Premier Danielle Smith will address Albertans Thursday after a whirlwind day in which two ministers announced their resignation and separatists threatened her ouster.
The 6:45 p.m. address will air as part of paid commercial time on Global News Hour at Six.
The last time Smith delivered an address was three months ago when she announced nine questions would be put to a referendum in October.
There is no indication of what the address is about, though Albertans could get an idea of what’s in store when Smith delivers a keynote address and participates in a fireside chat at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning.
Smith’s appearances come barely 24 hours after a hectic day in Alberta politics.
Chaos descended upon a bipartisan legislature meeting Wednesday afternoon that was determining the fate of anti-Alberta separatism.
A committee of MLAs established to review Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition recommended the province include a question for Albertans to vote on the province remaining in Canada during the Oct. 19 provincial referendum, according to a news release issued by the United Conservative Party.
The problem is: the vote to recommend did not happen.
The UCP news release was issued shortly after 3 p.m., while the Select Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee meeting was still underway and before a vote had been held — leading to confusion and chaos both inside and outside the room.
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The motion was expected to pass, given the UCP members on the committee outnumber the Opposition NDP members, but it was still being debated when the UCP caucus published the premature statement.
The news release said with more than 400,000 Albertans signing Lukaszuk’s Forever Canada petition, combined with the reported 301,000 who signed the Alberta Independence petition, it meant over 700,000 Albertans deserved the opportunity to have their voices heard in a referendum.
The release, which even had laudatory quotes from chair Brandon Lunty, was pulled back by the caucus about 20 minutes later.
The NDP said the premature release called into question the process and Lunty’s impartiality and called for it to be brought to the Speaker’s attention.
The United Conservatives voted against escalating the issue, but time on the meeting ran out before the vote could occur; the committee will meet again Thursday afternoon.
Many political analysts expect Smith to call a referendum on the question asked in the Forever Canadian petition – and the threats to her job are real.
“Our view is Danielle (Smith) needs to make a decision: is she going to support Mister Lukaszuk, or is she going to support her base? What we are saying is she needs to understand that if she abandons her base or betrays her base, there will likely be political consequences,” said Jeffrey Rath, lawyer for the Alberta Prosperity Project.
That is the group that said it collected more than 300,000 signatures on a citizen’s petition calling for a referendum on the province’s independence from Canada.
However, the petition, which proposed the question: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” was recently rejected by the courts over a lack of consultation with First Nations.
Lukaszuk’s petition asks: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain within Canada?”
If Smith does call a referendum on the Lukaszuk’s petition, Rath said separatists will plan to oust the premier — as was done with her predecessor Jason Kenney.
To top it all off, Finance Minister Nate Horner and Hospitals Minister Matt Jones announced Wednesday they are leaving their posts.
Both said they don’t plan to run again in the October 2027 general election and, given that, it’s best to step down now and give their successors a chance to grow in the jobs.
Smith thanked the ministers for their service, saying on social media that both accomplished plenty in their respective roles.
She is expected to formally shuffle her cabinet on Thursday.
— with files from Karen Bartko, Ken MacGillivray and Adam MacVicar
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