CTV News Edmonton has reported:

Alberta’s referendum campaigns are entering their final stretch, with politicians and advocacy groups preparing speeches, door-knocking and rallies ahead of advance voting, which opens Tuesday. Official polling day is Monday, Oct. 19, when Albertans will answer 10 questions, including whether the province should remain in Canada or hold a second, binding referendum on leaving the country.

Former Alberta United Conservative premier Jason Kenney and his one-time NDP rival, former premier Rachel Notley, are scheduled to speak for a united Canada at an Edmonton event on Tuesday. On Friday, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will speak in Calgary. Both are urging Alberta to stay in Canada.

The federalist group Forever Canadian plans to gather supporters in Calgary on Thursday and Edmonton on Friday. Competing rallies are set for the legislature grounds in Edmonton over the weekend: the pro-separation group Let Alberta Decide has announced an event for Saturday, while the Alberta Federation of Labour is sponsoring a unity rally on Sunday.

Advance voting starts as campaign activity intensifies across the province. Dane Lloyd, a member of Parliament, has been leading the federal Conservative party’s pro-Canada effort through door-knocking and public events. He said voter participation will be central to the campaign. “There is no substitute for direct engagement,” Lloyd said in a statement.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Liberal cabinet ministers have not announced plans to campaign in the final week. They have visited Alberta numerous times in recent months, including to announce a fast-track plan for a new Alberta oil pipeline and to remind Albertans of billions of dollars in ongoing military spending.

Alberta’s Opposition NDP says it has mobilized more than 15,000 volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls in support of keeping the province in Confederation. Leader Naheed Nenshi said his party is stepping into a void left by Smith and her United Conservative colleagues. He has criticized Smith for not following through on a promise to actively campaign for a united Canada.

Nenshi said last week that some cabinet members were not getting out the vote and that many had left on foreign trips during the critical lead-up to the referendum. “They should bloody be knocking on doors. They should be getting out the vote,” Nenshi said. “They’re behaving like separatists.”

Smith has rejected the criticism, saying she has made her pro-Canada position clear in speeches and at coffee parties. Her government has committed $4 million to an advertising campaign urging voters to support “a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”

“I go into some pretty tough rooms, and I talk to a lot of people who are voting for (the separatist option),” Smith said last week on the Ryan Jespersen podcast. “I make my case about why it is that I think Canada can work - is (in fact) working better than ever.”

The separation question is the final item on the ballot. The first nine questions concern immigration and the Constitution. Smith has said she hopes voters answer yes to those nine, giving her leverage to negotiate with the federal government.

The immigration questions ask whether Alberta should have more say over who comes to the province to work, and whether it should impose more limits, and perhaps fees, on some people who arrive and seek access to health care and education. The constitutional questions seek voter approval to pursue talks with other provinces about transferring powers from the federal government and abolishing the Senate.

Smith’s UCP did not campaign in the 2023 election on holding a separation vote. She has argued that anger and disillusionment among some Albertans grew during the term of former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau, to the point that hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions both for and against Confederation. Smith has said a referendum is now necessary to resolve the issue once and for all.

She has faced criticism from both sides. Some separatists have called her pro-separation question a weak-kneed plan to make a plan. Some pro-Canada critics say Smith is both arsonist and firefighter, gambling with the country’s future while presenting herself as its champion.

Polls conducted before and after Smith announced the referendum have consistently suggested that Albertans favour remaining in Confederation. Critics, including Nenshi, argue the vote was never really about Canada, but about Smith placating separatist hardliners in her party to prevent them from fracturing the movement or rising up against her.

Recent political developments suggest Smith and her party are paying a price for calling the referendum. Polls show the UCP losing support to the NDP, with the next provincial election scheduled for a year from now. Last month, the NDP defeated the UCP in a Calgary byelection in what had long been a UCP stronghold.

Smith has also faced questions about why her caucus and party are formally pro-Canada while at least one pro-separation member of the legislature remains in their ranks. She has said the party can maintain an official pro-Canada position while allowing a diversity of opinion.

Elections Alberta officials say the separation question will be counted first on referendum night, with the result expected sometime early the following morning. Smith has said a simple majority on either side will decide that question.

The other nine questions leave open what new immigration rules might look like and whom they would affect. Smith’s government says it will decide those details later this fall if voters give it a mandate. Asked by reporters last week what would count as a mandate, Smith said: “We’ll look at the voter turnout, and we’ll look at the result, and we will be able to give you some clear direction on Oct. 20th,”

The Canadian Press first published this report on Oct. 12, 2026. Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press.