Albertans celebrate overwhelming 'No' vote to separation referendum

A night of stalled anticipation turned into one of elation as the Forever Canadian supporters in Edmonton cheered on Alberta overwhelmingly opting to remain in Canada.

As of 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18, Elections Alberta data reported more than 1.49 million votes had been counted, with around 76 per cent of voters opting to remain in Canada. At that time, 54 per cent of the vote had been reported.

"A big sense of relief," said Alberta NDP deputy leader and Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi. "I know that for many Albertans, this is a very, very good result."

Elections Alberta reported record-high turnout for the referendum, which was called by Premier Danielle Smith in May. The vote saw Albertans have their say on 10 questions, the most prominent of which asked if Alberta should stay in Canada or if the provincial government should work on calling a binding referendum on separation.

The other nine questions had to do with constitutional and immigration reform, something Smith has repeatedly said she wants a mandate for. 

It took a while for ballots to be counted. Delays at several polling stations led to results reporting being pushed back to 10:10 p.m. initially, with Elections Alberta finally releasing the first tranche of ballots around shortly before 11 p.m. on Monday night.

Smith expressed delight with the results, saying in a social media post that she's pleased Albertans have opted overwhelmingly to remain in Canada.

"I’m very pleased to see the initial results from Elections Alberta show widespread support for remaining in Canada," Smith posted on X. "Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada."

Smith provided an update on Tuesday night on the results of the other nine referendum questions.

The results were vindication for Thomas Lukaszuk, former deputy premier and the man who founded Forever Canadian.

"It not only sends a very clear message to Premier Danielle Smith that we do not need another referendum, but it also sends a message to the rest of Canada that Alberta will not be the weak link in Confederation," said Lukaszuk to a small but energetic crowd gathered at Edmonton's Polish Hall.

Lukaszuk's six-minute speech rallied around unity, including the small minority of people who voted to advance the process to a binding referendum.

"I will be encouraging a dialogue with the 23 per cent of Albertans and make sure that we find a common language and we address some of the issues that they have," Lukaszuk said. "As Canadians, as Albertans, we cannot go on fighting with each other."

Albertans express delight about victorious effort to remain in Canada

Among those gathered at the Polish Hall was Ashley O'Kurley, a lifelong Albertan who felt this personally. He attended the massive rally for Canada in 1995, when thousands of Canadians made their way to Montreal to support Quebec remaining in Canada during that province's referendum campaign.

"When I was in Montreal 31 years ago, a part of what I was saying to them all the time is that we sort of understand our history differently in Canada," he said. "In Quebec, they understand the history of Canada as the coming together of two founding nations. We don't believe it that way in Alberta. There are many, many nations in Canada and there always have been."

That referendum in 1995 was binding and narrowly saw Quebec vote to remain in Confederation, with much of the no vote coming from the Island of Montreal.

For O'Kurley, the results for question 10 were definitive.

"There's always something to complain about, but you can choose to make things better and not always simply making things about how life isn't treating you fairly because — spoiler alert — life isn't always fair," said O'Kurley.

It was also a point of view expressed by Jackie Liu, who volunteered on the Forever Canadian campaign. However, Liu said there's was a bit of difference between the results posted and what he heard when he knocked on doors.

"I would say they're not quite as good as what we saw at the doors," said Liu. "On the doors, the numbers was like five per cent or so of people were looking to separate."

Assessing the results of question 10 and the rest of the referendum questions

In looking at the figures, Mount Royal political science professor Lori Williams said the strong support for option one on the question wasn't a surprise, as it reflected what the polls had indicated.

"Abacus (Data) polling and other polls showed about two-thirds of the folks that were planning to vote option two wanted to send Ottawa a message," Williams said. "They weren't saying they wanted to leave. They were saying they wanted a better deal."

As of this time, the results of the nine questions have yet to be fully answered. However, it does appear that many of them are set to pass.

With high turnout, Williams said she could be fairly certain that support for remaining in Canada would be strong.

"I always wondered about the nine," said Williams. "I'm really going to be interested in the response rate to those questions."

Copyright 2026, St. Albert Gazette. All rights reserved.

David Boles, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, St. Albert Gazette.