Noteworthy: Should we stay or should we go? 450K Albertans have given their answer

By Bruce Penton on November 5, 2025.

Thomas Lukaszuk’s ‘Alberta Forever Campaign’ has been ultra successful and it looks like any referendum that Alberta voters might face will have his movement’s question on the ballot.

“Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” was the question that drew the Lukaszuk-led petition to garner more than 450,000 signatures from Albertans this summer and fall, and has been submitted to Elections Alberta to possibly be included on a ballot in 2026. Lukaszuk’s petition needed 293,976 signatures, but the UCP government recently altered the rules to require a similar question to need only 177,000 signees.

Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative deputy premier, organized an army of volunteers who collected signatures around the province from Albertans who had no interest in separating. The volunteers set up tables wherever crowds were expected to gather – coffee shops, street corners, farmers’ markets, in front of city hall in Medicine Hat – and a huge throng of Albertans responded.

There’s a rival question being bandied about. It’s from a group that favours the province separating from Canada, and while it needs the smaller number of petition signatures, the fact that Lukaszuk’s ‘stay in Canada’ petition was submitted first, it will almost assuredly be the one Albertans vote on. If it comes to a vote, that is.

The success of the petition doesn’t necessarily mean a referendum will be held. Lukaszuk says the 450,000 signatures should be proof to Premier Danielle Smith and her government that separation is anathema to the majority of Albertans and that the province’s MLAs should vote on this issue to “put separatist talks to bed once and for all.”

â€¢ If it weren’t for Kelly Riess’s online publication, The Flatlander, I might never have known about the most intriguing thing to ever happen in Duck Lake, Sask.

The council in the village of Quack City, which has a population of a few more than 500 (not counting ducks), recently voted 3-2 to sell the naming rights to the town. A figure of $10 million has been tossed around, the kind of dough for a village that could provide recreation facilities, economic development and badly needed infrastructure.

How does Mosaic, Sask., sound? Maybe residents could tell people they live in Walmart, Sask. (You’d have to be sure to add the ‘Sask’ part because otherwise they might think you actually live in a Walmart.)

The mayor, Jason Anderson, said the idea has been very unpopular with residents. “Pretty much the entire town’s ready to lynch me right now,” he said in an interview.

If stadiums and arenas can get millions for naming rights (what did South Country Co-op pay to put its name on Medicine Hat’s hockey rink?), why can’t a town or village do the same thing? Maybe a wealthy person like a certain Canadian entertainment figure could dip into his bag of money and become an honorary citizen of Bieber, Sask.

Even if a company came forward and offered a few million, the mayor said, the issue would still go to a plebiscite.

â€¢ Late-night laugh: Stephen Colbert’s writers are a pretty sharp bunch. Last week, King Charles III came down hard on his younger brother, Prince Andrew, who has been ensnared in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The Colbert writers produced a great line after the King ordered Andrew to move out of his royal residence and removed his honorary titles.

Said Colbert: “He’s now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, or the pedophile formerly known as Prince.”

â€¢ Stolen from the internet is a little story about actress Laura Dern, who as a young woman was denied a leave of absence from her UCLA film school classes after receiving an offer for a role in the mystery thriller film Blue Velvet. She subsequently dropped out and joined the cast. The head of the film school read the script and berated her for dropping out, telling Dern she was nuts to quit school for such a poor film.

The rest is history, of course. Blue Velvet was a major hit, Dern went on to build a solid acting career and today, Blue Velvet is one of three movies UCLA students have to study and write a thesis on in order to qualify for a masters in film.

â€¢ Short snappers: Wouldn’t it be great to be able to arrest your enemies and free your jailed friends? … What caused Donald Trump’s temper tantrum over Ontario’s ad accurately quoting beloved Republican president Ronald Reagan about tariffs? Probably just that it made him look like a fool for his tariff assault on the world. What to make of Trump’s statements that it was a ‘fake’ ad and AI generated? Just two more fibs from the Lyin’ King. … Am I a bad Canadian for watching most of last week’s World Series games on Fox to avoid having to listen to the whiny, annoying voice of Buck Martinez on Sportsnet? … Least-important fact of the week: The glove Blue Jays’ third baseman Ernie Clement used this year was purchased on eBay.