Albertans say no to changing Daylight Savings Time by narrow margin

UPDATED – 1 P.M.

The City of Grande Prarie informed Elections Alberta that the official results provided for the Daylight Saving Time Referendum Question had the Yes and No numbers reversed.

As a result of the Grand Prarie mixup, the Chief Electoral Officer has announced the following results for the referendum:

  • “Yes” – 531,782 votes, representing 49.8% of valid ballots cast
  • “No” – 536,874 votes, representing 50.2% of valid ballots cast

ORIGINAL STORY

As expected, Elections Alberta released the province-wide results of the 2021 Alberta Senate Election and Referendum Vote on Equalization and Daylight Saving Time on Tuesday.

Conservative Party of Canada candidates Pam Davidson, Erika Barootes, and Mykhailo Martyniouk were declared elected as Senate nominees. The Prime Minister is under no obligation to appoint Alberta’s elected nominees.

EQUALIZATION

The big referendum question on the municipal ballot carries no real weight federally. That question: “Should section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 – Parliament and the government of Canada’s commitment to the principle of making equalization payments – be removed from the constitution?” saw 61.7% of those who voted choose yes and 38,3% choose no.

“A clear majority of Albertans have sent a powerful, democratic message: They want a fair deal in the federation. These results have given Alberta’s government a powerful mandate to secure changes to equalization and other federal transfers that have treated Albertans unfairly for so long,” said Premier Jason Kenney in a media release Tuesday afternoon. “Our message is clear: Ottawa must respect Alberta and the huge role we play in Canada’s economic prosperity.”

Although it is unlikely Alberta’s vote will open a constitutional amendment, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation who lobbied for a yes vote in recent months, were calling the 62% yes vote a victory.

“Albertans have gone to the polls and sent a clear message that equalization isn’t working and it’s time for reform,” said Kevin Lacey, Alberta Director for the CTF. “Albertans clearly said they want a better deal from the federal government. Trudeau shouldn’t ignore the 642,501 Albertans who went to the polls and voted for a fair deal.”

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

The referendum question on adopting a year-round Daylight Savings Time saw 50.1% of the voting electorate choosing no and 49.9% choosing yes.

Premier Kenney was to table a motion in the Alberta legislature on Oct. 26 asking MLAs to ratify the referendum results.

LOCAL NUMBERS

Locally, results on the provincial items were not dissimilar with Davidson, Barootes, and Martyniouk placing in the top three in the order they did provincially.

On the equalization question, 68.2% (1702) of voting Morinville residents chose yes, and 31.7%(792) chose no.

On the Daylight Savings Time question, 53.7% (1384) chose yes and 46.2% (1189) chose no.

Ninety-four per cent of those who voted locally chose to vote on the equalization question, while 97.1% voted on the Daylight Savings Time question.

Below are the full local results on provincial questions.

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