ruling by an Alberta judge on Thursday to deny an application to quash a review of a proposed Alberta referendum question on separation was received positively by Lucaszuk.

“A clear victory for Canadians and for democracy and for the independence of the chief electoral officer,” Lucaszuk said.

“The court has ruled that number one, the chief electoral officer had every right to refer this question to court to determine whether it is or isn’t constitutional. So that’s a loss for the separatists and for the premier and for the minister of justice, because they objected to it,” he added.

“But the judge also made a wise decision and said, I would not allow a separatist question to go forward if I believe that there is a possibility that constitutional and First Nations treaty rights could be violated.”

Lucaszuk said a process where stakeholders such as First Nations and Albertans could present and show how their rights would be violated if Alberta was to separate from Canada could now take place.

“It’s a very sound process, protecting minority rights, protecting First Nations rights and all of our Canadian rights. Because if we Alberta was to separate, we would lose our rights that we now hold as Canadians,” Lucaszuk said.

“So a brilliant decision and a clear win for those of us who are against separatism.”

Lucaszuk said he expects these signing event to continue in communities in the coming months.

“Oh, there will be a number of them. Those are Medicine Hat residents who are organizing it. We don’t drive around and stage them. Those are locally organized campaigns. So it is hatters that are organizing that campaign in Medicine Hat. And they will be organizing them on continuous basis,” Lucaszuk said.

“There will be dozens more of those. We also are looking at establishing permanent places where the petition can be in some shops in Medicine Hat. So for those who can’t make to an event, could stop at any other given time and sign it.”

The uptake in signature collection for the petition has been strong according to Lucaszuk.

“Overwhelming. If you look at our Facebook, there’s already dozens of these events happening and many each day. And every time this event is set up, there are hundreds of people lining up, endless lineups and then people just really wanting to sign it,” Lucaszuk said.

“Our challenge is not to find people to sign the petition, but to bring the petition to the people, because virtually everybody wants to sign it,” he added.

“Lineups form and people will drive from far away to sign the petition.”

With the petition having to be done in person with a physical signature it takes a more coordinated effort.

“If it was done online, it would be done last week already. It has to be pen on paper, the old style,” Lucaszuk said.

“We ask everybody to go onto our website forever-canadian.ca and sign up as a signature collector and help us with this process, because we will not only raise 300,000 signatures, we’ll raise many more,” he added.

“It’s very important to send a clear signal to the rest of Canada and to the world that Canada is united and Alberta is not up for sale.”

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READ: Podcast: ‘Alberta Forever Canada’ petition organizer says to expect a knock at your door soon

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Pattison Media reporter Josh Hall had a detailed report about the petition last week.

by Jesse Gill

Alberta Forever Canada petition gathering signatures in Medicine Hat

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