An Open Letter to Albertans on Division and Dignity

Think about what it actually means to be an Albertan.

To be Albertan is to live in relation to the land and to others through care, mutual support and collective responsibility. Being Albertan shows up in small acts of kindness, whether that is helping a neighbour push their car out of deep snow or holding the door for someone behind you, regardless of faith, race and gender. Albertans care about each other, and that’s what makes Alberta a special place.

Being an Albertan means fostering supportive communities and looking out for your neighbours. This province wasn’t built by people who agreed on everything. It was built by people who respected each other enough to disagree and still work side by side. That spirit, that basic dignity we extend to one another, is one of the truest things about Alberta.

Recently, we have lost sight of who we are by allowing division and polarization to define us. This should concern Albertans across the political spectrum.

The provincial government’s plan to hold a fall referendum with 10 questions crystallizes how deeply division is taking hold in the province. Five of these questions target immigrants and newcomers: people who are building lives here, contributing to our communities and doing exactly what Albertans have always done. The government spent millions recruiting immigrants and is now seeking permission to exclude them.

At their best, referendums give people a direct voice on core issues. At their worst, they oversimplify complex questions and generate division.

In Alberta, this fall, reduced to “yes or no” choices, they threaten to displace deeper reflection and redirect attention away from urgent concerns, including rising grocery costs, a longstanding housing crisis, deteriorating health-care services and a growing provincial debt.

The referendum questions suggested by the government are framed to divide us: to make neighbours into strangers, and strangers into threats. Four of the questions misrepresent our Constitution, the framework Albertans helped build, in ways that disregard the foundations of our democracy, including threatening to politicize a court system whose strength has always been rooted in its independence. These questions both undermine Canadian democracy, and deliberately and duplicitously seek to erode Albertans’ confidence in it.

The tenth of these questions seeks to normalize the idea that Alberta should separate, threatening both the federation of Canada and treaty relationships with First Nations.

Whatever your politics, this should concern you. These questions are not an invitation to a conversation, they are a shortcut around one. They are blunt instruments designed to produce conflict, not clarity. Referendums offer yes-no responses on questions that deserve far more serious, honest debate, based on real facts, and a politics of dignity that brings people together rather than splitting them apart.

That is not who we are.

We must reject this process and these questions. Not because we are satisfied with every institution or every policy in this province or country. Not because everything is fine. But because scapegoating newcomers will not lower grocery bills or improve health-care conditions. Distorting the Constitution will not make life more affordable or more secure. Politicizing the courts and rejecting Canada will not help build a just society. The proposed referendum questions do not begin to address what everyday Albertans are actually struggling with.

What we need is a politics of dignity. One that takes seriously the cost of living, the state of health care, the condition of the Earth and the future we are building for our children. It is rooted not in who to blame, but in what we owe each other. It begins from a simple premise: everyone in Alberta, wherever they were born and whatever they believe, counts.

A politics of dignity makes it possible for every Albertan to live and participate in their community without fear of discrimination or exclusion. That is the Alberta we choose and it is the Alberta we know. Choose dignity: say no to these referendum questions.