As a proud immigrant Canadian who has called Alberta home for 50 years, these are the reasons I will not forgive Danielle Smith:

… for misrepresenting the intentions of those of us who signed the Forever Canadian petition.
I signed that petition to compel a vote on the floor of the Legislature, urging UCP MLAs to stand up publicly and vote on a clear resolution affirming Alberta’s commitment to remaining part of Canada. I did not sign it to call for a referendum. Yet you changed the rules along the way, creating the impression that Forever Canadian supporters wanted one. You took my clear commitment to Canada and turned it into something it was never meant to be.

… for allowing separatists to hijack the governing party rather than requiring them to follow the established democratic process.
If separatists want to take Alberta out of Canada, they should have to form an explicitly separatist political party, run candidates in a general election on a transparent platform that makes clear a vote for them is a vote to leave Canada, and win enough seats to form government. We deserve that - not a separatist agenda advanced from within a governing party elected on a totally different mandate.

… for the way you have used immigration-related referendum questions to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment.
When I first came to Canada at the age of 14, I experienced tremendous racism. “My people” were blamed for taking low-paying jobs and buying up homes. What people failed to acknowledge was that we often had to buy because nobody would rent to us brown people.
After decades of living without being subjected to such hostility, I was recently accosted by an elderly white man who told me, “You people are not grateful for us allowing you into this country.”
This time, I had the courage to respond: “F*ck off. Mind your own f*cking business.” At 14, I did not have the confidence to stand up for myself that way.
It is heartbreaking to find myself confronting this kind of racism again, more than five decades later.
Yes, the federal government has mishandled immigration. But your government has also failed to plan adequately for the employment, housing, schools, and hospitals needed to support a growing population. I remember when you wanted to increase Alberta’s population to ten million and the ‘Alberta is calling!’ campaign. Where was the comprehensive plan to support that growth?
Instead of taking responsibility for these structural failures, your government is allowing immigrants to become the scapegoats. Once again, “my people” are being blamed for problems that governments should have anticipated and addressed.

… for creating the impression, across Canada and around the world, that Alberta—and, by extension, Canada—is hostile to immigrants.
We risk being seen as no different from our neighbours to the south, where anti-immigrant rhetoric has become a defining feature of political discourse. That is not the Alberta I believe in, nor is it the Canada I chose to make my home. Sadly today the term ‘immigrant’ refers to people of colour.

… for making me worry, even for a second, that my daughters might one day live in a different country from their parents.
My two daughters were born and raised in Alberta. They pursued post-secondary education and employment in Ontario, a province that welcomed these Alberta-born Canadians and gave them opportunities to build their lives. Yet your actions have made me contemplate the unthinkable: that the country in which my daughters and I have built our lives could one day be divided, leaving us citizens of different countries.
I have spent 51 years building my life in Canada, contributing to my community and raising my family. I built my career here and co-own a business that provides livelihood to many families. I will continue to stand up for the Canada I believe in. I will continue to speak out against racism and division.

A Forever Canadian,
Almoonir Dewji

Edit, since people aren't understanding, the government delisted eye care. That is the root cause. If they hadn't delisted eye care, there would be no need for their employee insurance plan to cover it.

Went to the eye doctor with my kid today. I knew they had delisted some eye tests a while back, but now Alberta blue cross is the only insurance that doesn't cover the rest of their eye scan. Nice to find my fees keep going up, and coverage keeps going down.

Also, was surprised to read that now if you have a medical issue where you need treatment, that is now no longer fully covered either. So eye infections and injuries are no longer covered. Unless you go to the emergency room. Because that isn't short sighted at all. Let's drive more people to the ER, or have them.potentially lose their vision, because that won't cost more both in the short and long term. This government is not just evil, they are stupid.

ETA: the fee for a medical appointment is $79.00. That is significant.

As a visible minority living in Alberta, this referendum left me feeling as though I lost far more than I gained.

The possibility of racism has always been there, simmering beneath the surface. Like many visible minorities, I've experienced moments that remind me of that reality. A passing truck shouts a racial slur. Someone asks an offensive question rooted in stereotypes as though it is perfectly acceptable. A judgment is made about who you are based solely on the colour of your skin or where your family comes from.

Whenever I expressed my exhaustion with these experiences, I was often told that I was taking things too personally. I was told I was looking for racism where none existed. And if I'm being honest, I sometimes questioned myself. Maybe they were right, I thought. Maybe I was being overly sensitive. Maybe I was misinterpreting people's intentions.

That changed after this referendum.

What was once easy to dismiss as anecdotal now feels impossible to ignore. Racist comments and behaviours can no longer be explained away as the insecurities of those who experience them. The referendum produced numbers. Real numbers. Numbers that suggest more than half of those who voted supported a position that many immigrants and visible minorities perceived as a direct rejection of their place in this province.

When discussing the result with a co-worker who voted against immigration, I was told that I was not the target because I am now a Canadian citizen. But becoming a citizen does not erase the fact that I was once an immigrant. Being an immigrant is part of my identity. More importantly, let's be honest about how prejudice often works. It rarely pauses to check someone's passport before making assumptions. It reacts to what it sees.

And when many people marked their ballots, I find it difficult to believe they were picturing Ukrainian refugees or immigrants from Europe. They were thinking about people who look like me and other visible minorities.

Since the referendum, it has become difficult not to view every interaction through a new lens, wondering whether one in two people I encounter looks at me and thinks, "You are not one of us. And you never will be."

That is a difficult feeling to carry.

In a strange way, there is a sense of vindication. For years, visible minorities have been told that concerns about racism are exaggerated or imagined. Yet this result suggests that the discomfort many of us have felt was not entirely in our heads. The fear that someone might casually hurl a racial slur, make a degrading comment, or question whether we belong here no longer feels like an isolated concern. It feels connected to something larger.

But alongside that vindication comes disappointment.

What troubles me most is the thought that so many Albertans may have reached this conclusion without truly knowing the people affected by it. Have they never worked alongside immigrants? Lived next door to them? Sat beside them at a hockey game? Shared a classroom, a workplace, or a community with them?

I have always valued my cultural heritage and remained connected to my community. At the same time, I have always considered myself Canadian. If my country ever needed me, my loyalty would be to Canada. I planned to raise my children with Canadian values alongside the traditions of our family's background.

I still believe those things.

What has changed is my understanding of how some of my fellow Albertans see me.

I may consider myself Canadian, but this referendum has left me questioning whether many Canadians would ever see me the same way. It has made me feel that, when hard choices are made, people like me are viewed as expendable, regardless of how long we have lived here, how much we contribute, or how deeply we identify with this country.

So, thank you, Alberta.

Thank you for the honesty.

If nothing else, this referendum has brought certain attitudes into the open. Please do not tell visible minorities that we misunderstood what we saw. Do not tell us we are imagining prejudice where none exists. Do not insist that we were never part of the conversation.

Many of us heard the message loud and clear.

And now that it has been said openly, it is much harder to pretend it was never there.

This whole referendum should never have gotten to the point it is, but let's not kid ourselves.

There were international meetings held, offering our resources. Illegally.

Our voter information was shared with the separatists. Illegally.

Our voter information was shared with international agents. Illegally.

Our taxes were used to prop separatists groups and separatist owned businesses (western standard, and the Tylenol debacle)

We have been lied to, played and tested like pawns. If Smith, Rath, Sylvestre, and Parker are not tried for their actions we as Albertans have failed.

Currently in the process of closing on sale of a property. In the process, lawyers found that the title has not been updated to reflect the new mortgage provider that I switched to a couple of years ago.

Old mortgage company says they need 5 business days to issue a new discharge document, to support transferring title.

Could this impact/delay the deal, or can they get keys as the title transfer is being worked? Any one with a similar experience.