Forever Canadian has announced it will shift direction with just weeks until Albertans head to the polls, and encourage voters to choose to remain in Canada, despite criticism that the group has been campaigning this entire time.
The group’s founder and former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk said Monday that Forever Canadian will pivot from promoting national unity to officially become a third-party advertiser to campaign for Alberta remaining in Canada.
“We will be imploring that every eligible voter votes in this particular election, and checks off option 1, that is option A, on question 10 for Alberta to remain in Canada,” Lukaszuk said.
Question 10 on the upcoming referendum ballot asks if Alberta should remain a province of Canada, or if the Government of Alberta should commence the legal process to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.
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The move comes as the group has been crisscrossing the province for more than than a year handing out more than 80,000 lawn signs and hosting events, including a weekend concert in Calgary to support Canadian unity.
Lukaszuk formed Forever Canadian in July 2025 to petition Albertans to remain in Canada, which gathered 404,293 verified signatures.
However, Lukaszuk has maintained he wanted MLAs to vote on the matter in the legislature rather than a referendum.
With weeks to go until Albertans head to the polls, Lukaszuk said the group had to “shift gears” due to concerns around voter apathy.
“This is not the time for complacency. Voter turnout is the most important thing at this time and we have learned what happens when voters are complacent,” he told reporters. “It is imperative during this most important vote, that I think any of us will participate in our lifetime, to not assume anything and come out and vote.”
To do that, Lukaszuk said, Forever Canadian must act as a third-party advertiser despite being registered as one with Elections Alberta since June 8.
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“The difference between what they have been doing and what they’re about to do is probably going to be difficult for most people to discern,” said Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount-Royal University in Calgary.
Third party advertisers are subject to stringent regulations like a $607,000 spending limit as well as weekly donation disclosures.
Lukaszuk told reporters Forever Canadian will be filing its financials “moving forward,” but not since it registered as a third-party advertiser.
Cory Morgan, who founded the pro-separation third-party advertiser Pathway to Independence, has accused Forever Canadian of not following the regulations since the campaign period began.
“Mr Lukaszuk has been playing pretty cute with the wordage of the legislation and definitely at the least has been violating the spirit of the legislation of disclosure and campaign limits throughout this thing,” Morgan told Global News. “Claiming he’s not campaigning while he has a campaign office, while he has a campaign bus and while he puts out campaign signs.”
According to Elections Alberta, Forever Canadian “had not engaged in referendum advertising,” which it said “must relate to a specific referendum question, must be advertising (meaning paid) and must attempt to persuade an elector to vote in a particular way with respect to that referendum question.”
Forever Canadian has raised $0 as of Sept. 17, according to the Elections Alberta website.
“We’ve gotta know how much did you raise and where did it come from because, let’s quit pretending, he’s been participating in a campaign for months,” Morgan said.
In an interview with Global News, Stephen Carter, the founder of Alberta’s Voice, welcomed Forever Canadian into the pro-federalist campaign.
However, Carter noted the importance that all third-party advertisers follow the regulations laid out in the legislation.
“We don’t want to give that excuse to Danielle Smith, the second that this campaign becomes something that wasn’t official or where the rules weren’t followed, it gives her the opportunity to open this door again and have another referendum,” Carter said.
According to Lukaszuk, Forever Canadian has complied with the legislation as the campaign “up to now was not a referendum campaign in the view of Elections Alberta.”