{"id":104849,"date":"2026-05-19T16:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=104849"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:43:43","slug":"alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Lisa Johnson Alberta&#8217;s Opposition says the decision by Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s United Conservatives to schedule a last-minute committee meeting suggests they might be looking for a new way to get a separation question put to a referendum this fall. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says a bipartisan legislature committee headed up by Smith\u2019s UCP plans to meet Wednesday to discuss a pro-Canada petition put forward by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Lukaszuk gathered more than 400,000 names to force either a legislature or a provincewide referendum vote on keeping Alberta in Canada. The committee has been discussing what to do with Lukaszuk\u2019s petition, but the NDP has said the committee has been bogging down the process in order to move ahead with a second petition put forward by Alberta separatists&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F05%2F19%2Falberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lisa Johnson Alberta&#8217;s Opposition says the decision by Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s United Conservatives to schedule a last-minute committee meeting suggests they might be looking for a new way to get a separation question put to a referendum this fall. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says a bipartisan legislature committee headed up by Smith\u2019s UCP plans to meet Wednesday to discuss a pro-Canada petition put forward by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Lukaszuk gathered more than 400,000 names to force either a legislature or a provincewide referendum vote on keeping Alberta in Canada. The committee has been discussing what to do with Lukaszuk\u2019s petition, but the NDP has said the committee has been bogging down the process in order to move ahead with a second petition put forward by Alberta separatists... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F05%2F19%2Falberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lisa Johnson Alberta&#8217;s Opposition says the decision by Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s United Conservatives to schedule a last-minute committee meeting suggests they might be looking for a new way to get a separation question put to a referendum this fall. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says a bipartisan legislature committee headed up by Smith\u2019s UCP plans to meet Wednesday to discuss a pro-Canada petition put forward by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Lukaszuk gathered more than 400,000 names to force either a legislature or a provincewide referendum vote on keeping Alberta in Canada. The committee has been discussing what to do with Lukaszuk\u2019s petition, but the NDP has said the committee has been bogging down the process in order to move ahead with a second petition put forward by Alberta separatists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T20:43:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/19\\\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/19\\\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T20:43:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/19\\\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":229,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/19\\\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/19\\\/alberta-ndp-says-last-minute-meeting-on-petition-may-signal-looming-referendum-vote\\\/\",\"name\":\"Alberta NDP says last-minute meeting on petition may signal looming referendum vote - 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