The mayors of Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer are calling on Albertans to oppose October's independence referendum.

 

source: X / JeromyYYC

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has joined Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack and Red Deer Mayor Cindy Jefferies in a video urging Albertans to vote against Alberta's October independence referendum.

The mayors warn that even discussing Alberta's future could create uncertainty and threaten economic prosperity. "Leaving Canada would create uncertainty for Alberta’s economy, threaten jobs and investment, and put at risk the quality of life we’ve worked so hard to build," Farkas wrote on X.

But before Albertans take constitutional advice from municipal politicians, they might reasonably ask how things are going in the cities those politicians were elected to run.

Take a walk through downtown Edmonton.

The city continues to struggle with open-air drug use, homelessness encampments, transit violence, repeat offenders and the ongoing fallout from the opioid crisis. Businesses and residents have spent years sounding the alarm about deteriorating public safety and disorder in the downtown core.

Red Deer faces many of the same challenges. The city has become one of Alberta's most visible examples of the devastation caused by fentanyl addiction. Public drug use, homelessness, crime and chronic disorder remain persistent concerns for residents and downtown business owners.

Calgary residents continue to contend with homelessness, addiction, encampments, public disorder and concerns about safety in parts of the downtown core and on public transit.

These are not federal responsibilities. They are not constitutional questions. They are municipal responsibilities.

Yet instead of focusing on the problems directly affecting residents, Alberta's mayors have chosen to campaign against a provincial referendum that simply asks Albertans what they think about Alberta's future.

The referendum is not a vote to separate from Canada.

It is a vote on whether Alberta should pursue independence.

Albertans can vote yes.

Albertans can vote no.

That is democracy.

Municipalities are not sovereign governments. Alberta creates municipalities, defines their powers, changes their boundaries, amalgamates them and, if it chooses, can dissolve them altogether through legislation. The authority exercised by Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer ultimately flows from the Province of Alberta itself.

Yet municipal politicians whose powers exist only because the province grants them have decided to intervene in a debate about the future constitutional status of the province that created them.

Albertans can make up their own minds about independence.

But before Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer's mayors lecture the province about democracy and constitutional questions, they might want to focus on the boarded-up storefronts, the addiction crisis, the encampments and the public disorder that continue to plague the downtown cores they were elected to manage.

Unlike the referendum, Albertans are already living with them every day.