{"id":682,"date":"2026-10-20T13:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=682"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:03:06","slug":"alberta-votes-to-stay-in-canada-separation-referendum-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"ALBERTA JUST TOLD THE SEPARATISTS: NOT TODAY! | Roughly three in four voters picked Canada, and the losing side is already promising a rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The breakup is OFF. Voters in oil-rich <strong>Alberta<\/strong> have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to start the process of leaving Canada, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/20\/canada-alberta-rejects-independence-succession-referendum\">the Guardian<\/a> reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>With more than <strong>1.5 million<\/strong> votes counted, <strong>76%<\/strong> backed staying in Canada and close to <strong>24%<\/strong> backed starting down the road to separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta cited by the Guardian. Delays at roughly 100 of the province\u2019s 1,400 polling stations pushed results back by more than two hours, but the trend was decisive.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister <strong>Mark Carney<\/strong>, who grew up in Edmonton, took a victory lap: \u201cAlbertans made a clear choice. They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other. Above all, Albertans chose Canada.\u201d Premier <strong>Danielle Smith<\/strong>, who opposed the separatist push but called the vote anyway, posted that \u201cAlbertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Technically, Monday\u2019s ballot didn\u2019t ask about independence itself. It asked whether the government should start the legal process for a <em>binding<\/em> separation referendum, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cxr5yqqd7nlpo\">BBC<\/a> reported. The vote was triggered by a grassroots petition with about <strong>300,000<\/strong> signatures. A judge blocked that petition for failing to consult First Nations, and Smith went ahead with the ballot anyway. A rival anti-separation petition topped 400,000 signatures.<\/p>\n<p>The separatists are not going quietly. A pro-independence watch party attended by the BBC \u201cpacked up quickly.\u201d But leader <strong>Jeffrey Rath<\/strong> called the vote a \u201cfirst step,\u201d and asked whether his side would keep pushing for votes until it wins, he said: \u201cwhy not?\u201d Another leader, Keith Wilson, told the Guardian that \u201cat least a quarter of Albertans feel that Alberta needs to be treated better.\u201d Separatist leaders also say they plan to push Smith out of her United Conservative Party leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Translation: the province picked Canada by a mile, and the sore losers are already sharpening their pitchforks for round two. Elections Alberta says results on the nine other ballot questions, five of them on immigration, could take days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/20\/canada-alberta-rejects-independence-succession-referendum\">The Guardian \u2014 Alberta voters reject plan for referendum to leave Canada (Oct. 20, 2026)<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cxr5yqqd7nlpo\">BBC \u2014 Alberta votes overwhelmingly to remain part of Canada, projections suggest (Oct. 20, 2026)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roughly three in four voters picked Canada, and the losing side is already promising a rematch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-alberta-stays-canada-1020.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}