The day after saying any Alberta separation referendum question should be clear to citizens, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas was critical of the time, energy and the question coming this October.

On Thursday evening, Premier Danielle Smith said that an additional question on whether Alberta should remain a province in Canada or pursue a binding referendum on separation would be added to the October 19 referendum with nine other questions.

Upon questions from the media on Friday, Smith said that a million or more Albertans are feeling that Canada doesn’t work due to terrible policies over the past 10 years. She acknowledged that some of those have been undone with a recent agreement with the federal government.

“I know that there’s still some distrust in there,” she said.  

“We have to show people that things have changed rather than just tell them.”

Smith was asked why she wanted to have a referendum on a potential future referendum. She referred to the court decision that froze the separatist petition from being reviewed over a lack of duty to consult First Nations on a constitutional question. 

Premier Smith said an appeal, which she supports, could take years.

“I don’t think we have years to wait until we get some information from Albertans about which direction they want us to go,” she said.

“I think if we get a vote to remain, then that settles that, and we have to work on addressing the issues that have caused a significant portion of our fellow citizens to lose faith in Canada. And, if it goes the other way, then we have to go through the extensive legal process of getting to a point where there can be a binding referendum.”

Recent polling done by Probe Research showed that the vast majority of Albertans would vote no to separation. More than 7 in 10 said the debate itself is distracting from major issues the province faces.

Lack of provincial political leadership: Mayor Farkas

The focus of Mayor Farkas’s frustration is the continual instability brought on by the Alberta separation question. He’s said on several occasions that even the mere debate is pushing important investment capital to the sidelines.

The proposed question is the following: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

The question itself further muddies the waters, he said.

“This is a BS referendum question to begin with, but I will be voting that the province of Alberta should stay in Canada, but even just having a vote on whether to have a vote, it’s a ridiculous lack of leadership being demonstrated by our provincial government,” he told reporters on Friday.  

“Now is the time for leadership. Now is the time to telegraph certainty, stability, confidence in our country, in our province, in our city, and that is what I’m going to be doing.”

Farkas said that he would be using the full voice of the Office of the Mayor to campaign for Alberta to stay in Canada.

“If the provincial government is going to force us down this road with the worst possible version of a question, we have no choice but to participate in the democratic process,” he said.

“But I’m not going to go idly by into this divisive debate.”

Farkas then returned to the economic impact, and that Albertans – and their provincial government – should be focused on more important issues.

“I fully understand that Albertans will be engaging in this conversation from many different standpoints, but for me it’s squarely about jobs for Calgarians, and how continued discussion and continued debate on this topic is undermining our economic success,” he said.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot by wasting so much time and energy and effort on this topic, when it should be about public safety, it should be affordability, it should be infrastructure, all of these things that we need to do as a community to be ready for the future.”