Most Albertans harbor negative feelings about the nine referendum questions they will face this fall, according to a new survey. Respondents reported feeling “angry,” “frustrated,” and “fed up,” while describing the exercise as “wasteful,” “pointless,” and a “distraction.”
Survey Methodology
The survey, conducted by Manitoba-based polling organization Probe Research, interviewed nearly 1,500 Albertans—600 of whom were in Calgary—from a pre-selected panel of respondents between April 27 and May 6. Since the poll randomly chose respondents from a subgroup of the province’s population and not directly from all Albertans, the poll could not denote a margin of error. However, for comparison, a sample of 1,484 would have a margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, the survey added.
Open-Ended Responses Reveal Strong Emotions
The poll asked respondents open-ended questions about the referendum topics—immigration, judicial selection, Senate abolition, and asserting provincial jurisdiction—chosen by the UCP government. The government stated that these issues resulted from consultations by the Alberta Next Panel.
Only a little over a quarter of respondents expressed positive views on the vote, using words such as “democratic,” “empowered,” and “public voice” to describe the process. Most polls use narrow questions to gauge opinions, but Robson Fletcher, a former CBC investigative journalist who designed the poll, said he wanted to capture more depth.
“This was a type of response where people could say anything they wanted, and we asked them to use a single word to describe how they feel about this whole referendum process,” Fletcher said.
Political Awareness Surprises Poll Creator
The answers caught him by surprise. “The (political) awareness surprised me,” he said. “You have pretty much eight in 10 Albertans having either a strong negative or a strong positive response to it, which suggests they are aware of it, to have that type of emotional reaction.”
Party Affiliation Shapes Opinions
UCP supporters were most likely to support the referendum—55 percent viewed the upcoming vote more positively, while 78 percent of NDP supporters disapproved of it. UCP supporters used words such as “great,” “democratic,” “excited,” and “necessary,” while NDP supporters called the event “wasteful,” “stupid,” and “ridiculous.”
Broader Dissatisfaction with Province’s Direction
A majority of survey respondents (61 percent) said the province is heading in the wrong direction, and 51 percent disapprove of the referendum, even though the UCP holds a seven percentage point lead over the NDP, according to the same poll.
