Jasperites Janet Frechette and Pam Wilson were among dozens of Forever Canadian campaign supporters in Edmonton who witnessed “a historic victory” on Tuesday (October 28).

As the throngs broke out in spontaneous renditions of O’ Canada, campaign leader Thomas Lukaszuk and an army of volunteers presented Elections Alberta officials with box after box of signed petitions—61 boxes in total.

“This is a historic victory for every Albertan who believes in a strong, united, and prosperous future for our province, inside of Canada,” Lukaszuk said.

His question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain within Canada?” was answered yes a total of 456,365 times by Albertans who wish to quell the “small but very obnoxious and vocal minority,” of Albertans flirting with separation, according to Lukaszuk.

“The big benefit [of this campaign] is that Albertans have started a movement, some kind of a community that is non-partisan, where they are willing to speak up and take over the agenda from those who were hijacking our flags,” Lukaszuk told the Real Talk Ryan Jespersen podcast yesterday (Wednesday, Oct 30).

Frechette and Wilson felt wholly a part of that movement when they witnessed the handoff of the signatures.

“I’ve never been a part of a gathering of such like-minded people with all the same goal of coming together in such unity, determination and ready for the days and months ahead to face whatever this government is going to throw at Albertans next,” Wilson said.

Having blown past the 294,000 signatures threshold, Lukaszuk’s petition will compel Elections Alberta’s Chief Electoral Commissioner to validate the documents and forward them to the Alberta Legislature. From there Premier Danielle Smith will likely strike a committee, which will provide options for the government to consider.

Lukaszuk has said he’d much rather the premier “do the right thing” and adopt Alberta’s affirmation as a Canadian province as government policy, rather than call a referendum.

“Having a referendum would be very divisive,” he said. “And it will continue to undermine investor confidence in Alberta.”

That would be a shame, Wilson agreed, considering the unity that she witnessed at the petition hand-off on Tuesday.

“It was a pretty special, inspiring powerful event,” she said. “Thomas is truly everyone’s hero right now.”

Elections Alberta confirmed Tuesday it has received the signatures. It said in a news release it will verify them within 60 days.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com