CTV News Edmonton has reported:

Mayors Jeromy Farkas of Calgary and Andrew Knack of Edmonton urged residents to vote in Alberta’s referendum as advance polls drew long lineups, saying the turnout showed people were engaged in questions affecting the province and country. The mayors also discussed uncertainty surrounding the vote and a provincial directive to reverse changes to Edmonton’s infill development rules, which Knack said raised legal questions for city council.

Farkas said the lineups in Calgary showed a desire to participate in a wider conversation that includes the separation question and questions about immigration. He encouraged Albertans to vote regardless of their views, and said he would continue advocating for Calgary to be “at the centre of a strong and united Team Canada.”

“To vote to remain is not to endorse the status quo, but it’s to lean in to do the hard work, the heavy lifting to actually fix our country,” Farkas said. He praised former Alberta premiers Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley for setting aside partisanship and focusing on what they believed was best for Alberta.

Knack said he was seeing social media posts about long advance-voting lineups and found the turnout encouraging. A few months earlier, he said, there had been concern that people might become complacent and fail to engage with what he called a serious issue.

“To know that we are seeing that type of turnout, to know that there’s that type of support to get out and be engaged, it’s what we needed for such an important topic,” Knack said. He said he wanted residents to make their views heard through voting.

With less than a week remaining before the referendum, Farkas said governments could do more to make their case. He welcomed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s planned visits to Calgary and Edmonton in the next few days, and said he wanted to see a final push from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Farkas said Smith had spoken at a closed-door meeting with a crowd he described as very supportive of separation. He said he did not want to judge that appearance, but argued that leaders should “go on the offense and make the case.”

Both the prime minister and premier had spent significant political capital advancing what Farkas called the best interests of Alberta and Canada, he said, and had faced criticism from their political bases as a result. He said it was positive for them to put provincial and national interests ahead of partisan concerns, while adding that Carney, whom he called arguably Alberta’s most popular politician today, had an easier path to making that case.

“I’d like to see a bit more heavy lifting from our premier,” Farkas said.

Knack said the preceding months had created uncertainty for Edmonton, Alberta and Canada, and he was concerned that it could continue after Oct. 19. He said polls had shown overwhelming opposition among Edmontonians to separating from Canada, and argued that a strong turnout would make their views clear.

Knack said he wanted the debate behind the province so people could work together to build a stronger country, including by strengthening Edmonton and Calgary. Continued uncertainty, he said, could create division, challenges and economic uncertainty at a time when the world was unstable.

“We need stability, as much stability as we can offer here locally and provincially and nationally,” he said.

Asked what he expected if Albertans voted to send the separation question to a second, binding referendum, Farkas declined to speculate. He said the debate had already caused harm in Calgary by prompting arguments over who counted as “a real Canadian” or “a real Albertan.”

Farkas said he was also focused on the referendum’s other nine questions. In his view, they could send signals that Alberta was not welcoming or open to investment, depending on how voters answered them.

He urged voters to educate themselves, research the questions and speak with their neighbours. Farkas said he hoped the result would show that people were welcome in Calgary, Alberta and Canada, regardless of who they were.

The mayors were also asked about the Smith government’s intervention in municipal zoning bylaws. Edmonton city council had been told to reverse course on infill development, and Knack said the issue went beyond infill, transportation planning, bike lanes or libraries.

Knack said it concerned how government was supposed to work. Municipal councillors are required to enter public hearings with open minds, he said, but council had received a directive to roll back changes that was not yet in writing.

He said councillors could face a conflict whichever way they acted. If they defied the directive, the minister could remove council, if the minister chose to take that extreme step, Knack said. If councillors voted as the government wanted after a public hearing, they could potentially violate the requirement to keep an open mind.

Knack said the legal implications should be addressed before council dealt with the specifics of the directive. He said the lack of consideration for the open-mind requirement was troubling, and that council planned to discuss the directive’s legality on Friday.

Farkas was asked about a columnist’s description of him as “vein-popping angry” over Smith’s position on Calgary’s municipal decisions. He rejected that characterization and said he was disappointed with the premier’s approach in the days before what he called a pivotal decision.

He criticized what he described as the government picking fights with municipalities over bike lanes, book bans and noise bylaws when local governments wanted to get work done. Farkas said he would oppose such overreach regardless of which party held power federally or provincially.

“Overreach is bad when Justin Trudeau does it, it’s bad when Danielle Smith does it,” he said. He added that the same standard would apply if a Conservative prime minister or an NDP premier used such powers.

Farkas warned that a power given to Smith could later be used by another premier, including a hypothetical Premier Nenshi, to impose blanket rezoning on communities. He said the issue extended beyond land use and density to provincial promises concerning large artificial intelligence data centres, where local councils had sometimes been reluctant or opposed to approving the required land uses.

If Calgary and Edmonton were forced to comply with provincial directions, Farkas said, rural communities could face similar orders. He called the directives “patently illegal,” referring to Knack’s concerns about the obligations of elected councillors.

“You cannot threaten or bribe a judge going into, say, a trial, and the same premise applies for elected members of council,” Farkas said. He argued that the premier’s agreement with his vote to repeal blanket rezoning did not give her authority to direct how he should vote next.

Farkas said that position applied regardless of whether the premier was from the United Conservative Party or the NDP. “I report to Calgarians, not to out-of-town, out-of-touch politicians,” he said.