Alberta’s former politician, Thomas Lukaszuk, is a man in a mission not so alone to prevent Canada from dividing.
“This has become full -time work. I am very passionate about,” said former progressive conservative deputy in Edmonton last week.
While people entered and left a local legion, a table full of volunteers helped them officially put their name to the cause of Lukaszuk.
“When we reach 300,000 signatures, you believe it or not, this will be the greatest request in the history of Canada,” Lukaszuk said.
Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian project needs to collect 294,000 names on a request to stimulate a referendum question that would ask if Alberta should make its official policy remaining in Canada.
You need all those names before the end of October.
He also faces a separatist movement that promises to maintain his struggle to free Alberta from what a hostile federal government calls.
The effort itself has become a hot political potato for the conservative prime minister of United Danielle Smith, who has declined, when asked, to be registered to support Lukaszuk’s request, despite insisting that he supports a sovereign Alberta inside a United Canada.
Lukaszuk said he is not asking Smith to sign his name, but encourages her to choose a team.
Forever Canadian has so far recruited some 3,000 collectors of volunteer signatures, along with thousands more helping to organize, Lukaszuk said.
He said that the greatest challenge at this time is not to find the Alberta who want to sign the request, he is receiving that request so they can sign.
“And to do that, we need signature collectors,” Lukaszuk said.
On a given day, there are between 20 and 30 collection events of Canadian signatures forever on the organization’s website. They are arrested in dog parks, in tickets, in the markets of farmers, summer festivals and even a zoo in communities throughout the province.
Lukaszuk accredits the work of volunteers who take their own initiative, such as Dos in Calgary, who recently gathered 8,000 signatures in one day.
“Every person in their own community knows their community, and they are basically telling us how they are going to do it,” he said. “All we are doing is bringing structure and organization to this very well organized chaos.”
Attention has meant that some people are trying to sell imitation t -shirts, said Lukaszuk. He pointed out that anyone who was asked to sign a request must verify if there are credentials.
Lukaszuk said he is motivated to leave Canada’s secession not only because he sees him as “illogical”, but for patriotism.
“I appreciate Canada,” he said.
He has seen how he looks when democracy falls apart, after having come to Canada from Poland when he was 12 years old.
“There were literally tanks and armored vehicles just in front of my main door,” he said. “Canada gave my family a second chance.”
Lukaszuk said that the Canadian effort is forever is not partisan. It has the former progressive conservative prime minister of Alberta, Ed Stelmach and Ian McClelland, founding member of the Canada Reform Party, as supporters.
The former Alberta NDP leader, Ray Martin, was at Edmonton’s recent event to offer his support.
Recent surveys in Alberta do not provide support for separation in majority territory, but separatist organizers are still determined to change hearts and minds.
An outstanding effort has not yet made the green light begin a request campaign.
Earlier this month, the King Court Bank Judge, Colin Feasby, said he will listen to arguments and govern if a referendum that proposes to separate Alberta from Canada is constitutional.
Presented by Alberta’s prosperity project, the question seeks to ask: “Does you agree that Alberta’s province will become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
Mitch Sylvestre, executive director of the application, said the tribunal review will not hinder its efforts.
“He will only present an obstacle if he refuses,” he said in an interview.
“We left the door a little faster than we expected. So, now our infrastructure will be in place for when it is time to collect signatures.”
His group continues to transmit their message through events around the province.
“We are going to leave the floor. We are not going to leave anything on the table,” he said.
A new law of the Government of the Conservative Party of Smith, which entered into force after Lukaszuk submitted his request to the Alberta elections, significantly reduced the threshold for referendum initiatives led by citizens.
That means that if the request for an application is approved by the Alberta elections, it will only need about 177,000 signatures. They will also have four months to gather them, instead of three.
Until now, Sylvesta said that around 250,000 Albertans have compromised online support, so they will be ready to start running when the time is to collect signatures in person.
He said that Lukaszuk’s question will not change the status quo, and it is time for Canada to listen more to Alberta’s demands.
“The question should be asked,” Sylvestre said.
