There was relief and optimism that Calgarians overwhelmingly voted in favour of Alberta staying in Canada, but worries persist over anti-immigrant sentiment, with support for some referendum questions.

Three-quarters of Albertans voted in favour of remaining in Canada, with that number jumping to more than 80 per cent of Calgarians overall wanting the province to stay in Confederation.

Calgary-South East was the lowest tally in the city, coming in at 76.7 per cent to remain, with Calgary-Bhullar McCall showing the highest support for remaining in Canada at 89.3 per cent.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas said Tuesday that it was a decisive rejection of separation, particularly in Calgary.

“Calgarians very clearly told me as mayor that they wanted to see Calgary at the center of a strong and united Team Canada,” he said.

“Calgarians told me through the course of the campaign that they wanted us to be focused on the economy, on jobs, keeping Calgary globally connected, prospering with the rest of the country.”

The mayor said that he voted for Alberta to remain in Canada; however, it wasn’t necessarily an endorsement of the status quo. He said, if anything, it was support for Premier Danielle Smith, Prime Minister Mark Carney, and in demonstrating how Confederation can work more “healthily” for Alberta.

“The process of doubling down on us as a great Canadian city is underway, and I very strongly support the premier and the prime minister as they work to advance other issues around, say, sentencing and bail reform, making sure that Alberta is getting its fair share of investment from the rest of the country, as well as other topics like pipeline construction,” he said.

“So, my hope is that with such a decisive rejection of the separatist agenda, that we can actually move on to address the priorities of Calgarians around public safety, around building housing, around delivering on the economy.”

In a televised address, Premier Smith said that the vote gave the Government of Alberta a clear mandate.

“Yesterday, Albertans voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a province of Canada,” she said.

“The voter turnout was (a) historic and a powerful testimony of the passion Albertans feel for our country and our province.”

Immigration issues split much of the province

Referendum questions on provincial immigration control, qualifications for health and education services, fees for temporary residents for those services and limiting provincial programs by immigration status all had a slight majority Tuesday evening, with 5,126 of 5,583 voting areas reporting.

Increased provincial control over immigration got 54 per cent support, limiting program funding based on immigration status got 53.2 per cent, having a 12-month residency before social supports for non-permanent residents got 56 per cent, and health and education fees for non-permanent residents got 56.4 per cent.

Nketti Johnston-Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Newcomers in Calgary, said that while on one hand just more than half of people voted in favour of these measures, it was encouraging that 45 per cent voted against.

“With that said, I think that we still have a long way to go in terms of determining what this is going to look like,” she said.

“We are still waiting to see how this is going to pan out, what the next steps are going to be, and we’re eagerly, and we’re going to be reaching out to the government, to see how and to what extent we can be involved.”

Johnston-Taylor said she hoped that it was an opportunity for the province to work with immigrant-serving agencies like theirs to provide input on how to potentially mitigate the impacts to immigrant communities.

She didn’t have an expectation going into the Alberta referendum on how these questions might unfold.

“It’s not surprising to see that the people who are being affected the most have not had the opportunity to participate in the referendum,” Johnston-Taylor said.

“So, it’s not surprising to see the direction that it has taken.”

Still, she felt that most immigrants believe that Albertans are a kind, caring population, and largely welcoming of newcomers.

“A lot of the growth we’ve seen within Alberta has been because of immigrants, so we mustn’t forget that as well,” Johnston-Taylor said.

Worries over anti-immigrant sentiment

Official Opposition Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said Tuesday during a news conference that the province spent $4 million telling people to vote in favour of the nine other questions.

“(Premier Smith is) going to claim that she’s got a strong mandate on seven or eight of the other nine questions, and that gives her the right to keep fighting with Ottawa and keep scapegoating immigrants,” Nenshi told reporters.

“I don’t know what she’s going to do with this. She has two choices: she can either double down on this culture war garbage and scapegoating, or she can pivot and try to be a premier for all Albertans.”

Ward 5 Raj Dhaliwal said that going into the referendum, some of his biggest worries were around the immigration questions. Especially because some of them were polling at 70-plus per cent when they were first announced.

He said seeing the numbers in the 50s was far more satisfying.

“But I’m not surprised at all. In the last two years or even one year, we have seen rhetoric from our elected officials at the provincial level go up,” he said.

“That all the ills right now — bad healthcare, public education, not meeting the goals — are all immigrants’ responsibility. So, that rhetoric was spread, and many people started eating into it, saying that it is indeed a fact.”

Dhaliwal said anti-immigrant sentiment is at an all-time high right now, with the general consensus seeming to be that we need fewer immigrants in Canada. He said the irony was that Premier Smith was pleading with the federal government just a couple of years ago not to touch immigration because we needed more people to come to Canada.

Then, the referendum questions came out just prior to a provincial budget in February, where a narrative was spun that strain was being put on Alberta services and budgets because of immigration.

“Now everything has changed. So, yes, I’m fearful, and already we are seeing online hatred towards immigrants,” Dhaliwal said.

Mayor Farkas said that a lot of the questions around immigration were endorsing a path the federal government was already on in terms of curbing people entering the country.

“If it’s just an endorsement of what the status quo is, that to me kind of leads me to ask, like, what was the point of this whole exercise to begin with?” Farkas asked.  

“There was a lot of drama, millions and millions of dollars spent on this debate. I’m not sure that the result was actually worth it at the end of the day, but here we are. What’s done is done. Let’s move on.”