{"id":107246,"date":"2026-07-27T08:47:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=107246"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:47:31","slug":"too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Too big to rig&#8217;: Alberta separation petition succeeds with 223K verified signatures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson A citizen-led petition seeking to force a vote on Alberta quitting Canada is officially successful. Elections Alberta announced Friday it verified nearly 223,000 signatures out of almost 280,000 valid names counted. The petition needed almost 178,000 signatures to be successful. Despite the result, the document is largely moot. It was quashed in court in May, although the ruling is being appealed by those behind the petition campaign as well as by Premier Danielle Smith&#8217;s government. Smith has cited the separatist petition and a competing pro-Canada petition that got a little more than 400,000 verified signatures as the reason why she has put a separation question on the province&#8217;s Oct. 19 referendum. The question asks Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or hold&#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%2F07%2F27%2Ftoo-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson A citizen-led petition seeking to force a vote on Alberta quitting Canada is officially successful. Elections Alberta announced Friday it verified nearly 223,000 signatures out of almost 280,000 valid names counted. The petition needed almost 178,000 signatures to be successful. Despite the result, the document is largely moot. It was quashed in court in May, although the ruling is being appealed by those behind the petition campaign as well as by Premier Danielle Smith&#8217;s government. Smith has cited the separatist petition and a competing pro-Canada petition that got a little more than 400,000 verified signatures as the reason why she has put a separation question on the province&#8217;s Oct. 19 referendum. The question asks Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or hold... <\/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%2F07%2F27%2Ftoo-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures%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-107246","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 v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Too big to rig&#039;: Alberta separation petition succeeds with 223K verified signatures - 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\/07\/27\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Too big to rig&#039;: Alberta separation petition succeeds with 223K verified signatures - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jack Farrell and Lisa Johnson A citizen-led petition seeking to force a vote on Alberta quitting Canada is officially successful. 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The question asks Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or hold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\/\" \/>\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=\"2026-07-27T12:47:31+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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"&#8216;Too big to rig&#8217;: Alberta separation petition succeeds with 223K verified signatures\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-27T12:47:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":657,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/too-big-to-rig-alberta-separation-petition-succeeds-with-223k-verified-signatures\\\/\",\"name\":\"'Too big to rig': Alberta separation petition succeeds with 223K verified signatures - 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