For the second time this year, Alberta’s UCP government is lowering the barriers for citizen-led referendum questions while also stripping the Chief Electoral Officer of many powers.

This week on West of Centre, host Kathleen Petty is joined by CBC writer and producer Jason Markusoff; Globe and Mail reporter Matthew Scace; and pollster and political analyst Janet Brown.

As the UCP tinkers with its legislation yet again, Brown wonders, did the provincial government not think this legislation all the way through? As Scace points out, the new legislation would allow a proposed referendum question to contravene the Canadian Constitution. The province says it is ‘restoring confidence in democratic processes’. To Markusoff, it’s the ‘La-La-La We Can’t Hear You’ Act of 2025.

And again, the panel is divided on the possibility of an early election next year in Alberta. But Brown, who for the past year has staunchly argued Premier Danielle Smith won’t pull the trigger before fall of 2027, has come around to the possibility that Smith is oiling the mechanism. 

Host: Kathleen Petty | Producer and editor: Diane Yanko | Guests: Janet Brown, Jason Markusoff, Matthew Scace