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Alberta will vote on whether to remain part of Canada. What now?

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Nadine YousifSenior Canada reporter

AFP via Getty Images

Albertans will vote on 19 October if they want to stay in Canada or trigger a binding independence referendum

The western Canadian province of Alberta will ask its citizens this October whether they want to remain part of Canada or kick-start the process of holding a binding referendum on separation, marking a major test of the country's unity, the first in decades.

Alberta's leader, Premier Danielle Smith, announced the coming vote on 21 May in a televised address.

She said she herself supports a unified Canada.

There has been a growing separatist sentiment in the oil-rich province in recent years, and plebiscite comes after 300,000 people signed a petition asking that a referendum be held on the matter.

Here's why some Albertans are calling for independence — and what comes next.

What will the referendum question ask?

The question being put to voters won't be a simple "stay" or "leave".

Instead, Albertans will be asked: "Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?"

The premier's office clarified to the BBC that voters will have a choice of checking two boxes — option A being to remain in Canada and option B being to commence the legal process to hold a binding separation referendum.

'We have more in common with America than the rest of Canada'

Why is this happening?

The referendum question is a result of a push by a group of Albertans who have been advocating for the province to be independent from Canada.

Over the past year, they held townhalls across the province to gauge interest from the public. They then launched a citizen-led petition to separate earlier this year, which garnered more than 300,000 signatures.

But the petition was blocked by an Alberta court earlier this month.

A judge ruled that Alberta, which authorised the gathering of signatures for a proposed independence referendum under a citizen petition law, failed to consult indigenous First Nations whose land would be affected should the province become an independent state.

Meanwhile, another group led by a former deputy premier of Alberta, Thomas Lukaszuk, collected signatures for an anti-separation petition called Forever Canadian. That was signed by more than 400,000 Albertans.

The province's population is slightly more than five million.

Smith said she was "deeply troubled" by the court decision, and will not let "a single judge silence the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans".

Her government has appealed the decision, she said. But in the meantime, "kicking the can down the road only prolongs a very emotional and important debate".

She has also faced pressure from separatist Albertans to hold a referendum on independence regardless of the legal decision.

AFP via Getty Images

Mitch Sylvestre, a businessman from Bonnyville, Alberta, has led the province's separatist movement

Who are the separatists, and what do they want?

The separatist movement is led by Mitch Sylvestre, a gun shop owner from the town of Bonnyville, and Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer based in Calgary. It has been supported by other figures along the way.

Both Sylvestre and Rath are members of a group called the Alberta Prosperity Project, which argues that the province's economic growth has been hindered by years of Liberal party rule in Ottawa.

In particular, many in the movement are frustrated with environmental policies that they...