Forever Canadian petition organizer Thomas Lukaszuk joins Alberta Primetime’s Michael Higgins to discuss the meeting of a bipartisan committee that defeated the motion to hear from him about his petition.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: Are you frustrated? What do you take away from that?
Thomas Lukaszuk: I would be frustrated if I didn’t anticipate it, but this is part of a pattern that we’ve been seeing now for the last few months. It is now abundantly clear to any objective viewer that the premier is doing everything she possibly can to assist the separatists. She’s running around the province right now and suggesting that she is confused by my question. Question: Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada? Somehow she finds this question confusing.
And yet when I appear before her committee and say, “I’m here to answer any questions that you may have,” she doesn’t want me to appear in front of this committee and answer their questions. Which means that she’d rather push forward this pretense of being confused and she wants to give separatists enough time to collect their signatures and have their signatures verified, so that she can go with the petition she likes as opposed to the petition she doesn’t like.
MH: From my understanding, you had written requesting that you appear before this committee?
TL: To which the committee has never responded. I am yet to receive a response from the UCP chair of that committee.
MH: So you showed up this morning. What was it you were actually hoping to accomplish if the door was open to you and you could address this committee?
TL: A few things that needed to be accomplished. For the first time in the history of this province, since 1905 we had a petition that garnered nearly half a million signatures. As an elected official, I would take that seriously. That’s half a million voting Albertans asking the premier to put that question in front of the legislature and have all MLAs vote on, “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada” and deal with that question rather promptly.
This committee was put in place in December of last year. Today was the first time this committee met for less than one hour and all the UCP members accomplished is to prolong the schedule so that they don’t have to deal with this question anymore in this session of the legislature and they simply bumped it to the fall session of the legislature. That’s what this was all about, just to bump it to the fall session to give separatists enough time to get their signatures and push their petition through first.
MH: You mentioned nearly 500,000 people signed your petition. What should those folks then expect of the task that lies ahead of this committee?
TL: The law is clear and ironically, it’s a UCP created law. The law says that if you put forward a successful petition, which we have, and you check off the legislative policy option, which we have, this question should go to the legislature and MLAs should vote on it.
It’s just that simple and there should be nothing confusing about asking an elected MLA the question, “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” After all, they swore their vote of allegiance to become MLAs to the Crown. That answer should be simple, yet the premier claims that this is a confusing question and it needs to go in front of a committee and it needs to be analyzed by the justice ministers and Elections Alberta. All we’re doing here is buying time to give separatists time to go ahead.
And the premier is not confused about the question. She knows what this question means, but she’s just being cynical. She has no respect for the process of referendum. I know you will be talking later on in this program about Daylight Saving Time. We voted in a referendum not to do anything about it. Whether you disagree with that or not, it doesn’t matter. There was a referendum, a binding referendum, and Albertans voted. Yet today, the premier is doing exactly the opposite of what Albertans voted for. She’s doing exactly the same thing with the Forever Canadian petition. She doesn’t like it, so she refuses to deal with it. She’s waiting for another petition she likes to go forward with.
MH: To what degree is the clock ticking here then where this particular committee is concerned and expectations for it to expedite a decision?
TL: We’re not naive. We know we’re dealing with a very cynical premier with respect to this. We know we’re going to have a referendum and she wants a referendum really badly. Even though this referendum is damaging to our economy and to our social fabric, Albertans don’t talk to Albertans anymore, we are ready for it.
We are now asking all Albertans, all true Canadian Albertans, to sign up on our website forevercanadian.ca so that we can help them vote on referendum day. There will be a referendum and voter turnout will be critical. Like other referendums have shown, it’s easy to lose a referendum if your supporters don’t come out and vote.
In view of the fact that we have a premier that’s not only coaching the other team, but she’s also refereeing the game. At the same time, we have a big hill to climb because we’re now fighting not only against separatists, but also against the Alberta government. We need every Albertan to sign up so we make sure we come out in good numbers and win this referendum in a very decisive way.
MH: We had political strategist Stephen Carter on Alberta Primetime last week talking about his initiative teaming up with Alberta Liberals to fight back against referendum questions and the opposition has a campaign of its own to fight back against the separatist movement. To what degree are you worried that this space is going to be diluted? The message could even be lost?
TL: I hope not. It’s good that other groups are forming and are pro-Canadian and if they can mobilize a group of Albertans that I cannot then that’s a good thing, because we’re all rolling in that same direction. The only difference between our group and the reason we had the success that we had with the petition, unlike all the other groups, is that we are 100 per cent nonpartisan. Any information that you share with us when you volunteer with us, you only volunteer for this one cause and no data or information is going to political parties.
If you engage with Mr. Carter, you’re really giving your information and money to Liberals. If you engage with the other campaign, then you’re giving it to the NDP. If that’s your choice, then that’s fine because half of their goal is our goal to get Albertans out to vote in a referendum to stay in Canada. They’re sort of frying another fish at the same time; they’re raising money and awareness of their political party, but we can’t stop that.
Forever Canadian is 100 per cent nonpartisan. We have supporters of all political parties. Our information and our money is only spent on this one particular campaign and when this campaign ends on October 19, that data will not be shared with anybody. In the case of the others, it will remain with political parties. That’s the only difference.
MH: Is there still a chance you could go before this committee?
TL: If the UCP has a change of heart, but I just don’t see how because the session is about to end within a week or two and they have already put in so many obstacles. They said that they want to hear from the Justice Minister. I’m not sure why. They can talk to him every day if they want, but they want to hear from the Justice Minister and his schedule is very busy. So they’re already setting up groundwork that they will not be able to deal with the Forever Canadian petition until possibly next fall.
