Alberta, Canada Referendums 2026 — Results

Ten questions on one day

Albertans vote on ten separate referendum questions on Monday 19 October 2026, each on its own ballot paper. Premier Danielle Smith announced nine of them in a televised address on 19 February 2026, and the Government of Alberta gave them legal effect through two orders-in-council under the Referendum Act on 31 March. A tenth question — on whether Alberta should begin the legal process toward separating from Canada — was added on 21 May after a year of litigation and duelling petitions.

The questions divide into three groups. Five concern provincial policy on immigration and election security; four ask whether Alberta should work with other willing provinces to amend the Constitution of Canada; and the tenth is the independence question. The five policy questions are non-binding on the government. The vote is administered by Elections Alberta under the Referendum Act and the Election Act, and is open to Canadian citizens aged 18 or over who are ordinarily resident in the province.

The independence question, and what a Yes would actually do

The tenth question is put as a choice between two options rather than a yes or no: whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada, or whether the Government of Alberta should begin the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on separating from Canada.

It is worth being precise about what that means, because the wording does a great deal of work. A vote for the second option would not separate Alberta from Canada, and would not even oblige the government to seek separation. It would open the door to a second, later referendum on independence itself. Even that second vote would not be self-executing: the Constitution of Canada contains no provision allowing a province to leave unilaterally, so the province would have to pursue a constitutional amendment through the process set out in the Clarity Act. The Government of Alberta is not bound to act on the preferred option in any case.

Polling has been consistent. As of mid-August 2026, close to two-thirds of Albertans said they would vote to remain in Canada, against under a third for beginning the legal process.

How Alberta got here

Pressure for a separation vote grew after the Liberal Party won a fourth consecutive federal election in 2025. Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act lets a group of citizens force a referendum by petition, and on 25 May 2025 the Smith government amended the Act to lower the signature threshold sharply. Two campaigns then raced each other. Stay Free Alberta gathered signatures for an independence referendum; Thomas Lukaszuk and others, wanting to pre-empt it, gathered signatures for the opposite question — whether Alberta should remain in Canada.

On 13 May 2026 the Court of King's Bench of Alberta struck down the separatist petition, holding that the organisers had not properly consulted Indigenous peoples in Alberta, a constitutional requirement given what separation would mean for treaty rights. Smith called the ruling undemocratic and said her government was prepared to use the notwithstanding clause, although that clause does not apply to the constitutional provisions the court relied on. Signature verification proceeded anyway in case of a successful appeal: the separatist petition was verified at almost 223,000 signatures, and the Lukaszuk petition at over 400,000.

Smith's response was to write a single question that absorbed both. It incorporates the pro-Canada wording, and by making a Yes lead only to a possible later referendum rather than to a mandate for separation, it sidesteps the court's ruling. Campaigners on both sides criticised the result.

The immigration and election-security questions

Five questions ask for direction on provincial policy. Four deal with immigration: whether Alberta should take greater control over immigration levels and prioritise economic migration and Alberta hiring; whether only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and people with an Alberta-approved immigration status should be eligible for provincially funded programmes such as health care and education; whether people with a non-permanent immigration status should have to live in Alberta for twelve months before qualifying for provincially funded social support; and whether such residents should be charged a fee or premium for their and their family's use of health care and education. The fifth asks whether voters should have to show proof of citizenship — a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card — to vote in a provincial election.

Research Co. polling in August 2026 put support for these five at between 58% and 66%, with opposition between 24% and 32%.

The constitutional questions

Four questions ask whether Alberta should work with other willing provinces to amend the Constitution: to have provinces rather than the federal government appoint the justices of provincial King's Bench and Appeal courts; to abolish the appointed federal Senate; to let provinces opt out of federal programmes intruding on provincial jurisdiction without losing the associated federal funding; and to give a province's laws priority over federal laws where the two conflict in provincial or shared areas of jurisdiction.

These polled markedly weaker than the policy questions, with support between 39% and 46% and a large undecided share — 18% to 28% — reflecting how much less familiar the subject matter is. Amending the Constitution of Canada requires agreement well beyond one province, so a Yes on any of them is an instruction to open negotiations, not a change in itself.

When results arrive

Voting places are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mountain time, the hours set by section 88(1)(c) of the Election Act — 15:00 UTC to 02:00 UTC on 20 October. Advance voting ran from 13 to 17 October, and special ballots had to reach Elections Alberta by 5 p.m. on 16 October. The count of advance and special ballots starts at 5 p.m. on polling day; Election Day ballots are counted once the polls close.

The ballots are counted by hand, one question at a time, in the order the questions were issued — which means Question 10, on separation, is counted first at every voting station and reports first. Unofficial figures are published question by question, electoral division by electoral division and by voting method, but not all on the night, as they would be at a Canadian general election: counting ten separate ballots in every polling place takes longer, and the Referendum (General) Regulation allows the unofficial count up to 48 hours from the close of voting where there are seven or more questions. Returning office staff then verify the materials, and the verified figures are released as official at the Official Announcement of the Results on 29 October at 10 a.m. Mountain time (16:00 UTC).

This page publishes Elections Alberta's figures for each question as they are released, to two decimal places, alongside turnout, each captioned with how much of the count it rests on. There is no machine-readable results feed to read automatically, so the numbers here are entered from the commission's own published count. No projections, exit polls or forecasts are published here, and no question will be called before the arithmetic settles it.

Alberta has held seven province-wide referendums before this one: on prohibition in 1915 and 1923, public electricity in 1948, liquor laws in 1957, daylight saving time in 1967 and 1971, and equalisation and daylight saving together in 2021.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Alberta referendum and what is being asked?

Monday 19 October 2026. There are ten separate questions, each on its own ballot paper: five on provincial policy covering immigration and proof of citizenship to vote, four asking whether Alberta should work with other provinces to amend the Constitution of Canada, and one on whether to begin the legal process toward a binding referendum on separating from Canada.

Would a Yes on the independence question separate Alberta from Canada?

No. The question asks whether Alberta should remain a province or whether the government should commence the legal process required to hold a later, binding referendum on separation. Even that second vote would not be self-executing: the Constitution of Canada has no provision for a province to leave unilaterally, so Alberta would have to seek a constitutional amendment under the Clarity Act process. The government is not bound to act on the result in any case.

How did the independence question end up on the ballot?

Two rival petitions ran against each other after the 2025 federal election — one for an independence referendum, one asking whether Alberta should remain in Canada. On 13 May 2026 the Court of King's Bench struck down the separatist petition, holding that organisers had not consulted Indigenous peoples as the constitution requires given the implications for treaty rights. Signature verification continued anyway: the separatist petition was verified at almost 223,000 signatures and the pro-Canada petition at over 400,000. On 21 May Premier Danielle Smith announced a single question absorbing both.

Are the results binding on the government?

No. The orders in council that set the questions say so in terms: O.C. 110/2026, which carries the five policy questions, and O.C. 160/2026, which carries the separation question, both order that the results are not to be binding. The four constitutional questions in O.C. 109/2026 are instructions to open negotiations rather than changes in themselves, since amending the Constitution of Canada requires agreement well beyond one province. A vote for the second option on the separation question would open the door to a further referendum rather than mandate separation.

What does polling suggest?

On the independence question, the Angus Reid Institute's own release of 16 October 2026, its last before the vote, put support for remaining a province of Canada at 66% against 34% for beginning the legal process toward a binding referendum on separation — close to what it measured in mid-August. Of that 34%, the institute found 60% saying their motive was sending a message to Ottawa rather than separation itself, which 37% named, and 78% of Albertans saying their minds were made up before the campaign began. Research Co. polling in August put support for the five policy questions between 58% and 66%, and for the four constitutional questions between 39% and 46%, with 18% to 28% undecided on the latter.

Who can vote?

Canadian citizens aged 18 or over who are ordinarily resident in Alberta at the time of the vote. The referendum is administered by Elections Alberta under the province's Referendum Act and Election Act.

When will results be published?

Voting closes at 8 p.m. Mountain time (02:00 UTC on 20 October) and the count of advance and special ballots starts at 5 p.m. that day. Unofficial figures then appear question by question and electoral division by electoral division, but not all on the night: with ten questions the Referendum (General) Regulation allows the unofficial count up to 48 hours from the close of voting. Question 10, on separation, is counted first at every station. The official figures are released at the Official Announcement of the Results on 29 October at 10 a.m. Mountain time. This page carries Elections Alberta's figures for each question as they are published, to two decimal places, with turnout and the share of the count behind each figure.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.