First Nations say Elections Alberta unprepared for referendum turnout

OTTAWA – First Nations in Alberta are celebrating the win for the pro-Canada side in Monday’s referendum — but they’re also raising concerns about a shortage of ballots in their communities despite large, public efforts to increase voter turnout.

About three in four Albertans said yes to Confederation on Monday, while about one in four said they wanted the province to hold a second, binding referendum on leaving.

Siksika Nation, located about an hour east of Calgary, said that while it’s pleased with the outcome, the polling station in their community was understaffed and didn’t receive enough ballots from Elections Alberta.

That led to long wait times and “unnecessary obstacles,” the First Nation said in a media statement.

“It is unacceptable that First Nations communities continue to encounter barriers to participating fully in Alberta’s democratic processes,” said the statement.

“Our people have fought too long for their democratic rights to be treated as an afterthought. The right to vote must be supported by meaningful and equitable access to the ballot box.”

Treaty 8 First Nations Grand Chief Trevor Mercredi said chiefs worked in both English and their Indigenous languages to ensure voters had the information they needed to participate in the referendum.

“We went to these polling stations not out of fear, but for respect for our treaties,” Mercredi told The Canadian Press.

“When you defend the treaty, you end up defending the province, you end up defending Canada, you end up defending everybody that’s on treaty lands.”

While chiefs were prepared, Elections Alberta wasn’t, he said, referring to polling stations that opened late and those that ran out of ballots.

“If you listen to Elections Alberta, they would say that they did a fine job of making sure that people could vote, but they haven’t,” he said.

Mercredi said one community had to send its own employees to work at the polling station so that it was adequately staffed, while Fort Chipewyan had to have ballots delivered by helicopter because Elections Alberta didn’t realize the community was so remote.

“We have very serious concerns,” Mercredi said.

In an emailed statement, Elections Alberta said it delivered additional ballots to at least five First Nations communities and that in some cases, ballots had to be delivered three times throughout the day.

Elections Alberta said to prepare for higher turnout it delivered 1.5 times the number of ballots they believed communities would need, based on past voter registry data.

“This means we have seen higher turnout at these locations than we have in the past, showing higher voter engagement in these locations,” Elections Alberta said.

Elections Alberta said it’s aware of about 20 voters who were unable to vote in Samson Cree Nation because extra ballots did not arrive in time.

“This was unfortunate but could not be anticipated,” Elections Alberta said.

Tania Cameron, who helped boost First Nations turnout in the vote, said she was proud to learn several First Nations polling stations had to request more ballots.

She also said Elections Alberta should have been more prepared and the shortage of ballots is a slap in the face to community members who wanted their voices heard.

Cameron mobilized Indigenous voters in the 2015 federal election through the “Rock the Vote” campaign that some credit with helping to elect Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

A member of Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation in northwestern Ontario, Cameron helped inform Indigenous voters about what they needed to cast a ballot and how to secure necessary identification in that election.

For the referendum in Alberta, she put those same skills to work by training leadership on how to set up ID clinics and registration drives, and educating members on the ballot questions.

Indigenous people are less likely to vote in elections outside of their communities — a legacy of decades of distrust and tensions between their communities and federal and provincial governments.

Before 1960, First Nations people generally had to forfeit their Indian status in order to vote in an election.

Memories of those days still linger, making some Indigenous people wary of casting a ballot. Others see voting in outside elections as a breach of the unique treaties their communities have with the Crown.

“In elections, we choose our treaty partners — who is sitting across from us at the table as we work to uphold our treaty and work at making sure the province and federal government are upholding their end of the treaty,” Cameron said.

“In this case, I said we actually need to send a message that the province cannot erase treaty.”

A coalition of First Nations launched a court fight arguing the citizen-initiated petition to hold a separation vote was invalid because the province hadn’t followed through on its constitutional duty to consult First Nations.

In May, a judge agreed and quashed the petition. Soon after, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the government would appeal, putting the lawsuit in legal limbo.

Smith then announced the referendum anyway, citing the hundreds of thousands of Albertans who had signed petitions for one side or the other.

Elections Alberta said that while it’s difficult to estimate how many Indigenous voters cast a ballot in the referendum, the number of communities that requested polling sites increased by three.

Conservative MP Billy Morin, who represents the Edmonton Northwest riding and previously served as chief of Enoch Cree Nation, said he is happy Albertans rejected separatism.

“We’re all treaty people. It means more today than it did before this,” Morin told The Canadian Press outside the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“By our people showing up, I think it sends a strong message that we’re not just waiting around for Ottawa, provincial or federal governments to dictate to us like they have been for 150 years … We’re a small number but we made a difference.”

Morin said it’s now time to sit down and focus on the future, and for Albertans to speak to people they may disagree with, regardless how they voted.

“I’m happy to do that, and keep them in Canada,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.

— With files from Lisa Johnson in Edmonton