He may be an Alberta MP, but Pierre Poilievre won't be able to vote in referendum

While the leader is a Canadian citizen and over 18 years of age, it has remained unclear as to whether Poilievre owns or rents any property in Alberta, which could technically grant him eligibility to vote despite his primary residence being Stornoway, the home of the Leader of the Official Opposition in Ottawa. 

Elections Alberta told the Star that the determining factor behind the residency requirement to vote is not how long someone stays in a specific location, but rather their intent.

“If the individual considers Alberta their home base and genuinely intends to return there, they could reasonably claim Alberta as their place of ordinary residence,” an Elections Alberta spokesperson wrote in a statement.

“However, if they have effectively relocated to Ottawa with no genuine intention of returning to Alberta as their primary home, they would not qualify.”

Poilievre’s office would not say whether the leader, who became one of Alberta’s 33 Conservative MPs in a byelection held last summer, has ties to any property in the province. But a spokesperson said that the leader primarily resides in Ontario, owing to his status as official opposition leader and his long tenure as the MP for Carleton, the Ottawa-area riding where he suffered an election defeat. (Property records also show he is still the owner of an Ottawa home, while Alberta databases do not allow name-based property searches.)

While Poilievre stated last week that he plans to criss-cross the province to encourage “Albertans to stay as part of the Canadian family,” those efforts will not include officially voting against separation.

That referendum question, made official Thursday, will ask electors whether Alberta should remain a province in Canada, or whether the provincial government should begin the legal process “to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.”

“We will be back in my home province of Alberta to campaign for a united country, and our message is that all of Canada needs to wrap its arms around Alberta. Let’s ensure that every Albertan knows that Canada loves Alberta, that Canada is Alberta, Alberta is Canada,” Poilievre told reporters on Friday, citing his vision of a “strong” country that boosts the energy sector and decentralizes decision-making power.

“That is a positive, optimistic, unifying vision that I will be presenting to all Albertans in all corners of the province,” Poilievre said.

Lisa Young, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, said in an email that Canada is in “an interesting situation where the leaders of both of the largest parties — (Prime Minister Mark) Carney and Poilievre — can talk about themselves as having roots in Alberta, but neither of them would be able to vote in the referendum.”

That’s something separatist leaders “are going to make a lot of hay out of,” said Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University. 

“They’re going to say: ‘This is a debate for Albertans only. Shut up,’” Bratt said.

Alberta separatism has been a delicate topic for the Conservatives, who represent nearly all of the province’s federal seats, and must promote a unity campaign while contending with pockets of constituents in favour of the province’s independence.

“Is this going to put more pressure on the Conservative MPs who actually live in the province (to say) where they stand on this?” said Bratt. “Are we going to see the Conservatives speaking with (Alberta Liberal MP) Corey Hogan, for example, who has been quite active for a long period of time? Are we going to see that? Are we going to see them on stage? Or are we going to see some say, ‘No, I support separatism based on my constituents?’” 

Alberta pollster Janet Brown said that while Poilievre does have roots in the province, he hasn’t “misled” anyone into thinking he’s a resident of the sprawling riding of Battle River—Crowfoot, a seat he intends to vacate the next time a federal election is called. 

“I don’t think he made promises about frequent visits to the riding or anything like that. What he promised them was that he would be the strongest leader of the opposition that he could be,” Brown said of Poilievre’s efforts to court voters in the rural Alberta riding where separatist sentiment lingers.

Ultimately, the Conservative leader’s inability to actually vote in any of the province’s referendum questions is “a funny, interesting anecdote,” Brown said, “just like all the ways this referendum is a head-shaker.”