Thanksgiving is this weekend. A time for food, gratitude, and real conversations.
These talks around the table can feel tense, but they matter.
The ideas that shape our politics start in rooms like yours. So, this Thanksgiving, we encourage you to talk about what it means to protect our communities and vote a simple NO to the 9 referendum questions.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is banking on low turnout. She has thrown 9 extra referendum questions onto the ballot to distract from the UCP’s massive deficits and declining public services. Five of these questions cruelly target immigrants and temporary workers—proposing a discriminatory "head tax" fee system to access health care and education. She claims this will "save Alberta money," even though temporary residents pay the exact same taxes as everyone else. Our goal is to make it politically and morally indefensible to scapegoat immigrants to cover up the government's failures.
Aim for curiosity, not combat.
Ask open-ended questions like “Can you tell me more about why you feel that way?” or “What worries you about the way things are right now?” Curiosity opens doors that arguments close.
Start with inclusion.
Say why fairness and community matter to you. Keep the tone calm and grounded. “I am voting No to the 9 because I care about fairness for everyone who lives and works here.”
Frame the stakes.
“This is a smokescreen. If a government can use a referendum to strip access to health care from one group of people, whose rights are they going to target next?”
Correct misinformation.
If someone repeats false claims about asylum seekers draining the system, say: “Healthcare and social services for asylum seekers are actually funded federally or privately, not by the province. That is misinformation.”
Listen first and find shared values, maybe it’s frustration over the cost of living, wait times, or government waste, and build from there. If things get heated, say: “Let’s agree to disagree, but can we both commit to showing up to vote?” Remind them: “Even if you are frustrated with the system, blaming the lowest-paid workers in our province doesn't fix our hospitals or schools.”
What are the 9 Questions?
Premier Smith threw 9 extra questions onto the ballot. Five of them try to strip health care and education from immigrants and temporary workers unless they pay extra fees on top of their taxes.
Why Push Back?
It is a manufactured political distraction that feeds on division. The heavy focus on immigration is being used as a wedge issue to distract voters from mismanaged funds and incompetent governance.
What Do We Want?
A simple No to the 9. We need to drag our networks to the polls to sweep the board with "No" votes on everything. We need everyone to bring their 5 voters to the ballot box.
“Temporary residents are draining our tax dollars.”
Temporary residents, international students, and asylum seekers pay the exact same taxes as everyone else. Even the Alberta government admits temporary residents don't significantly add costs to the budget.
“They should just pay a little extra for healthcare.”
The UCP is proposing a discriminatory "head tax" fee system. The people she is targeting are actually some of the lowest-paid workers in the province, filling the essential jobs that Alberta businesses are unable to fill locally.
“We have an immigration crisis right now.”
We are not experiencing a unique crisis; we are experiencing a manufactured political distraction. Temporary residents make up less than 5% of all Alberta residents, and that number is actually dropping—there was a net outflow in recent quarters.
“This doesn’t affect me.”
Scapegoating immigrants enables and excuses racism. Blaming immigrants increases hate speech and makes racialized Albertans feel less safe. Policies that divide and exclude are not about safety, they are about politics.
“The government is just reflecting public concern.”
The government spent hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to administer this referendum just to manipulate us into ignoring their own failures. Leadership means fixing the broken systems, not blaming non-permanent residents.
“My vote won't change anything.”
Danielle Smith is counting on low turnout. That is why the 5x campaign exists. If you bring five people to the polls to vote a simple No to the 9, we win.