EDMONTON – October 20, 2026 – CBC News projected on Monday night that Albertans voted to remain in Canada on question 10 of the provincial referendum. Option 1, “Alberta should remain a province in Canada,” was leading. Option 2, which would have directed the provincial government to begin the legal process toward a later binding vote on separation, was trailing. Unofficial results posted by Elections Alberta early Tuesday showed 941,204 votes for Option 1 and 288,259 for Option 2 on the ballots counted so far, out of 1,229,463 valid votes on that question. Advance voting accounted for the bulk of the ballots already reported.
The referendum contained ten questions. Only question 10 asked about remaining in Canada or starting a process toward a separation vote. The other nine covered immigration rules and constitutional changes. Premier Danielle Smith had urged a yes on those nine while saying she herself voted to remain. Prime Minister Mark Carney had spent the previous week asking Albertans to vote “no to the nine” and to stay. Both leaders had said a yes on the separation question would not take Alberta out of the country. It would start the process toward a second vote. Smith has said she will not hold that second vote if the remain side wins, at least while she is premier.
The early numbers show a clear lead for remaining. The official results are scheduled for October 29. More than a million ballots had been cast by October 15, before election day. The CBC projection was made once the trend was clear. The other nine questions are still being counted. Smith has treated those nine as a package she wants a mandate on. Carney treated them as questions that did not need a referendum. The separation question is the one that drew the national attention. The early count on that question is a win for the remain side. The rest is the final tally on the other nine and whether Smith treats the result on those questions as the mandate she said she was seeking.
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