Danielle Smith just declared Alberta's separatism debate over: 'Not as long as I'm premier'

The pledge

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told Albertans on Tuesday night there will be no second referendum on separation while she leads the province, declaring the independence question settled by Monday's vote.

"For as long as I am Premier, I will honour this mandate from Albertans and will not be holding another referendum on this issue," Smith said in her televised address. "It is time to move forward together as a strong and free Alberta within a united Canada."

Unofficial results show roughly 76 per cent of voters backed remaining in Canada, with nearly 1.9 million ballots counted, according to reporting on Elections Alberta's preliminary figures.

A tribute to the Wainwright four

Before turning to the referendum result, Smith paid tribute to four Canadian Armed Forces members killed when a fast-moving fire overran a training exercise at CFB Wainwright on Saturday: Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark — names the Prime Minister read into the record in the House of Commons on Monday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney called the fire one of the worst tragedies for the Canadian Forces on home soil in peacetime. Defence Minister David McGuinty said Tuesday that 33 of the 39 injured members were still in hospital. A team of 50 investigators from the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service and the RCMP is on the ground; the cause is still unknown, and officials are examining why training continued beside a fire Range Control had been monitoring for hours.

What Smith says Alberta has already won

Smith used much of the address to argue her confrontational approach to Ottawa has paid off — claims that are hers, not Ottawa's: the proposed one-million-barrel-per-day Pacific Link pipeline to the B.C. coast has been fast-tracked as a project of national interest, with permitting on track for completion by September 2027; the federal oil and gas production cap has been dropped and the net-zero electricity regulations Alberta opposed have been eliminated; and a new Alberta-Ottawa energy agreement has drawn hundreds of billions of dollars in investment for pipelines and electricity generation.

She said Alberta will keep asserting its constitutional rights through negotiation and the courts rather than separation, and will keep pushing for changes to the federal equalization formula.

What's still open

Results on the referendum's other nine questions — covering immigration, temporary residents, voting rules and provincial autonomy — were still being confirmed Tuesday. Smith said reforms with public support would be pursued in the months and years ahead. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, seized on the immigration questions, saying Albertans want to end what he called Ottawa's "deluxe benefits" for non-permanent residents.

Carney, who grew up in Edmonton, called the result "a great day for Canada" and said he spoke with Smith about moving forward "in the spirit of co-operative federalism," including on immigration. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Smith had "created an impossible situation for herself" by forcing the separatism debate on the province.

The separatists, meanwhile, are not going quietly. Alberta Prosperity Project co-founder Mitch Sylvestre told supporters: "Tonight isn't the finish line." Separatist leader Jeffrey Rath is openly pressing to take control of the United Conservative Party from Smith.

That sets up the next date on the calendar: the UCP annual general meeting next month, where Smith faces her own members — nearly half of whom, per recent polling, voted to start the separation process.