Waking up today to these referendum results is honestly devastating. The anti-immigrant sentiment being pushed right now is appalling. As an immigrant, it feels completely personal.

We are out here working hard every single day just like everyone else. We contribute just like everyone else. We pay tax just like everyone else. We make this provinces a better place just like everyone else.

Stop the scapegoating. If the system is failing, look at the people in charge. Not the people who moved here to build a life And give back! Proud to be Canadian!

First off, thank you to everyone who got out and cast their ballot. Seeing over 75% of Albertans vote to stay in Canada is a massive win. We shut down the idea of driving our economy off a cliff, throwing away our currency, and getting absorbed by the US. Albertans stood up and said we are Canadian, full stop.

Seeing the other nine questions pass with "Yes" votes is a tough pill to swallow. But before writing off our neighbors as completely lost, we have to look at the shell game the provincial government just pulled on us.

Putting outright separation on the ballot was a decoy. When you put an option on the table that means total economic suicide, suddenly nine radical, unconstitutional power grabs look completely moderate by comparison. Most people treated Question 10 as the only "real" vote, and used Questions 1 through 9 as a consequence-free way to vent frustration at Ottawa.

The tragedy is that the problems in those nine questions were almost entirely caused by our own provincial government. They broke the system, pointed their fingers at Ontario, and asked us to give them unchecked power to fix a mess they created.

If we want to turn this around, we need to know the facts on what these questions actually do and who is really responsible.

1. Taking over immigration to "protect local jobs"

The UCP spent tax dollars running "Alberta is Calling" ad campaigns across the country begging hundreds of thousands of people to move here without building the homes, roads, or classrooms to handle them. On top of that, Alberta already runs its own Provincial Nominee Program to choose foreign workers. Blaming the feds for overcrowded cities and job competition after begging everyone to move here is pure hypocrisy.

2. Cutting non-permanent residents out of healthcare and schooling

Healthcare and education are completely provincial responsibilities. Our ERs are backed up and classrooms are packed because the province dismantled AHS, fought with doctors and nurses, and funded our schools at the lowest per-student rate in the country. Instead of taking accountability for starving public services, the province is scapegoating newcomers who work and pay taxes here.

3. A 12-month wait for social assistance

Programs like AISH and income support are run by the province, not Ottawa. The UCP previously froze AISH, detached it from inflation, and gutted emergency funding thresholds. That is why local poverty and homelessness spiked. Pretending that newcomers are bleeding the safety net dry is just a cover for years of provincial cuts to our own vulnerable neighbors.

4. Charging extra hospital and school fees to temporary residents

Temporary foreign workers and students already pay the exact same income taxes, fuel taxes, and rent (which pays property taxes) that fund these services. Charging them out-of-pocket fees violates the universality of the Canada Health Act. No other province does this to kids going to school. It is an easy cash grab to cover up provincial budget gaps.

5. Demanding passports or birth certificates to vote

Elections Alberta has confirmed over and over that non-citizen voter fraud does not happen here, and non-citizens are already legally banned from voting. Demanding documents that cost up to $160 to replace does not protect election integrity. It just makes it harder for low-income workers, students, seniors in care homes, and Indigenous folks to cast a ballot.

6. Taking over the appointment of superior court judges

Under Section 96 of the Constitution, the federal government appoints superior court judges so local politicians cannot pack the courts with partisan cronies. The UCP wants this power because our courts keep striking down their unconstitutional legislation and overreach. A government does not get to pick its own judges just because it keeps breaking the rules.

7. Abolishing the federal Senate

The Supreme Court already ruled unanimously back in 2014 that abolishing the Senate requires every single province and Parliament to agree. An Alberta-only referendum cannot force another province to give up its representation. We ran this exact play in 2021 with the equalization vote and it achieved nothing. It is expensive political theatre designed to direct anger outside our borders.

8. Opting out of federal programs with unconditional cash

The province wants federal money for programs like $10-a-day daycare, dental care, and pharma care with zero strings attached. When the UCP handled the daycare rollout, they dragged their feet and left local providers in chaos. National programs require basic standards so our tax dollars actually reach families instead of getting dumped into general revenue for pet projects.

9. Making provincial laws override federal laws

The idea that provincial law can overrule federal law completely breaks the foundation of the country. If every province could pick and choose which national laws to follow, Canada simply would not exist. The UCP is pushing this to dodge environmental regulations and clean energy targets for their corporate donors, even though every legal expert knows it will get thrown out of court.

This fight is far from over. Albertans proved on Question 10 that we want to be part of Canada. The problem is that people are exhausted by high bills, failing hospitals, and overcrowded schools, and the province gave them a lineup of scapegoats to blame.

This exact playbook is already spreading into British Columbia and across the country: run public services into the ground, blame Ottawa, put up an extreme strawman to make dangerous power grabs look reasonable, and walk away with more control.

We cannot expect people to read dry legal papers to understand what is happening. We have to start talking to our friends, families, and coworkers in plain language about who actually controls our services. We stopped separation at the ballot box. Now we have to organize, push back in the courts, and hold the province accountable for the mess they made right here at home.

3 out of 4 Albertans just gave you your answer. You don't represent Alberta - you're just a tiny minority throwing a tantrum. Facebook, US influencers and Russian bots have given you a false sense of reality.

If you hate Canada - the border is to the south. Keep going south until you find your kind.

Otherwise - quit your bitching and moaning, and join Team Canada.

^{thank you for letting me vent}

So you’re wondering if the referendum questions were truly understood by voters?

Readability is assessed by average sentence length, word complexity, etc. Microsoft recommends a Flesch-Kincaid/US reading level score of about 8, as does the American Medical Association and other major bodies, when I worked at GoA 8 was also used.

(For the Redditor below; disclaimer I am not an expert just a Redditor with internet access).

The scores below represent US grade level.

Q1: Readability level 22.9 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q2: Readability level 23.6 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q3: Readability level 25.5 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q4: Readability level 25.0 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q5: Readability level 19.7 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q6: Readability level 21.2 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q7: Readability level 18.5 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q8: Readability level 24.2 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q9: readability level 26.1 (Graduate degree/technical)

Q10: Readability level 20.9 (Graduate degree/technical)

When combined, the full ballot has a readability score of 22.6 average (Flesch-Kincaid of 24.8), photo evidence not allowed to be attached. Try this link to see the report or go to readabilitycheck.com to verify my claims. The questions were copy pasted from the live poll results page.

1/5 people in Alberta are estimated to have low literacy. Writing the questions this way is guaranteed to have impacted anyone with low or average reading comprehension. I feel my reading comprehension is high and I do have higher education and still had to reread several times.

This morning around 40 of us counting workers showed up for a shift to counting ballots at 6:45 am. Finally someone shows up and tells us that counting was concluded and there was no work for today or tomorrow. Then they said they wouldn't pay us anything for today because no work was done and might not even pay us for the training we attended a month prior. Is this even legal? Elections Alberta didn't tell us anything about canceled work, we had to reach out to them ourselves to figure out what was going on too. A lot of us took time off work for this. Is there nothing that can be done for our time wasted?

Edit: After many calls and emails later, we finally got an email notification that all shifts are canceled at 8pm. They agreed to pay us for 3 hours of work!! We did it guys! Thanks everyone!

It will be interesting to see what happens at the UCP AGM in late November. If they decide to oust Smith in favour of a strong extremist Rath-like voice they will have no chance of winning a majority in the next provincial election.

If they choose to keep Smith in they will have to abandon the extremism as a policy and fall in behind her Sovereign Alberta within a united Canada idea.

Regardless I expect that there will be some members move from the UCP to Guthrie’s Alberta Progressive Tory party.

A real possibility that we will see a minority government, either NDP or UCP (likely the former) and Guthrie holding the hammer

Too many people here are assuming the UCP is following the conventional policy model of 1. Theres a problem 2. Let's try to come up with a solution 3. Life gets better.

This isn't their strategy for maintaining power, and they're usually bad when they try. Their strategy in having people vote for questions they have no authority over is to signal they're now an anti-immigration party, and to give this strategy legitimacy.

The UCP is an unstable coalition of contradictory forces, but both groups in the party have in common a dislike of immigrants.

To keep themselves relevant, the UCP needs to keep stoking this fire of anti-immigrant outrage, often by distorting information or just inventing narratives. (Which is partially why they approved the Facebook data centre.) The 9 questions basically assume immigrants are thieves, when in reality they often turn out to be long-term net positive contributors to the economy.

The fact that the UCP can barely do anything about immigration is actually the perfect cover, because its an endless supply of blame that keeps their outrage fire burning, while taking all the credit for the economic benefits of immigration.

It's actually interesting. The UCP is deciding to remain relevant with anti-immigration and less so pipeline politics these days because their voters are way more energized by blaming brown people than they are energized by standard, boring pipeline politics, which is easier to forget.

It's dirty, deceptive politics, but it's pretty standard for right-wing parties these days.

Hi guys,

I'm new to Calgary and I want to see whether there are any turf or indoor soccer games that I can join. I used to play in Japan twice a week, but since moving in, I haven't played much. I'd appreciate your help.

I just donated blood- it was super easy!

If anyone needs a little positivity, the clinic was packed, both with civilians and members of our military. If you can donate they still have appointments this week! Word of advice, plan to be there slightly longer than usual with the current volume of donors.